Masonry heaters

**loghousenut** · 12-02-2014, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by slamasha

My dad has built a masonry heater in his log cabin from bricks. It is a hybrid: also works as a stove and has a fireplace. Masonry heater is a way to generate heat in every older house in Russia. The typical heater is a multi-purpose structure which also takes quite a bit of a space. Besides the stove, there is a bench (the temperature there is warm enough to have a bed in there). So, in older times families had children or older folks ("babushka's" and "dedushka's") sleeping on heater benches. I used to sleep myself on a bench of a masonry heater -- it is very comfortable and warm, especially in cold weather. Here is how a typical Russian masonry heater/stove looks like:

Hence the name... Russian fireplace.

**slamasha** · 12-02-2014, 07:20 PM

Elpel call them "Russian Masonry Heaters". Modern ones look more like what that Masonry Heater Association is doing.

Here is an implementation of a "Russian fireplace" nowadays (my dad has built similar one, but smaller in size):

Usually it's placed in the middle of the loghouse and separates the space into 2 or 4 spaces. The front side is used as a "fireplace" and the back side has a stove associated with it.

My relatives lived in a house which had a fireplace separating 2 rooms. In 1 room it was used as a stove/heat and in another room there was a sleeping bench. Moreover, the entire wall was also made of bricks and was heated by this beast. In the brick house it was common to incorporate the heating walls connected with a "Russian fireplace". If only we had enough money to implement this heating system here

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