After laying the bath, I asked myself a serious question - which stove to choose? In search of answers, I searched Internet forums and even asked around my acquaintances summer residents. To say that after the first reconnaissance I found myself in confusion is to say nothing. Someone sang the praises of stone ovens. Someone suggested making a metal stove from scrap materials (an option for adventure seekers). The "Old Believers" heartily recommended the smoke baths.
I ruled out the option of kindling the bath in black from the very beginning. The reason is simple - smoky walls and ceilings are a thing of the past. Attempts to restore the archaic from the utilitarian side are useless - in my opinion. The main advantages of a smoke sauna are its cheapness and ease of installation. But the disadvantages of this method are too great to close our eyes to them.
The second obvious option is a stone oven. It is praised by many bath attendants because of its ability to hold back heat for a long time. But for our family, this quality is insignificant. Keeping the bath warm throughout the day is more important for large families. And here are the reasons why I refused to install a stone stove:
⦁ you need special skills that I do not possess;
⦁ a separate foundation is required to hold the oven;
⦁ high costs for materials and an experienced stove-maker;
⦁ long heating of the stove (especially in the winter months).
The last option is a metal oven, which is bought ready-made. Some craftsmen take up the manufacture of a stove from scratch, but I am not ready to take such a risk. I excluded metal furnaces made of thick metal with a brick shell at once for two reasons:
⦁ any metal burns out once - regardless of thickness;
⦁ the brick layer will slow down the heating time of the oven.
My choice fell on lightweight prefabricated ovens. Such products are based on boiler steel with a high chromium content. This compound helps the oven withstand high temperatures. When the stove burns out, it will not be difficult to replace it with a new one. To do this, I do not need to re-disassemble the brick cladding and redo half of the steam room.
We installed the purchased factory stove on the floor. The bottom was lined with asbestos and two layers of concrete tiles, separated by another layer of asbestos. Such a sandwich will serve as reliable protection of the boards from the effects of heat. We put 40 kilograms of soapstone inside the stove. This amount is sufficient to maintain steam. I was not mistaken with the amount of material - the stove begins to warm up the room almost immediately after kindling.
In winter, the oven is enough for an hour and a half to thoroughly heat the room. For myself, I noted only one drawback of my own find. The incandescent walls create infrared radiation, which I am not happy with. A stone oven also radiates heat, but it does so less intensely than a metal one. Therefore, during the bath procedures, we keep our distance, otherwise N-degree burns are guaranteed to us.
The advocates of the Russian bathhouse will want to argue with me. They will probably say that such a lightweight stove does not differ in its heat capacity. In this regard, experienced bath attendants will be right. But what prevents me from placing logs from time to time and adjusting a comfortable temperature?
As a result, we got not a bath, but a sauna - I understand that. But I am completely satisfied with this result.