Masonry Stoves

[NJA]

Masonry Wood Burner | Ecco Stove | Whole Home Heating

WWW.ECCOSTOVE.COM

---

Ecco Stove is a masonry wood burning stove built for Whole Home Heating solutions allowing customers to heat their whole home without relying on the grid.

 

Saw this company at the Arb show last year, didn't have time to stop but looked up the website since.  I'll be fitting a stove before next winter, thinking of something we'll have burning all day every day pretty much, and wondering if i go down the route of masonry stove?  Looks like they give out a more gentle heat, but will keep kicking it out all night, and won't roast the room so much?

 

Anyone got any feedback/thoughts/experience with this company or masonry stoves in general?  Any advantages/disadvantages

 

They do an additional hot box for hot air ducting/hot water, but got a working gas boiler so from what I've read on other threads on here, probably easier to keep that for hot water and top up heating if we need?  

 

 

[Muddy42]

I struggle with the idea that masonry "pushes heat" further.  Unless the heat source is radiating heat (glowing red hot) heat rises by convection from any heat source, whatever its made of. It may retain heat for longer, but that would be a different claim.  I have never found that stove heat travels from room to room particularly well, even with doors open. It might work with fans or if a house was particularly open plan.

 

Personally if you have a radiator system already, I'd look at a back boiler or a log central heating system like eco angus.  I do have an eco angus - it does eat a lot of wood, but it works to make the house toasty and is more efficient than the stove and there is less multiple handling.  You can keep the oil or gas system as backup or for when you run out of logs!

 

[openspaceman]

Masonry heaters are popular in US where they have bigger rooms and houses. They get built in the middle of the house so the hot bricks radiate heat all around. Similar things are used in East europe where the flue even runs under brick sleeping platforms. The thing about them is they burn very cleanly because they run flat out for a few hours, the flue gases take a labyrinthine route through the brickwork . Because the bricks don't conduct heat as well as metal the gases have to pass a greater area of brickwork to lose their heat before passing up the chimney. After the fire has burned out the air inlet, and possible flue, are closed so that there is no circulation passing up the chimney.

 

Soapstone stoves are a sort of inbetween, a normal metal stove clad in shaped soapstone which retains the heat.

[Honda]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

Masonry heaters are popular in US where they have bigger rooms and houses. They get built in the middle of the house so the hot bricks radiate heat all around. Similar things are used in East europe where the flue even runs under brick sleeping platforms. The thing about them is they burn very cleanly because they run flat out for a few hours, the flue gases take a labyrinthine route through the brickwork . Because the bricks don't conduct heat as well as metal the gases have to pass a greater area of brickwork to lose their heat before passing up the chimney. After the fire has burned out the air inlet, and possible flue, are closed so that there is no circulation passing up the chimney.

 

Soapstone stoves are a sort of inbetween, a normal metal stove clad in shaped soapstone which retains the heat.

(See bolded bit) How do you sweep a chimney like that? 

[openspaceman]

I don't know but because they burn so hot I doubt there is much soot to sweep off.

 

I have no direct experience but have exchanged posts with Norbert Senf, of the US Masonry Heater Association, about various aspects.

[sime42]

Those Eastern European jobs are interesting. Took me a while to get my head around them to start with. When I first came across one the woman who owned the house explained that you have to fill it with wood, burn it all as hot and rapidly as possible, (ideally in an hour or so),  and then completely shut it down. It'll then keep the room warm for the rest of the night. It worked. Quite counterintuitive from our traditional perspective of keeping our woodburners alight as long as possible, and even ticking over all night sometimes. Very grand and ornate looking as well, most that I saw. 

[NJA]

On 18/05/2023 at 15:53, Muddy42 said:

I struggle with the idea that masonry "pushes heat" further.  Unless the heat source is radiating heat (glowing red hot) heat rises by convection from any heat source, whatever its made of. It may retain heat for longer, but that would be a different claim.  I have never found that stove heat travels from room to room particularly well, even with doors open. It might work with fans or if a house was particularly open plan.

 

Personally if you have a radiator system already, I'd look at a back boiler or a log central heating system like eco angus.  I do have an eco angus - it does eat a lot of wood, but it works to make the house toasty and is more efficient than the stove and there is less multiple handling.  You can keep the oil or gas system as backup or for when you run out of logs!

 

Yea i think their claims of 'whole house heating' are quite ambitious, I'm not expecting it to and think the gas CH will still be very much needed.  But is the few hundred kg of masonry holding heat around the stove actually a benefit in real life, will it maintain a more steady temparature in the house than a traditional stove?  Or just a nice theory on paper?

 

I really want something that will sit in the living room that will cheer the place up, so not really suitable for a eco-angus.  But definitely an option for further down the line to have in addition to whatever stove i fit, for hot water etc.

 

Thanks for the input.

[openspaceman]

42 minutes ago, NJA said:

But is the few hundred kg of masonry holding heat around the stove actually a benefit in real life,

Whilst I have no direct experience of masonry stoves I do have a lot of experience of the effect of slow heat release from a chimney breast. As my stove runs about 16 hours a day in winter and the house is very small (77m2) the chimney breast gets warm to the touch even in the bedroom above., with a thermal image one can plainly see the route of the flue and the gradual heating of the wider brickwork.

 

This is so as the chimney is cement lined and does not have a flexible steel liner.

[Muddy42]

On 18/05/2023 at 19:43, Honda said:

(See bolded bit) How do you sweep a chimney like that? 

 

I have swept a lot of Victorian flues that take the most extraordinary routes - changes in direction, internal shelving or dog legs round windows.  Its always hard work but I have never found one that I couldn't get clean. You just have to keep persevering, start with a small 4 inch brush or even a bare rod, then gradually move up through larger rods.  Sometimes it helps to sweep from above.