Hello all,
I am in the middle of designing my oun masonry heater and modeling it on the computer via solid modeling. I have already finished the firebox and am now designing the “exterior”. My question is on brick selection.
For the fire box that was straight forward, and I am using actual fire/refractory brick that I will be sourcing from Larkin. However, after the firebox, I am confused on what is considered acceptable bricks to use?
One option I suppose is make the entire heater out of refractory brick. That seems silly for two reasons:
- High cost
- And as the name implies, refractory brick is not good absorption of heat but rather good as an insulator. Great for a fire box were we want high burn temps, but not good for the exterior of the heater were we want the high mas to absorb the heat from the gases.
So at this point it looks like I have three options:
- Standard Red brick
- Paving Brick (pavers)
- Kiln fired Paving Brick
From my research, the kiln fired pavers seems the way to go. Not too expensive and they have excellent strength characteristics being kiln fired at production over a regular brick. And it looks like their sizing is more standardized.
Can anyone help me/give an opinion on what is the best brick to use AFTER the firebox area? I appreciate any help this great group can give me.
Cheers,
Fin from Colorado