Homemade metal stoves for baths have always competed with their brick counterparts. This is due to the rapid heating and simple installation of such units. You can find instructions for making a metal furnace in our article. Content:
- Advantages and disadvantages
- Furnace material
- Furnace design
- Stove made of metal pipe
- Installing the stove
Today there are many designs of metal stoves: wood-burning, electric and gas. Wood burning appliances require a lot of fuel, careful maintenance, but they give a "live" fire. Electrical devices are enclosures equipped with heating elements and heat insulators. Gas ovens are the most modern and reliable, they have thermostats for power regulation and safety devices that are triggered when the gas is damped.
Advantages and disadvantages of metal sauna stoves
Metal stoves for a bath have significant advantages over other heating structures:
- The small dimensions and mobility of the metal stove make it indispensable for small baths.
- A massive foundation is not required to install the device, which facilitates the installation process.
- Unlike brick appliances, their metal counterparts burn constantly.
- Low cost. A metal apparatus, in contrast to a brick one, is easier to manufacture at no extra cost. Searching for drawings of metal stoves for a bath is not a particular problem - a huge number of them are posted on the Internet and in the media.
- Fast heating - after a couple of hours, the steam room is ready for the procedure.
- The service life is up to 25 years, depending on the thickness of the stove metal and the quality of its welding.
- Operational safety when following the rules for assembling the furnace.
The disadvantages of metal ovens are:
- Rapid cooling due to the inability of the oven to retain heat. Continuous fuel combustion support is required.
- Heating problems in large rooms.
- Lower fire safety compared to a brick oven. The inner lining of the firebox with refractory material is required.
Material for a metal stove in a bath
For the manufacture of the stove, metal with a thickness of more than 5 mm is used; with a lower value, the device will not last more than 5-7 years. Reputable furnace manufacturers offer products from ten mm steel for furnaces and slightly thinner for water tanks and stone bins.
To make a do-it-yourself sauna stove out of metal, you first need to decide on its shape. The rectangular section of the furnace will require a large number of welds and complex metal bending processes. To simplify the work, home craftsmen use pipes of large diameters or ordinary barrels, if their dimensions and wall thickness are suitable for the device of the furnace.
The design of the stove-heater made of metal for a bath
A metal sauna stove consists of three main parts, such as a fuel combustion chamber, a stone hopper, and a water heating tank.
Let's take a closer look at the purpose of these elements:
- The combustion chamber … Here is the process of burning wood. To control it, the doors of the firebox and the blower are used. The latter serves to supply air to the furnace. The removal of combustion products from the furnace is carried out through an ash pan - a metal grate. From the firebox, the heat from the burning wood rises to the bunker with stones.
- Bunker … Can be open and closed. To prevent soot and soot from the furnace from falling on the stones when they are heated, our bunker will be of a closed type. To provide access to the stones, a special door is made in the side of the stove.
- Water tank … Rising higher, hot air heats up the water tank. For convenient drainage of hot water, a faucet is welded near its base. Water is poured into the tank from the top. For maximum thermal effect, the furnace chimney is located in the center of the water tank.
If the design of a metal stove for a bath is clear to you, we proceed to the process of its manufacture.
Making a stove-heater for a bath from a metal pipe
We will make the stove from a pipe with a diameter of 700 mm, its height will be 1600 mm. For work we need: a steel sheet with dimensions of 2200x1000 mm and a thickness of 10 mm, a metal pipe 1600 mm long with a wall thickness of 7-10 mm, a chimney pipe with a diameter of 100 mm and a wall thickness of 5 mm, a metal rod 10 mm, a cast-iron grate (from the store), door hinges - 8 pieces, latches - 3 pieces, a drain valve for a tank, a tape measure, a building level, a grinder, metal scissors, a welding machine.
The procedure for making a furnace from a metal pipe looks like this:
- We cut the pipe into two parts: one of them is 0.9 m long, the other is 0.7 m.
- At a distance of 7-10 cm from the lower end of a long pipe segment, we cut out a rectangular hole for a blower 20x5 cm. We work carefully, because the piece cut from the pipe will later be used to make the door. In the same way, we cut out a window for the furnace firebox; we do not discard the material for the future door.
- Then we weld ears and hinges to our pipe, and latches on the doors. Now you can attach the blower and fuel chamber doors.
- Cut out a circle D = 0.7m from a sheet of metal, in its center there is a hole corresponding to the dimensions of the grate. If it was not possible to buy it, you can make the lattice yourself from a steel bar. The prepared circle must be welded in the pipe slightly above the blower. The manufacture of the firebox has been completed.
- In the side of the stove, cut out a window for moistening hot stones and install a door for it.
- We make a platform for placing stones. For this, metal rods are suitable. The dimensions of the cells are taken taking into account the size of the stones taken for filling the heater into the bunker.
- After laying the stones, we cut out another circle of the same diameter from the sheet of metal. A hole for the chimney is made in it, located near the far wall of the furnace. We weld on the chimney and a circle with a hole under it at the top of the bunker.
- We are preparing a water tank. For this, a piece of pipe 0.7 m is welded to the stove.
- We make a tap hole in the water tank.
- We cut out another circle of the same kind from the sheet and cut it so that we get two parts of different sizes. For the most part, a hole is made for the chimney. We cover the entire structure with this element, passing the chimney through the hole, and scald it along the hole.
- A smaller part of the circle will serve as a water fill hatch cover. Therefore, this part is attached to the stove with hinges.
The dimensions of the metal stove for the bath depend on the dimensions of the steam room. Such an oven will be able to warm up well a room with a volume of 20-25 m3.
The procedure for installing a metal stove in a bath
Measures for installing a bath stove begin at the stage of erection of the entire building - for the installation of the device, a foundation is laid with a slight deepening. A masonry of two rows of bricks is made on it, and a stove is placed on it.
To increase its fire safety, you need to strictly adhere to the rules for installing a metal heating device, namely:
- The minimum distance between the wall and the stove is taken at least 1 m. In addition, it is recommended to have additional protection in the form of thermal insulation of the wall with foil with a layer of insulation. This will exclude overheating of the wooden wall and its fire.
- The chimney should also be insulated. For this, a pipe with an inner and outer jacket can be used. A heat insulator is placed between them.
- When a metal pipe passes through the roof, at the junction of the chimney with the ceiling, a pass-through unit is made in the form of a galvanized box filled with basalt wool.
After finishing the installation of the stove, you can make it clad with bricks on clay mortar. This will improve the appearance of the device and save people from the possibility of burns. The cladded stove can be positioned closer to the wall.
Features of making a sauna stove from a pipe are presented in the video:
We hope that the above will convince you that making a metal stove for a bath is not so difficult. If you have the skills in metal cutting and welding, you can make a homemade furnace using a simple drawing, which will be no worse than a purchased one.
