The problem of heating a small country house or a change house is usually solved in two ways - electric heaters are installed or a metal stove on wood. To build a stationary brick oven will come out twice - three times more expensive. The least expensive option is to make a heating potbelly stove for giving yourself, using ready-made drawings.
Introducing 2 original designs designed and tested by our expert Vitaliy Dashko. The main advantage of heaters is the ability to fully heat 2 adjacent rooms.
Supercharged long-burning stove
The woodbelly stove shown in the drawing consists of the following elements:
- horizontally located firebox with a volume of 50 liters;
- an ash pan equipped with a separate door is welded from below to the furnace;
- vertical secondary chamber with a chimney pipe;
- an inclined air channel laid through it;
- the third chamber with heat-exchange fins and a nozzle for the outlet of heated air.
Note. The furnace in the drawing is shown in section. The method of joining the two pipes is an arbitrary, internal bore - of a square section, 15 x 15 cm in size.
A fan is installed on the horizontal air pipe Ø100 mm provided in the vertical part of the potbelly stove. A corrugated aluminum pipe is connected to the outlet fitting of the heat exchange chamber, forcing hot air into the adjacent room.
The principle of operation of the iron stove is based on intensive heating of the air flow created by the fan. How does the heating unit function:
- Firewood with a length of 0.5-0.7 m burns in the firebox, the amount of air supplied is regulated by the ash pan door.
- The combustion products penetrate into the second chamber, where the pyrolysis gases are burned. Plus, there is a transfer of heat to the outer walls and the inner inclined pipe. Further, the spent volatile substances are thrown out into the street through a chimney.
- The air pumped by the fan is preheated in an inclined channel, then it enters the main heat exchange chamber located directly above the furnace.
- Having finally warmed up from the internal ribs and the red-hot arch of the firebox, the air stream exits through the vertical pipe and is sent to an adjacent room.
A home-made stove - a potbelly stove of this design heats the room around itself in the traditional way, and the next - due to forced air heating. The duration of combustion is ensured by a decent volume of the furnace (50 l), where long thick logs fit.
The metal stove described above develops a thermal power of the order of 7 kW, that is, it is able to heat a summer house, garage or a change house with an area of 60–70 m². Installation of a potbelly stove is carried out inside a larger room, an air pipe is laid in a smaller one.
We select materials
The round body of the furnace is made of an old propane cylinder or a thin-walled steel pipe with a diameter of 300 x 5 mm. In the second case, the length of the firebox can be increased to 1 meter.
Tip. It is better to find standard cylinders of 50 l from under the liquefied gas, 2 pieces will go to the assembly of the stove. Pipe Ø300 with a wall thickness of 5 mm - a non-standard product, it will take a long time to search. The more affordable Ø300 x 8 mm version is too heavy.
For the manufacture of an iron furnace, the following additional materials will be required:
- sheet metal 3 mm thick - on doors, ash pan and air-heating chamber;
- periodic profile reinforcement (the so-called corrugated box) Ø10 ... 12 mm - for reinforcing grates;
- a piece of pipe Ø76 x 3 mm 0.6-0.7 m long;
- Ø100 mm trim - for chimney and air pipes;
- metal waste - corners, small channels, professional pipes for the legs of the stove.
Door lock handles are easier to buy ready-made rather than self-made. An asbestos cord is required to seal the narthex. A fan is any household model with a capacity of up to 50 m³ of air per hour.
Making a potbelly stove - step by step instructions
When using gas cylinders, the first operation will be the safe opening of these vessels. Procedure:
- Open the valve fully, turn the tank over to drain the remaining condensate as much as possible.
- Unscrew the valve with a pipe wrench, fill the cylinder to the top with water.
- With a grinder, carefully cut the sidewall, guided by the factory weld.
Reference. Propane is heavier than air, so it will not disappear on its own. The remaining gas is displaced from the vessel only with water, cutting is performed when the tank is full.
In fact, it is not necessary to saw off the lid, since the design does not provide for the installation of an internal grate. You can immediately cut the opening for mounting the door or a side square hole for the exit of flue gases.
How to make a long-burning stove for a summer house with your own hands:
- Perform preparatory work - cut through the grates of the grate, technological holes for the passage of gases and the installation of doors. Saw the second cylinder, fitting the future secondary chamber under the firebox.
- Weld on amplifiers from reinforcing bars or profiles, as shown in the photo. Otherwise, when heated, the metal begins to bend.
- Attach an ashpit from metal strips and legs of the furnace, guided by the drawing.
- Make the doors and frames as shown in the picture. Seal the narthex with an asbestos cord, lay the basalt insulation inside.
- Make holes in the vertical casing, place the pipe Ø76 mm inside, observing an angle of 35 ... 40 °. Seal the ends tightly, dock the finished element with a horizontal cylinder.
- From above, weld several strips of scrap metal to the arch of the firebox - they will serve as fins of the air heat exchanger. Make a camera body, attach all the nozzles.
- Weld the frame, install the firebox and ash pan doors.
Tip. Do not step back from the drawing and do not increase the dimensions of the heat exchange cavity - the heating efficiency will decrease. The installation angle of the inclined channel is given approximately, most importantly, insert the pipe between the side walls and properly weld.
The pipe for installing the fan does not have to be made long (according to the scheme - 20 cm). To prevent the impeller from overheating, just connect the supercharger through an aluminum corrugated pipe. How to cook the stove yourself, look at the video of our expert:
We placed feedback on the operation of the stove in real conditions at the end of the publication - the video talks about heating the garage 6 x 12 m.
Vertical furnace with a water circuit
This potbelly stove can work on firewood, coal and briquettes. The unit is made of one 50-liter cylinder mounted vertically. Inside the upper part, a heating chamber with heat-exchange fins, through which water or air flow can be driven, is sealed. Briefly list the technical characteristics of the stove:
- heated area - up to 40 m²;
- water circuit power - 2 kW (in maximum combustion mode);
- the volume of the furnace is about 25 liters;
- the thickness of the metal of the partitions is 4 mm.
The principle of operation of the furnace is simple: the flame heats the side walls of the unit and the bottom of the upper chamber with welded metal plates. Through the pipe, water or non-freezing liquid is forcibly supplied to the cavity, removes heat from the heating surfaces, then goes to heating devices (as an option, home-made registers from smooth pipes).
Clarification. Instead of water, air can be driven through the heating plates - the stove will work in the heat gun mode.
The stove-potbelly stove is suitable for heating 2 rooms of a small country house, workshop or change house. The duration of combustion in the mode of maintaining heat is 2 ... 3 hours, depending on the quality and type of fuel. The number of connected heating radiators - 2 pcs. heat transfer of 0.8-1 kW each.
What to cook a country heater
In addition to the propane capacity of 50 liters, the following materials will be needed for assembly:
- sheet steel, grade St20, 4–5 mm thick — bottom of the water chamber;
- the same, 3 mm - doors, frames, heat exchanger fins;
- rebar Ø12 ... 16 mm on the grate;
- trimming pipes with a diameter of 100 and 32 mm for the manufacture of connecting pipes;
- asbestos cord, fireproof basalt fiber.
To connect a water heating system, it is possible to supply Ø32 ... 20 mm shafts with finished threads. Before starting work, carefully disassemble the cylinder - dismantle the gas valve and pour into the water tank.
Assembly procedure
The production of a potbelly stove begins with the opening of the cylinder - here you will have to cut off the upper part along the existing weld. Then we work according to the instructions:
- Make square holes in the side wall according to the drawing.
- Prepare the stove details from metal - a round partition Ø30 cm, frames under the doors 80 mm wide and the wings themselves. Fix the frames by welding to the body, as shown in the photo.
- From the fittings, weld the grates, strictly adhering to the inner size of the vessel. Then the lattice will fit snugly onto the weld joint without additional supports.
- Hermetically weld 2 threaded fittings to the cut cover, where water lines of the water system will subsequently be connected.
- Set the round billet on the end of the cylinder, scalding the seam from the side of the firebox. On top, attach heat transfer plates from scraps of a metal sheet.
- Put the cover with fittings in their original place, mount the doors and weld the chimney pipe. For beauty, the stove can be painted with a black heat-resistant composition (sold in aerosol packaging).
Reminder. Do not forget to muffle the top opening of the tank, from where the valve was turned out earlier.
Install the stove and chimney in accordance with fire safety regulations. Cover the combustible materials close to the potbelly stove with galvanized sheets. Also observe a distance of 0.5 m from the steel chimney to the wooden floor. If a sandwich pipe is used, the indentation is reduced to 38 cm.
When installing water heating, consider an important nuance: without forced circulation, the coolant in the heating chamber of the furnace will quickly boil. Connect the batteries in accordance with the diagram, on the return line, install a dirt filter and a circulation pump. If you plan to heat the cottage periodically, fill the system with antifreeze.
Tip. Choose a pump for pumping water through 2 radiators with minimum performance, the volume of the expansion tank is up to 5 liters.
Conclusion
A metal homemade potbelly stove is a convenient and relatively inexpensive solution for heating a summer house or a temporary change house. The stove looks good in a room with a simple finish, and if necessary, quickly dismantled. If it is required to heat a two-story summer house, it is better to lay down a fireplace or stove made of channel-type bricks - “Dutch”.