Scandinavian Stoves:
Contraflow and Five Channel Heaters
The Basic Finnish Contraflow
Our Simplest and least expensive Full-Sized Heater, our Basic Finnish Contraflow features a brick finish and a bottom exit.
Firebox Size: 16"x18"
Approximate Footprint: 36"x50"
Chimney Connection: Bottom side or rear
Channel System: Settling Chamber and twin downdraft channels.
The Basic Finnish Contraflow
The FInnish Contraflow was "imported" to North America in the late 1970s at a workshop in Lincolnville, Maine. A few changes to the traditional design had to take place in order to meet US building code, because no Masonry Heater section existed. The decision was made to meet Chimney code and so a second width of brick was added to the design.
Over time, this second layer became firebrick, and created what we now think of as a "Core and Skin" design concept. This design is what the major North American "kits" are based on. All the Contraflow kits I am aware of include castings for an upper-chamber oven, whether you pay for it or not. The shape of the oven and the time required to install it are part of the kit. If you pay the "extra" you get a door and a brick arch and so on.; And if you don't,you're still buying everything but the door.
Our Contraflow is different.
We have simplified the "Core and Skin" model to the point where nothing remains but the essential aspects required for clean-burning and efficient heating.
Because the goal is affordibility, we keep it simple. Ovens canbe included in this heater, but the cost of the oven reflects the complete complexity the oven brings to the heater. If you buy the Basic Contraflow, you don't pay for any bake oven components, you get a simple downdraft fireplace that will last decades and create a warm cozy home without any additional complexity.
A Smaller Heater for Passive-Haus and Room Warming
The Barrel Stove marries the traditional Swedish Five Channel design with the German "post-tensioned shell" technique. The barrel supplies post-tensioning, air tightness, and durability to the stove, while the firebrick walls and inner dividing walls add thermal mass, allowing an even thinner wall to remain robust and long lasting through many years of warming your space.
The barrel is wrapped in metal lath and plastered. At this point, with the use of chopped straw as a reinforcement, the clay/sand mix can be built out to give depth and texture to the final stove, or tiles can be added to the cob plaster to give a more durable, warmer feeling surface.
