Installation

DIY garage ovens. Homemade stove for heating a garage

In the autumn-winter period, staying in an unheated garage is not a pleasant process, and installing traditional heating is an expensive pleasure. Therefore, the majority of owners choose economical options and install compact, energy-efficient stoves for the garage. The structure must heat up well, heat the air evenly and at the same time be safe.

The design of most garages does not include the installation of a heating system. At the same time, low temperatures in winter not only create discomfort for car owners, but are also undesirable for vehicles. As practice shows, the use of traditional portable electric heating devices is ineffective and costs a pretty penny in electricity bills. Solving the problem is quite simple - you need to build a stove in the garage with your own hands, choosing the best option.

The problem of heating a garage is based on two points:

  • lack of effective thermal insulation;
  • the square-cube law, which implies the ratio of the size of the surface of a body to its volume.

The mentioned law is reflected in the form of heat loss. To heat one cubic meter of a room with a small area, much more heat is required than when heating a spacious building. For example, to heat a two-story house, a device with a power of 10 kW is sufficient, and for a garage of standard sizes you will need a device with a heat output of 2.5 kW.

To maintain a temperature of 16°C in the garage, you can install a 2 kW unit, and for a temperature of 8°C intended for storing a car, a 1.2 kW unit is sufficient. Accordingly, to warm up the entire area, significantly more thermal energy will be required, so it is better to heat not the entire room, but the so-called workplace.

How to make a stove in the garage: maximum placement efficiency and insulation system

The air heated by a heating furnace for a garage should be concentrated in the center of the room, spreading around so that a small layer of cool air is formed between the walls and ceiling. Thus, the vehicle and its owner will remain in a comfortable temperature zone, and heat consumption will be significantly reduced. The so-called heat cap is formed due to natural convection: a strong flow of warm air rises upward, where it collides with a cold dense layer.

Helpful advice! According to the rules (regarding car parking) regulated by document SP 113.13330.2012, the optimal temperature for storing a car should be no lower than 5°C, and during repair work - 18°C.

Thanks to the physical process of convection, which consists of spreading currents of warm air, almost the entire garage is efficiently heated. You can get this result even with a homemade garage oven with low power.

The insulation system plays an important role in the heating process and heat preservation. One of the tricks that builders of garage cooperatives use is the dense arrangement of neighboring structures, which allows for maximum heat retention. In individual buildings, various available materials, for example, fiberboard, can be used for external insulation.

Insulating the inside of a metal garage can be problematic, since a dew point appears at the point of contact between the materials, where condensation accumulates. As a result, this can lead to rapid wear of both the base material and the insulation. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain an air cushion between the main and additional walls of 30-50 mm, retreating from the floor by approximately 60 mm.

Types of stoves for the garage: choosing the best option

In the garage, it is possible to install a variety of heating systems that operate on different types of fuel: liquid, solid, electric or gas. The main conditions are that the unit must have high efficiency, at the same time have low cost and low resource consumption. In addition, the device must be mobile and secure.

To heat a garage, various units are used, which differ in operating principle, type of fuel and operating features.

Long-burning wood-burning garage stoves. The operating principle of such devices is converter combustion of fuel. The unit requires professional installation, but experienced craftsmen can make it themselves. Firewood, pellets, peat, coal and other types of exclusively solid fuel are used as fuel. Gas and liquid flammable materials are not applicable. Additionally, installation of a chimney and insulation system is required. It belongs to the category of expensive devices.

Potbelly stoves for the garage. A compact, convenient and affordable option for a furnace that can be easily built independently using a basic drawing. The main disadvantage of potbelly stoves is the increased risk of fire.

Garage ovens for waste are the most economical option, operating on machine oil that has already spent its life in the engine.

A brick stove for a garage allows you to receive soft heat for a long time, but subject to complete heating. Therefore, this option is suitable for people who work in the garage every day.

Infrared heaters. Such equipment is not suitable for metal structures and half-brick structures. Metal reflects poorly, and brick absorbs such energy, which leads to low efficiency of this type of heating.

Important! When installing a heating system, it is imperative to construct a high-quality and reliable ventilation system and chimneys.

Long-burning wood-burning garage stove: types and principle of operation

Any option for garage stoves has its pros and cons, and each of them can be made with your own hands. To have an idea of ​​the process of creating a unit and to calculate your strength and resources, it is worth getting to know each type of device in more detail.

The popularity of long-burning garage stoves lies in their efficiency, since the combustion of ordinary firewood can produce the maximum amount of heat. The principle of operation is that a large amount of fuel is loaded one-time into the combustion chamber, where the process of prolonged combustion is due to poor access of oxygen. Thus, the firewood does not burn instantly, but gradually smolders, releasing flammable gas.

Long-burning garage stoves can vary in their design features; a popular variety is Bubafonya. The name of the unit comes from the name of its inventor. The high efficiency of the design lies in the fact that such a long-burning stove can operate on sawdust. If you try, you can connect Bubafonya to a water heating system. In this case, the principle of operation of the device will be to create a water jacket around the boiler.

Buleryan is also a popular model of long-burning stove; its design is very unusual. The device is widely used not only for office, but also for residential premises. This is a kind of modern hybrid of a classic potbelly stove and a long-burning stove. The unit operates by forced convection. Several curved pipes go to the firebox from below and above. Cold air enters through the lower ones, which is instantly heated in the firebox and comes out from above already hot.

Do-it-yourself long-burning stove for the garage

Despite the relatively complex design, you can make a long-burning stove yourself. Such a model will have one, but significant drawback: to remove the ash, you will have to turn the rather weighty body upside down. To build the unit, you will need a metal cylinder and a welding machine. You can use a square container as a basis, but only if the firewood smoldering is properly ensured. The manufacturing process itself in this case will take several hours.

Most often, a thick-walled metal barrel with a capacity of about 200 liters is used to produce a long-burning furnace. At the top, fastenings are made for the cover with the chimney, and a small hole is also made, which is necessary for the access of oxygen, which is needed for the combustion process. The diameter of the chimney is approximately 15 cm, and the air duct is 10 cm. Often the chimney is brought out from the side, and space is left on top for air to enter.

Helpful advice! For a wood-burning garage stove, you need to purchase dry fuel. You should choose wood species that release a minimum amount of resin during combustion.

An important part of a wood-burning stove for a long-burning garage is a weight to provide pressure on the smoldering wood. It can be made from a metal circle, the diameter of which should be several millimeters smaller than the size of the combustion chamber, and two sections of channels that act as a weighting agent. In the weighting circle, it is necessary to make an air duct and weld a pipe with a cross-section of 10 cm to it. Its length should exceed the height of the stove body .

A hole with a door for loading firewood into the garage stove is made with your own hands on the side, and a grate and a container for ash are installed at the bottom. The final touch is welding the legs at the bottom of the finished stove.

Potbelly stove for a garage: operating principle and manufacturing features

An ordinary potbelly stove, popular in the 20s of the last century, is considered the most popular option for a garage stove using wood and other types of solid fuel. It can be made from a variety of available materials. Both sheet metal and a piece of pipe, an old barrel or a used gas cylinder would be appropriate here. For successful production, the material must meet the following requirements:

  • metal thickness – at least 5 mm;
  • a cylindrical container in cross-section must exceed 30 cm.

The classic potbelly stove includes the following elements:

  • housing with grille;
  • loading door;
  • ash pan;
  • chimney is side or vertical.

To make a chimney, use a 3 mm thick metal pipe with a cross-section of at least 12 cm. The combustion chamber is cut out from the selected blank. The fuel grate is installed at the bottom, and under it there is a box for collecting ash made of metal 3 mm thick. The chamber is closed from above and the chimney is removed. The legs for the stove are made of metal corners.

Before you make a potbelly stove for your garage, you need to decide on its shape, which depends on the base material. It can be round or square. It is also important to think about safety rules. Install the stove on a flat and durable base made of fire-resistant materials. The walls also need to be protected from sunburn. There should be no foreign objects near the stove.

It is important to take into account that the metal surface of the potbelly stove will become very hot during operation, therefore, in order to avoid serious burns, it is necessary to exclude the possibility of people and animals touching it.

The procedure for making a vertical potbelly stove for a garage with your own hands

The most popular option for a do-it-yourself potbelly stove for a garage is a metal stove. In order to produce a vertical unit, the workpiece is conventionally divided into two parts. The smaller one will be located below and serve as a place for collecting ash, and the upper part (base) will be the firebox, and firewood will be stored in it.

Helpful advice! You need to be extremely careful when working with an old gas cylinder. First of all, you should make sure that there is no gas inside the container. You can completely displace it by filling the balloon with water. There are known cases when gas residues in the process of sawing a cylinder provoked an explosion.

As an illustrative example, let’s consider the procedure for making a stove for a garage from a gas cylinder:

  1. Cutting out doors: the top one for the firebox, the bottom one for collecting ash. They do this with the help of a grinder. The cut pieces are not thrown away; they will serve as doors.
  2. Welding the grates. To do this, use pieces of steel reinforcement of appropriate length, 13-15 mm thick. A distance of 20 mm is left between the grates.
  3. Construction of a chimney. For this purpose, a metal pipe about 10 cm high is attached to the top of the structure.
  4. Locks and hinges are welded to door blanks. Connect all the parts. To create a seal on the outside of the door, metal strips 20 mm wide can be welded.
  5. Installing legs at the bottom of the product from metal corners.

Using the same principle, a potbelly stove for a garage is made from a pipe. The difference lies in the need to weld the bottom and top cover, where a hole for the chimney is prepared in advance. You can also use a gas cylinder to build a heat-efficient rocket stove for your garage.

Related article:

Advantages and disadvantages. Heating requirements. Types of heating systems: water, electric, gas and others.

Instructions for making a horizontal stove for a garage with your own hands

The horizontal design is considered more convenient in terms of loading long logs, but at the same time it takes up more space in the garage, so it is not suitable for a small room. In a horizontal potbelly stove, the ash collection box is placed at the bottom. To do this, make a blank from a piece of channel, and make holes in the combustion part. Thus, grate bars and a collection for ash are obtained.

The chimney pipe is placed in the upper part of the housing. For this purpose, a piece of pipe of the appropriate diameter is welded. For the legs of the product, pieces of metal corners with welded flat pieces of sheet iron are used. This is necessary for the structure to become stable. The blower is placed on the side - in the opposite part from the chimney. To do this, a piece of metal is cut out of the wall, which is subsequently used as a door.

You can build an original, more practical and safer stove for heating a garage from two barrels. A metal potbelly stove, unlike its cast iron predecessor, heats up much faster and is almost impossible to be near. This problem can be solved by using two barrels of different diameters, installing one of them inside the other. In this case, the inner barrel is a firebox, and the outer one is an additional frame. The space between the walls can be filled with sand or pebbles.

Such a stove will heat up much longer, but at the same time it will cool down much more slowly. Therefore, the required temperature will be maintained in the garage much longer, and staying in it will be more comfortable.

Helpful advice! Small wings welded to the sides of the stove from a pipe will help increase the heating efficiency of a potbelly stove. These details will increase the area of ​​contact of the heated metal with the air, which will help warm up the room faster.

Do-it-yourself brick garage oven

Homemade brick ovens are also used to heat the garage, although much less frequently. This design radiates heat for quite a long time, but it will take a lot of time to warm up. This unit is suitable for those owners who spend a long time in the garage and are there every day. In this case, you can simply maintain the fire in the firebox by adding wood.

To install a small brick oven in a garage with a hob you will need:

  • ceramic refractory brick – 290 pcs.;
  • door for combustion chamber 250X200 mm – 1 pc.;
  • grate for grates 250X250 mm – 1 pc.;
  • door for the blower 120X120 mm – 1 pc.;
  • valve 120X120 mm – 1 pc.;
  • cast iron stove 70x30 cm.

To lay bricks, you need to prepare a clay mortar. The thickness of the seams should be from 5 to 15 mm. Before installing a stove in the garage, you need to take care of preparing the foundation. Its horizontal dimensions should be approximately 20 cm wider than the device itself.

For the firebox, you need to carry out lining, which involves laying fireclay bricks on a similar mortar. The bricks are ground before casting the furnace, and under the grates, stove and doors, the base must be wider than the dimensions of the casting. To ensure thermal insulation, an asbestos cord is used; strips of mineral wool, which can withstand temperatures up to 1200 °C, are also acceptable.

Brickwork, carried out according to the established pattern, consists on average of 15 rows. In approximately 6 of them, a valve is installed, which allows you to switch the stove to different operating temperature conditions, which is especially convenient in the off-season. In order to have an idea of ​​the future brick stove and so that you do not have to correct mistakes later, it is better to carry out preliminary laying without mortar.

Economical and energy-efficient furnaces for the waste garage

A waste oil furnace is considered the most economical, as it eliminates additional fuel costs. If you correctly calculate the materials and strictly follow the manufacturing instructions, then it will not smoke and excessively pollute the air. Such furnaces are designed to operate on transmission, machine or transformer oil. A diesel furnace for a garage operates on the same principle.

Structurally, the unit consists of two containers that are connected to each other by a perforated pipe with many holes. If a decision is made in favor of installing a waste furnace in the garage, then it is necessary that it meets the following requirements:

  • maximum weight – 30 kg;
  • capacity – up to 12 liters;
  • standard size – 70x50x30 cm;
  • average fuel consumption – 1 l/hour;
  • the diameter of the exhaust pipe is 100 mm.

It is quite simple to build such a structure. To create it, you don’t need nozzles or droppers, so you don’t need any special knowledge, skills or experience to make it.

Helpful advice! Before building a waste oil stove, it is advisable to first agree with the owners of neighboring garages about the collection of used oil. The container must be made of metal with a thickness of at least 3 mm.

Directly for the manufacture of the furnace you will need the following materials:

  • steel pipe;
  • two metal containers;
  • steel corner.

The container can be the housing of an old, unusable refrigerator compressor or a gas cylinder. A furnace for a garage for mining must be made of a material with a thickness of at least 4 mm, since it is expected to heat up to 900 ° C, so thin metal will simply burn out.

The sequence of manufacturing a stove for a garage that operates during mining

It is beneficial for a mining garage if there are large reserves of it.

The process of creating this type of stove for a garage with your own hands includes the following steps:

  1. Installing the lower container on the legs. For this purpose, parts 20 cm in size are produced from a metal corner, onto which the container is welded in a horizontal position.
  2. Cutting a hole in the middle of the lower part of the body, which serves as the firebox and fuel tank, welding to it a vertical pipe connecting both tanks. It is advisable that the top part is removable. This is necessary to clean the burner.
  3. Drilling about a dozen holes in the pipe at a height of half a meter. The first hole should be located at least 10 cm from the main body of the oven.
  4. Making a hole on the top of the combustion tank for pouring oil and a lid, which will help regulate the heating level of the room and the combustion process itself.
  5. Welding the pipe on the upper tank.
  6. Construction of a galvanized steel exhaust pipe at least 4 meters long and its fastening to the branch pipe.

Painting will give your garage stove a presentable look. For this purpose, a mixture of silicate glue, chalk and aluminum powder is used.

Disadvantages of a furnace for a garage during mining, operating features

In order to avoid emergency situations, it is necessary to use such a stove in accordance with clear instructions. To do this, using the bottom hole of the stove, you need to put a small amount of kindling paper into the fuel tank. Next, approximately 1 liter of used oil is poured in. Set the paper on fire and wait a couple of minutes until the oil boils. When the oil begins to burn slowly, it must be added as needed in an amount of 3-4 liters.

Despite the many advantages of this type of garage oven, it is necessary to mention their disadvantages, in particular:

  • a very long chimney, which must be at least 4 meters in height;
  • it is required that the chimney device be strictly vertical, without bends or horizontal sections;
  • Oil containers and the chimney must be cleaned regularly - approximately once a week.

Helpful advice! A design with removable parts will help to avoid the inconvenience associated with frequent cleaning of the tank and chimney.

The process of creating a heating system in a garage must be approached responsibly so that structures such as a waste boiler, a brick stove, or a DIY potbelly stove are profitable and bring maximum heat. It should be noted that economical options must be carefully looked after, and brick structures require some time for kindling. To create a long-burning metal stove, you will need certain skills and knowledge. At the same time, any of the options considered, under conditions of proper construction and subject to operating rules, will make the garage warm and comfortable.

Very often, a potbelly stove is used to heat a garage. Moreover, you can do it yourself, but you don’t need to spend money for it. It is enough to look in the bins for unnecessary metal parts.

Advantages and disadvantages of a potbelly stove for a garage

A potbelly stove is rightfully considered the most practical way to heat in winter. This is a small structure that is practically portable and can heat any room in size, regardless of the outside temperature and other climatic conditions. This is its main advantage. However, in modern conditions, a potbelly stove is used exclusively for heating outbuildings, for example, a garage. And this comes with a lot of disadvantages:

  • the stove cools down quickly, which means that in order to maintain a constant temperature in the room, it must always be burning;
  • uneconomical for the same reason;
  • is a fire hazard, so when installing it you need to take care to protect the nearby wall and floor.

However, its omnivorous nature allows you to save a little on the purchase of fuel, especially considering the almost 100% efficiency of such a device.

The potbelly stove has a special design, thanks to which it is possible to obtain high efficiency

Design and operating principle

The peculiarity of a potbelly stove is that it does not require the construction of a foundation or the installation of a major chimney. In most cases, this is precisely why it is chosen for use in the garage. This room does not always have electricity or a gas pipeline, which means that a potbelly stove is the only solution to the heating problem.

The potbelly stove does not require the construction of a foundation

This design is a metal box with a door and a pipe, which is located outside the heated room.

The pipe can also serve as a heating element if it is slightly modified. Make it stepped rather than straight, which will allow the hot air to linger in it a little.

Calculation of basic parameters (with drawings and dimensions)

High efficiency of a potbelly stove can only be achieved if all the main design parameters are correctly calculated.

Pipe

In this case, the diameter of this element is very important. The throughput of the chimney should be less than the productivity of the furnace firebox, which is the main distinguishing feature of a potbelly stove. This will allow warm air not to immediately leave the stove, but to linger in it and heat the surrounding air.

It is very important to make an accurate calculation for it. The diameter should be 2.7 times the volume of the firebox. In this case, the diameter is determined in millimeters, and the volume of the firebox in liters. For example, the volume of the combustion chamber is 40 liters, which means that the chimney diameter should be about 106 mm.

If the potbelly stove provides for the installation of grates, then the height of the firebox is calculated without taking into account the volume of this part, that is, from the top of the grate.

Screen

It is very important to force the hot gases not to cool, but to burn out completely. In addition, the fuel must burn through partial pyrolysis, which requires extremely high temperatures. A metal screen located on three sides of the stove will help to achieve a similar effect. It should be placed at a distance of 50–70 mm from the stove walls, due to which most of the heat will return to the stove. This air movement will give the necessary high temperature and protect against fire.

The screen of a potbelly stove made of red brick is capable of accumulating heat

Litter

It definitely has to be there. There are two reasons for this:

  • some of the heat is radiated downwards;
  • the floor on which the stove stands gets hot, which means there is a risk of fire.

The litter solves these two problems at once. As such, you can use a metal sheet with a projection of 350 mm (ideally 600 mm) beyond the contour of the furnace itself. There are also more modern materials that do an excellent job of this task, for example, a sheet of asbestos or kaolin cardboard, at least 6 mm thick.

You can use an asbestos sheet for bedding under a potbelly stove.

Chimney

Despite all the calculations, gases sometimes escape into the chimney not completely burned out. Therefore, it must be done in a special way. The chimney consists of:

  • the vertical part (1–1.2 m), which is recommended to be wrapped in thermal insulation material;
  • hog (slightly inclined part or completely horizontal), 2.5–4.5 m long, which should be 1.2 m from the ceiling, which is not protected with heat-resistant materials (1.5 m from the wooden surface), from the floor - by 2.2 m.

The chimney must be vented to the street

Photo gallery: diagrams of a potbelly stove for a garage

The diagram must indicate all the exact measurements. The chimney must be directed to the street The potbelly stove can be round or square The volume of the firebox depends on the presence of grates The design of the potbelly stove depends on the material used

Required materials and tools

To make a potbelly stove with your own hands you will need:

  • welding tool (or any other welding machine if you have relevant experience);
  • chisel;
  • soft cloth (you can use rags);
  • hammer;
  • sandpaper (fine-grained).

The list of materials depends on what container the potbelly stove will be made from. This could be a gas cylinder or a milk flask. If you have some experience working with metal, then a potbelly stove can be made from sheet material. However, you definitely need to take care of the availability of:

  • refractory bricks;
  • steel pipes;
  • metal wire;
  • grate bars (in some cases you can do without them);
  • pipe with weather vane;
  • door hinges.

Preparatory work before assembling the furnace: choosing a location

Using a potbelly stove in a garage, like any other heating device, requires compliance with safety rules. First of all, this concerns the installation location of the device. The corner of the garage, which is located near the walls opposite the door of the room, is ideal for this.

Remember that you cannot place the stove in close proximity to the car. The distance between them should be at least 1.5 m. A similar distance should be from objects that are easily flammable, for example, from barrels of gasoline.

The walls near the stove must be protected with fireproof material

The distance from the stove to the wall depends on what material the garage is built from. If it is wood, then there should be at least 1 m from the stove to the wall. Additionally, it is recommended to protect them with asbestos boards.

Step-by-step instructions for making a potbelly stove for your garage with your own hands

The method of making a potbelly stove depends on its shape and the material used.

Classic stove-stove

To manufacture such a structure, you must have certain skills in working with a welding machine. All work consists of several steps:

  1. Make 5 blanks from sheet metal.

    Blanks need to be cut from sheet metal

  2. Weld the side surfaces to the bottom. Make sure that they are positioned strictly vertically relative to each other, which will be helped by using a level or a building square.
  3. Weld the back wall.
  4. The internal space is conditionally divided into three parts: smoke circulation, combustion part and ash pit. In the last two, install a grate. To do this, at a height of 10–15 cm, you need to weld the corners over the entire length. For the grill itself, it is recommended to use thick sheet steel 25–30 mm wide, from which strips must be cut. The distance between the plates should be 5 cm. The rods themselves must be welded to two rods, which give the grille rigidity.
  5. It is necessary to weld two metal rods on top, which are needed to position the reflector (the sheet that separates the firebox and the smoke circulation); the reflector must be positioned in such a way that a channel for smoke is formed.

    Grate bars and a potbelly stove are optional elements

  6. Weld the lid of the potbelly stove, not forgetting the hole for the pipe. Cut and weld the top bridge. Do the same with the narrower part.
  7. Make a door. It is recommended to do it across the entire width of the stove, so that the grate bars and reflector can be removed without problems during cleaning and repairs. Don't forget that the door should be equipped with a handle, latch and curtains.
  8. Install the structure on legs, which can be made from a metal pipe with a diameter of 2–3 cm. You should not make them too high. 8–10 cm will be enough. If desired, you can equip them with bolts, which will allow you to adjust the height.
  9. Make a chimney from a pipe with a diameter of 15–18 cm. To remove it, you need to make a hole in the wall of the appropriate size. The pipe consists of three parts, which are connected to each other at an angle of 45°.

    The pipe must not have horizontal parts

  10. A rotating damper must be made at the lower end of the chimney pipe. It can also be made from sheet metal, but the diameter should be slightly smaller than the hole in the pipe. It is also necessary to provide a handle that would move this damper.
  11. The pipe must be fixed on a sleeve measuring 15–20 cm, which is welded along the hole to the top cover.
  12. Install the stove and adjust its height.

    When using sheet metal, you can make a potbelly stove of any size

Video: original potbelly stove for the garage with your own hands

Milk can oven

Making such a stove is quite easy, you just need to follow the step-by-step instructions:

Video: potbelly stove for a garage from a gas cylinder

Features of operation

When operating a homemade potbelly stove, it is very important to follow certain rules. This is necessary not only for the safety of its use, but also for a long service life. These rules are:

  • it is necessary to maintain a safe distance between the walls of the stove itself and the walls of the room (a distance of 50 cm is considered ideal);
  • the chimney must be routed directly to the street; in no case should it be connected to the ventilation system of the garage (very often this desire arises when the stove is installed in the basement of the garage), since this is the only way to guarantee sufficient draft for proper combustion;
  • places where the pipe is exposed to the street must be insulated with asbestos or other non-flammable material;
  • You can increase the efficiency of a potbelly stove by insulating the room itself;
  • It is necessary to install a box of sand and a fire extinguisher next to the potbelly stove, as this is required by fire safety regulations.

How to improve oven performance

This stove has one significant drawback - it cools down very quickly. However, this is very easy to fix with the help of a brick screen, which is installed on three sides of the structure. This will allow you to accumulate heat and release it to the room even after the stove stops burning.

It should be placed at a distance of 5–7 cm from the walls of the stove, in no case end-to-end. In this case, you need to take care of the presence of ventilation holes.

The screen should not be close to the walls of the stove

A structure with a brick screen will weigh much more than a conventional metal stove, so it is recommended to first build an individual foundation.

In some cases, it may be necessary to install a custom foundation. It's very easy to do:

  1. Dig a hole about 50 cm deep. All other dimensions depend on the size of the stove itself and the screen.
  2. Fill the bottom of the hole with sand (usually this takes about 3-4 buckets), after which it needs to be compacted. Cover the sand with a 10–15 cm layer of crushed stone and compact it as well.
  3. Level the backfill and fill it with prepared cement mortar. Leave it for a day (you can do it for several days, the foundation will only benefit from this).
  4. Cover the base with several layers of roofing felt.
  5. Now you can start laying out the screen in the brick floor. In this case, the first two rows should be laid out in continuous masonry directly on the roofing material. In rows 3–4 it is necessary to make ventilation gaps. Continue solid masonry.
  6. It is recommended to make the screen without a top cover.

How to properly clean a potbelly stove

The design features of this stove allow it to be cleaned quite rarely.

This is one of the advantages of a potbelly stove. However, periodically the chimney must be cleaned of soot residues. You can use a special brush for this. You can do it yourself. Attach a cylindrical brush to the rope. It is recommended to use a brush with plastic or iron bristles. In this case, you need to select it in such a way that it can easily squeeze into the narrow chimney pipe.

The cleaning process itself occurs in the following sequence:

  1. Close the firebox opening and plug it with a rag.
  2. Make several movements with the brush (you need to stop when the brush begins to move without resistance). Wait.
  3. Remove any food that has flowed down to the cesspool.

All this must be done extremely carefully, since the chimney pipe of potbelly stoves is not very strong.

A homemade potbelly stove in the garage can become a reliable and effective assistant in the fight against winter frosts. And if you do it yourself, the efficiency of the device can be increased many times.

Currently, many car enthusiasts install heating systems in their garages. This is necessary to increase the coziness and comfort of the structure. Agree, it is much more pleasant to repair a personal car in a heated room. Often, a car owner is faced with the task of choosing the optimal type of stove. Wood-burning garage stoves are considered the most common and versatile.

Types of furnaces

The most common wood stove designs:

  • Potbelly stove.
  • Potbelly stove with water circuit.
  • Brick.
  • Long burning.
  • Convector stove.

Potbelly stove - the most common wood stove, used to heat a garage. The simplicity of the design ensured its great popularity back in the twenties of the twentieth century. Any available material is suitable for its manufacture: old iron barrels, propane cylinders, a simple iron box.

The principle of operation is very simple: when wood burns in the firebox of the unit, the body heats up and releases heat into the room.

Potbelly stove with water circuit is a modification of the potbelly stove. The main difference is the presence of a water circuit. It consists of a pipeline system, shut-off valves, expansion tank, heat exchanger, pump, radiators.

The principle of operation is this - the water in the heat exchanger is heated and flows through the piping system into the radiators. As a result of heat exchange, heat enters the room. Using a pump, cooled water from the radiator is pumped into the heat exchanger for subsequent heating.

Brick oven- the most efficient in terms of heating the room. Thanks to its design and the building material used, it has high efficiency. Such a stove heats up quickly when fired with wood, and retains heat for a long time. The principle of operation is the same as that of a potbelly stove.

A convection oven is also a modification of a potbelly stove. Its design is distinguished by the presence of a forced convection system. It consists of a fan and a collector.

Thanks to this system, the efficiency of a converter furnace is higher than that of a potbelly stove.

The operating principle is similar to that of a potbelly stove. The only difference is that the fan forcibly displaces heated air from the collector into the room.

Long burning stove- This is also a modification of the potbelly stove. Its design uses the top combustion effect. Due to this, this design has high efficiency. Operating principle: combustion in the furnace of the unit occurs under load, due to this, the fire zone has a small area. This ensures long-term combustion of solid fuel.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like any heating device, a wood stove has its advantages and disadvantages.

Let's look at some of the benefits:

  • Relatively low price of fuel.
  • The versatility of the device during operation. You can use the heater to heat the room, cook and heat food.
  • Installation and installation of a garage stove is very simple and does not require large expenses.
  • For the manufacture of the unit, scrap materials can be used.
  • During operation, the use of additional installations and devices is not required.
  • The small overall dimensions of the unit make it universal for use in garages.
  • The operation of such a device does not require the use of an additional type of energy (electricity).

The disadvantages of this design include:

  • Such furnaces have a high heat output, as a result of which they heat up quickly and cool down quickly.
  • To maintain a high temperature in the oven, it is necessary to periodically add firewood.
  • Constant monitoring of the heating process is necessary to ensure safety.

Peculiarities

For the furnace to operate efficiently, its design must have certain qualities. Since the garage room is small, the stove should, first of all, be compact. Operating efficiency for a heating device is also important. In addition, the cost of manufacturing the unit should be minimal.

It is necessary to provide for the possibility of firing different types of fuel. This will make the unit cost-effective. By making a stove with your own hands, you can make it as convenient to use as possible. Taking into account all your needs, you will create a unique and inimitable heating device.

First you need to choose the material from which you will make the wood-burning stove. This is where your skills in working with brick or metal will come into play. But in both cases, it must be remembered that the heating device should not reduce the amount of oxygen in the room. It must release heat for as long as possible to warm the room.

The basic rule when operating the stove is the absence of release of harmful substances.

When choosing the design of a heating device, remember that it should not be a fire hazard.

DIY making

The most suitable material for making a potbelly stove is propane cylinders and thick-walled pipe. Old metal barrels will also work. All options are possible. The main condition is that the wall thickness must be at least 2 mm and maximum 5 mm. If you do everything according to the drawings, then such a stove will serve for a long time and efficiently.

Which stove to make - vertical or horizontal - everyone decides for himself. It is more convenient to burn a horizontal stove with wood. But the vertical one is easy to use and takes up less space.

To make a vertical potbelly stove, we divide the pipe or cylinder into two unequal compartments. We place the smaller one at the bottom. Ash will collect here. At the top there is a larger compartment for storing firewood.

  • Cut rectangular holes in both parts. We don’t throw away the resulting rectangles; we use them as doors in the future.
  • We weld grate bars to most of them. This can be reinforcement or any metal rods of the required size, with a diameter of 12-16 mm. The gap between the grates is 20 mm.
  • We mount and weld the bottom.

  • We make a hole at the top of the cylinder for the chimney. We make a pipe from a sheet of metal and weld it to the hole at the top of the cylinder. It is better to make the pipe for standard chimneys, so that there are no problems with its installation later.
  • We weld hinges to the cut out doors and install them on the stove. The unit is ready.

To make a horizontal potbelly stove, you need to weld an ash box on the bottom. It can be made from sheet steel. We make holes in the bottom of the stove so that the ash spills into the ash drawer.

At the top of the heating device (just like on a vertical stove) we make a pipe for the chimney. We weld the hinges onto the door and install it from the end of the product. The oven is ready for use.

The design of the convector stove is a regular potbelly stove without a long-burning mode, but with forced airflow for uniform heat distribution in the garage. The unit is a potbelly stove with a built-in mini-fan in the back. It pumps air through guide pipes. These can be hollow metal pipes, a profile or a sheet steel box.

There the air is heated and blown forward. The garage space is heated quickly and efficiently. The stove is ready to heat the room.

Many people believe that the best heating device for a garage is a long-burning stove. Its design is based on a vertical potbelly stove. The main differences are the lateral location of the chimney in the upper part and the presence of a removable top cover with a piston. We cut a hole in the top cover and insert the piston. It puts pressure on the wood inside the stove, providing “top combustion.”

Setting up a brick oven in the garage is very simple. It is necessary to have an orderly masonry scheme and have skills in working with bricks. Be sure to strictly follow the ordering scheme. For masonry, fireclay mortar or clay with the addition of cement and sand is used.

Before installing a brick wall, it is necessary to make a foundation 200 mm high. The combustion chamber is made of refractory bricks. The door and the blower are located on the front wall. The grille is placed inside the device on brick ledges.

To make a stove you need 290-300 bricks. The masonry is laid out on fireclay mortar. Gaps are left between the bricks. This is necessary for thermal expansion. The formation of cracks on the body of the heating device due to temperature differences will be minimized.

In order for the stove to last a long time, the brick must be well fired and without cracks. If it is necessary to increase the height of the heating device, this can be done by repeating the rows.

To make a furnace with a water circuit, you first need to build a heat exchanger. Various materials can be used: steel sheets or steel pipes. You will also need skills in working with metal and plumbing.

Ordinary potbelly stoves that can be placed in the garage suffer from one significant drawback - too low efficiency. The outgoing gas simply does not have time to give off heat and flies out hot into the chimney. Meanwhile, there is often not enough heat in a workshop or garage, so it would be nice to make a wood-burning stove that could produce 1.5 times more energy, i.e. raise the efficiency from the region of 35 - 40% to 60%. Achieving this is not so difficult, you just need to slightly transform the known designs, and many have already done so...

Ways to increase heat transfer from a wood or oil stove in the garage

Heating in a garage is usually done without a water circuit. The heat of burnt wood, coal or oil is transferred from the stove body and from its chimney directly to the air. Obviously, if you increase the area of ​​contact of heated parts with air, the heat transfer will increase, and the efficiency will accordingly increase. What can be done?

  • To make the heated body of the stove itself much larger - no need to spare any metal...
  • Weld fins 3–5 mm thick onto the body, so the heat transfer area can be increased several times…
  • To increase the length of the chimney indoors, make an inclined pipe along the wall. Partially equip the chimney with fins and place a heated water tank on the chimney.
  • Redistribute infrared radiation from the oven.

Radiant heat reflection in garage

Potbelly stoves often heat up well beyond 300 degrees, which is why the share of infrared radiation is significant. And it spreads from the heated parts in all directions, including into the cold corner, which is of little interest to users.

If you reflect infrared radiation from the corner in which the stove is located in the garage into the center of this room, where there are heated people and objects that can absorb infrared heat, then the increase in useful output from the heater will be significant - probably 1 kW from 20 kilowatt combustion...

It is enough to place a layer of foil on the wall behind the stove, focusing the reflection where needed.

An example of a stove design with increased heat output

The approximate dimensions of a typical wood and coal stove, with a tall body and two gas passages, are shown in the figure. In this case, increasing the height of the body will only increase heat transfer, and therefore the efficiency of the furnace.

Any metal welder can make such a design inexpensively.

Welding on the fins increases efficiency and increases heat transfer...

Features of a solid fuel stove for a garage or workshop.

  • The difference from a sauna stove is that it is not permissible to spill high-temperature coals from the combustion chamber onto an open tray or onto the floor. Therefore, the garage structure is always equipped with an ash pan, closed by a door.

How to take energy from a chimney and prepare hot water in the workshop

A chimney stretched along the wall at the upper level, according to various estimates, increases heat transfer by 8 - 15%, i.e. increases efficiency by 6 -7 percent on average. But for many, such a design is not convenient - it clutters up the garage, and is also not cheap - i.e. doesn't seem like a worthwhile undertaking.

But many owners of workshops, and garages too, support the idea of ​​​​having warm water with which you can wash anything, as well as wash your hands or even take a shower...

A tank with a pipe for the passage of flue gases is inserted between the stove and the chimney, takes energy from the gases, heats the water, and generally increases the efficiency of the device. All that remains is to coordinate the diameters of the smoke pipe on the stove, etc.

But this section of the chimney can also collect dew, so it can become very dirty...

Making it with your own hands is no more problematic than making the stove itself.

New design of oil furnace

Burning waste in a garage is a well-known method of heating; a stove for this action is made immediately, as soon as conditionally free waste oil becomes available. But the stove itself has low efficiency, the body is small, and a sufficient amount of heat is obtained due to the high calorific value of the oil, first of all.

Another design is proposed, which is distinguished by a large body made of a cylinder, which can be additionally finned, high efficiency, and it also implements a drip mode of supplying fuel to the combustion zone. Therefore, water in oil or other impurities will not simply get into the fire and will not cause dangerous explosions with splashing of burning oil as in a conventional oil stove...

Drawing of a productive oil stove.

The operating principle of a garage oil drip stove is shown in the figure.

Another advantage is that you can heat it with diesel fuel, too. Therefore, if you run out of “free” oil, you can switch to purchased diesel fuel instead of freezing.

But the design of an oil stove for a garage is, of course, more complicated than a classic one. The same stove also requires a stable, more powerful draft - therefore, a longer chimney is needed - at least 4 meters in height from the burner level...

Unfortunately, heating is not provided for garages (although perhaps fortunately, given current tariffs), so you have to heat yourself. Well, any heating is a stove. In this case, it should be small, but effective - you need to quickly bring the room from a “minus” to a good “plus”. So when choosing a design, do not forget that the garage stove should light up quickly and easily. It would also be desirable that it could be heated with waste - it is very expensive to buy good firewood, and there is nowhere to store it. Well, there is one more requirement - the design must be simple, so that you can easily do it yourself.

What kind of stoves can be made for a garage

It is very unpleasant to be in a cold garage in winter. That's why heating is required. Garage stoves are usually small steel stoves such as potbelly stoves. They are made from thick-walled barrels, pipe sections or gas cylinders. Such garage stoves are simpler to make and require only minor modifications, since the body, and sometimes the bottom, is already there. Stoves are also made from sheet metal, but these are options for those who are close friends with. Brick stoves are not very common in garages - they are still larger in size and heat up less, which is not entirely suitable for this case.

The most common stoves are those that burn wood; everything that burns is stored in them. Such omnivorousness and fast heating are their main advantages. They also have many disadvantages, and one of them is gluttony, which is why recently they have begun to make more economical long-burning stoves. Typically the top combustion principle is used. They are good because one full load (a stove made from a 50-liter propane cylinder) can burn for up to 8 hours. All this time it is warm in the garage.

They walk apart. There is plenty of such fuel in garages, but you have to be careful with the waste - it contains heavy metals and excellent traction is required to prevent them from getting inside.

Potbelly stoves - proven and simple designs

Potbelly stoves were a hit of the 20s of the last century. At that time, these stoves competed with brick stoves and were installed everywhere, even in apartments. Later, with the advent of centralized heating, they lost their relevance, but are used in garages, dachas, and for heating utility or outbuildings.

Potbelly stoves from a cylinder, barrel or pipe

The most suitable material for making a potbelly stove for a garage is propane cylinders or a pipe with a thick wall. Barrels are also suitable, but you need to look for ones that are not very large in volume and have a thick wall. In any option, the minimum wall thickness is 2-3 mm, the optimal is 5 mm. Such a stove will serve for many years.

By design they are vertical and horizontal. It is more convenient to burn horizontally with firewood - longer logs will fit. It’s easier to make one extended upward, but the firebox is small in size, so you’ll have to cut the wood finely.

Vertical

First, how to make a vertical stove for a garage from a cylinder or pipe. Divide the selected segment into two unequal parts. Below is a smaller one for collecting ash, above is the main one for storing firewood. The following is the order of work:

Overall, that's it. All that remains is to assemble the chimney and you can test a new stove for the garage.

Horizontal

If the housing is located horizontally, the ash box is usually welded from below. It can be welded to the required dimensions from sheet steel or a piece of channel of a suitable size can be used. Holes are made in the part of the body that will be directed downwards. It’s better to cut something like grate bars.

Then in the upper part of the body we make a pipe for the chimney. To do this, you can weld a cut piece from a pipe of a suitable diameter. After the piece of pipe is installed and the seam is checked, the metal inside the ring is cut out.

The next step is installing the doors. You can cut a piece of metal onto the ash pan, attach hinges and a lock. There are no special problems here. The gaps around the edges do not interfere - combustion air will flow through them.

There will be no difficulties if you are making a door from metal - welding the hinges is not a problem. Only here, in order to be able to at least slightly regulate the combustion, the door needs to be made a little larger - so that the perimeter of the opening is closed.

It is problematic to install furnace casting. Suddenly someone wants to have a cast iron door instead of a steel one. Then you need to weld a frame from a steel corner, attach the casting to it with bolts, and weld this entire structure to the body.

From two barrels

Anyone who has used a potbelly stove knows that very hard radiation comes from its body. Often the walls become heated to a red glow. Then it is impossible to be near her. The problem is solved with an interesting design: two barrels of different diameters, inserted one into the other. The gaps between the walls are filled with pebbles, clay mixed with sand (calcined over a fire, then filled in only after it has cooled). The inner barrel acts as a firebox, and the outer one is just the body.

This stove will take longer to heat up. It will not immediately begin to give off heat, but it will be more comfortable in the garage and after the fuel burns out, it will warm the room for another couple of hours - releasing the heat accumulated in the bookmark.

Long-burning garage stove

From the same gas cylinder you can make a stove for a long-burning garage. There are different designs, but the most proven and stable working is called Bubafonya - after the nickname of the author who invented it and posted it on one of the forums. This was about 5-6 years ago. Since then, many people have had this miracle - a simple and original design, high efficiency and the fact that you can lay not only firewood, but also shavings and even sawdust. You can even modify Bubafonya for water heating in the garage, which has been done more than once (water jacket around the body).

Long-burning wood stove for garage (diagram and photo)

This homemade wood stove has only one drawback - in order to remove the ash, you will have to turn the body upside down. True, there are already improvements that eliminate this drawback. If you have a welding machine, you can make such a stove for your garage with your own hands in a few hours - it’s very easy to make.

Design

This stove uses the principle of top combustion: wood burns from above, the flame spreads down as the upper layers burn out. This explains the long period of time for combustion - the flame spreads downwards much more slowly. However, the heating is effective. Already in the first minutes, a sufficient amount of heat begins to be released.

This stove is traditionally round and vertical. The body is a regular cylinder with a bottom without a welded lid. The main focus is the shape and structure of the moving part. It is often called "cargo", but this is only one of the functions. This part also supplies air to the combustion zone. She represents a metal circle to which a pipe is welded in the middle. On the back side of the metal circle - from the center to the edges - corners or pieces of a small channel are welded. These are air ducts through which air flows to the periphery of the combustion area. There is also a lid with a hole cut out in the center through which the weight pipe is passed. The smoke pipe is welded almost at the very top of the housing. Its horizontal part should not be more than 40 cm, then the pipe rises upward. The height of the chimney is at least 2-3 meters, but it must be determined by the draft - so that in any weather the smoke does not go into the garage.

Principle of operation

Having filled the body with firewood mixed with shavings and sawdust, the firebox is lit. Place a lid on the pipe and, when the flame flares up, place the lid on top. Since the pipe is hollow, air is supplied through it into the combustion zone, which supports combustion.

The diameter of the “load” circle is slightly smaller than the diameter of the body - through this gap, combustion products enter the upper part (labeled “secondary combustion chamber” in the figure). As is known, they themselves are flammable and can generate a large amount of heat. In this zone, with a well-heated oven, these gases ignite. Combustion air comes from a gap in the cover in the pipe passage area. Something can “pull up” in a circle. It's not that important. It is important that the lid should not be made airtight and that because of this, the draft in the pipe must be excellent.

The gases ignited in the upper part produce no less heat than burning wood. This explains the heating efficiency when using this design. Burnt gases exit into the chimney. As it burns, the load drops lower and lower until the entire load is burned out. After the stove goes out and cools down, you can add a new batch of firewood and start the process all over again. You have to remove the ash after several fires - the firewood burns completely, leaving only a small pile of ash and a couple of coals from the lowest firewood.

This is the kind of “wood” that this garage stove is heated with.

Here is a brief summary of the operating principle of this unit. As you can see, there is not only top combustion, but also afterburning of gases. A very simple design that works really well.

Manufacturing process

Most likely you already understand how to do everything, but we will briefly describe the process. First, let's talk about the materials that are needed for this stove. The most commonly used are 50-liter propane cylinders. A barrel with thick walls and a piece of pipe with a diameter of 300 mm to 600 mm are also suitable. The height of the finished case is from 110 cm to 200 cm. In addition, you will need:

These are all the necessary materials. Now let’s talk about what and how to do. We will assume that we make a garage stove from a gas cylinder.


That's all. I made a stove for the garage with my own hands.

Improvements

Improvements to the design improve ease of use. The biggest inconvenience is the need to turn the heavy body over in order to shake out the ash. To get rid of this, an ash pan and traditional grates are made in the lower part. The solution is understandable, but this innovation can lead to the fact that the firewood will burn faster - air will leak through the door cracks. If there is a lot of oxygen in the lower part, the wood will burn quickly, and not in the smoldering mode, as happens in the original design. The solution is to make the door airtight, with sides and a seal.

Efficient and economical garage stove - drawing with dimensions

The second improvement concerns the number and shape of fins on the air duct disk. They are made not from angles or channels, but from steel strips. They are bent and slightly shifted, so that the air passing through seems to twist. 6-8 pieces are welded instead of the original 4. This alteration gives only advantages - the air is distributed more evenly over the combustion zone, the firewood burns evenly over the entire area.

Brick stoves provide gentler heat, but until they heat up themselves, they will not heat the garage. If you plan to heat every day, this option is good. If the garage will be heated periodically, it is better to make a metal stove - heating up a frozen brick stove is long and tedious, and it will start heating in about two hours.

For those who decide to install a brick stove in the garage, we will lay out the order of a small (relatively) stove with a heating shield and a hob (just in case).

The stove is made of solid ceramic bricks (not burnt). Excluding combat, 290 pieces are required. The masonry should be laid using clay mortar, the thickness of the seams is about 0.5-1.8 cm.

This furnace requires a separate foundation - the weight will be about 500 kg. Its dimensions are 15-20 cm larger than the dimensions of the stove.

It is desirable to lining the firebox (laying fireclay bricks on fireclay mortar). Bricks are ground down for furnace casting. The dimensions of the bed for the grate, stove and doors must be larger than the dimensions of the casting. The gap is necessary to compensate for thermal expansion and also for laying a thermal insulation layer around the doors. This will reduce the formation of cracks near them (due to different thermal expansion).

Asbestos cord was traditionally used as a thermal insulation material. If you don't want to deal with asbestos, you can cut mineral wool cardboard into strips. Only it must withstand very high temperatures - up to 1200°C (minimum 850°C).

Installed in the 6th row, the valve allows you to switch the stove into winter and summer modes. This is convenient in the off-season, when full power is not required, but it is already damp.

The height of the oven can be increased by repeating rows 14 and 15.

Watch the video for the process of pre-laying a stove without mortar (recommended in order to select bricks and understand what’s what).

Drawings and diagrams

It would take a long time to describe all the designs. Much can be understood from the drawings.