I have already presented a comparative review of various heating stoves, which, as practice shows, are in the most active demand among Russian consumers. However, individual designs of furnace devices require additional review. And dialogue with the consumer. This is the domestic Breneran stove - there is a special interest in it. You can read more about its structure here, and also watch the video. In this article I want to focus not so much on the advantages of the stove (they will tell you about them in advertising!), but on some of the nuances that real consumers themselves pay attention to.
Russian-made oven ↑
Breneran belongs to long-burning convection ovens
In fact, this stove can only conditionally be considered our own domestic development. Because it is an almost complete copy of the Canadian popular Buleryan stove. But nonetheless…
So, a few words about “Breneran”. And first, about ovens of this type - convection ovens.
The vast majority of modern metal stoves offered on the market have the same principle. Almost all of these devices are convection. Double-hull: inside there is a firebox, often with an afterburner chamber. Flue gases exit into a special smoke pipe at the rear. This makes combustion easier to control by limiting the air flow. The famous Russian stove is built on this principle.
Reviews
Owners of Buleryan bathhouse stoves note the high reliability of the stove, rapid heating of the room at any starting temperature. But, as with all combination stoves, achieving true “Russian” dry steam is extremely difficult. There are no complaints in sauna mode.
As for a metal stove, the steam produced is quite good, at least, these are the reviews of the Buleryan sauna stoves. You just need to know how to use the dampers and regulate the temperature in the room (do not overheat). The only point of criticism is the small volume of the water tank (25-30 l) with all the ensuing consequences. To get rid of this drawback and have enough hot water, order stoves with a heat exchanger and a remote tank. Such a system can heat a large volume of water and can provide a shower. How it is usually implemented - look at the photo. Only the tank is nailed above the level of the water collection points, providing a pressure difference.
To ensure there is enough hot water, it is better to install a heat exchanger in the furnace and connect an external tank to it
And here are the reviews of those who have Buleryan (and Breneran) in their bathhouse
My bathhouse Buleryan has been in the bathhouse for two years now. With one planting in winter you can reach 80°C. And when you come in the morning, it’s still 50-60° in the steam room.
Nikolay, Kaluga
I have the smaller of the Brenerans. The 16 cubic meter steam room warms up quickly. I don't like the small original water tank. I'm going to cut it down and put a larger container in its place. I don't know how well such a system will work. Otherwise I'm happy with the stove.
Veniamin, Kazan
I have a little Buleryan. The small firebox is terribly annoying. I almost chop up the firewood: very short logs fit in. Everything else is simply gorgeous. But I’m tired of sawing wood finely.
Victor, Zlatoust
I've been using my stove for 10 years. This year the back wall burned out. I have an uninsulated 3*5 log house for two rooms - a steam room and a sink together. I drown from the dressing room. In winter, when there is severe frost, you need to heat for 4-5 hours, in summer 1-1.5. During this time, it is warm everywhere: even in the dressing room, even in severe frosts above 20°. After 4 or 5 years, my firebox began to leak badly. But I stuck a lot of stones into the heater: I put 8 buckets of river cobblestones there. I think this is why the firebox was warped. Then I replaced some of it with gabbro-diabase, and put the rest sparsely. And so - it burned out. But, strangely, the smoke does not come into the room.
Alexander, Peter
A unifying collector could improve the situation ↑
Heating of the room occurs to a large extent due to the radiation of heat from the surface of the stove. So if the stove is located in an insulated room, and the neighboring ones are heated by supplying warm air through pipes, the heat loss will be quite noticeable. On this basis, experts advise that the first step is to put a special casing on the stove, create a connecting manifold, and only then separate the pipes from it. There are no such oven options in serial production; they are made to order, but this is also not a cheap pleasure.
Advantages and disadvantages
Please note that the device runs on wood. For this reason, when selecting different options for an available type of heating, you should take into account the price of such fuel in your region. As a rule, firewood within the city is expensive and using such a system will not be an economically beneficial solution for you. If you live in an area where firewood as fuel is inexpensive, then the Buleryan-Aqua long-burning wood boiler will be your salvation. When performing heating work, this system operates on convection and heat exchange, which occur due to the cyclic circulation of water vapor, which leads to good heating.
Advantages
- Considering that the circulation of steam in this system is very dynamic, the room is heated not only quickly, but also evenly.
The design features are such that, thanks to them, it is possible to heat both a one-story and a two-story house with equal efficiency.- During the working process, the boiler will not heat up, which will ensure that there is no oxygen burnout in the room where it exists.
- There is a two-chamber combustion here. Products that are not completely burned enter the secondary chamber and burn to ashes. This will not only help improve fuel efficiency, but will also minimize the formation of combustion solids.
- The door is tightly closed, which eliminates the possibility of sparks forming during the combustion process and provides a guarantee against fires at the installation site.
- Simplicity of installation work. The main condition is that the distance to the nearest wall is at least half a meter.
- And the most important feature and advantage of the system is that it does not require external communications to operate.
Flaws
The cost of purchasing fuel can be high.
- When using certain types of firewood, the chimney pipes may become clogged.
- To use this heating system effectively, you need to learn how to use the operating mode in which there will be slow combustion (smoldering) of the fuel.
- There is no guarantee that without a special antifreeze liquid, the heating system will not freeze in severe frost.
- Installing such a heating system is quite complex and expensive.
How to remove condensation ↑
There is another known problem that is associated with the operation of Breneran. Its smoke pipe, as you know, is located on the wall of the stove at the back. A tee is mounted here - a chimney pipe is connected to it. At the bottom there is a glass plug for condensate. This design does not have the required tightness. And this is a problem, because condensation inevitably and steadily enters the air, which is not good. Some craftsmen adapt their own solutions, making sealed containers to collect condensate, while others remove it from the room using pipe devices. In short, we have to innovate as best we can, because the market, alas, does not offer ready-made solutions.
Specifics of operation
Before starting the heating of the bath, you need to move the ash pan out of the stove body by 10 mm, carefully light the stove with paper and wood chips, and after the flame flares up well, you can add the main fuel. In continuous mode, the stove is heated until the desired temperature is established in the bathhouse. As a rule, after 45-50 minutes in the steam room - up to 100 degrees. Further heating is at your discretion.
A special glass with a long handle is provided for pouring water onto the stones. It is sold complete with the oven. Water should be poured where the chimney exits.
Construction of the Buleryan stove.
Next to the door for loading firewood there is a switch that allows you to change the heating modes. In the “Sauna” position, the valve that blocks the path of hot air is removed, and it escapes into the room through the stone compartment. Thanks to the stones, it dries well and fills the steam room with dry heat. In the “Russian bath” position, the valve is lowered, so the air warms up due to the heating of the top layer of cobblestones, and to obtain wet steam, water is poured onto the stones.
To prevent the steamer from getting burned by accidentally touching the stones, a special wooden limiter is provided. It also protects against contact with a metal water tank.
Those who have installed a Breneran stove in their own baths leave mostly positive reviews. The device is not only functional, but also aesthetically pleasing. An attractive appearance is ensured by decorative heat-resistant paint applied to the roasting pan. It fits perfectly into the interior of a modern bathhouse.
"Aqua-Breneran" ↑
Breneran stoves are known in several standard sizes, depending on the volume of the premises. To connect the water circuit, a model called “Aqua-Breneran” is offered. The disadvantage of this model can be considered the presence of a so-called “cold core”, which further cools the flue gases, which leads to worse draft in the pipe, promoting even more intense condensation formation. “Aqua-Breneran” needs to be heated more intensively. Consequently, the duration of operation of the furnace on one load of fuel is shorter.
Brief overview of prices
If we talk about real German Bullerjan stoves, then the price starts at 50 thousand rubles, and the cost of elite models reaches a quarter of a million. However, there is an excellent way out of this situation; our enterprising people copied the operating principle of Bullerjan and launched a whole line of stoves on the market under the Breneran brand.
Believe me, if you cover the logo, you won’t be able to distinguish a German “potbelly stove” from its domestic counterpart, plus the quality of our devices is no worse than the German one, and most importantly, the price starts from 12,600 rubles.
| Photo | Characteristics of the domestic analogue of Bullerjan |
| AOT-06. |
The most popular model, designed for 100 m³, welded from steel and costs 14,100 rubles. Exactly the same model, but without a glass insert in the doors costs 12,600 rubles.
- Volume 200 m³ - 19,350 rubles;
- Volume 400 m³ - 24,300 rubles;
- Volume 600 m³ - RUB 36,350;
- Volume 1000 m³ - 44,850 rub.
AOT-06 with frying surface.
A model designed for a room of 100 m³ with one burner costs 17,250 rubles, for a volume of 120 m³ with two burners costs 18,750 rubles.
Furnace with water circuit "Aquaten" from Breneran.
- Aquaten 100 m³ - 18,900 rubles;
- Aquaten 200 m³ - RUB 27,900;
- Aquaten 400 m³ - RUB 32,350;
- Aquaten 600 m³ - RUB 54,450;
- Aquaten 1000 m³ — 65,850 rub.
Heater for a bath.
This model has a lattice on top into which stones are placed. The price for it usually fluctuates around 14,300 rubles.
Oven with water circuit
The stove fits perfectly into the interior
The features of this design include the following:
- the ability to tightly close the door;
- the presence of a casing that increases the movement of hot air;
- lack of ash pan.
Having just appeared, the stove won the trust of consumers and became one of the most successful heating devices for large areas of plants and factories. And not without reason, because its advantages over gas heating are obvious:
- does not require permission to install;
- there is the possibility of self-installation;
- there is no need to install expensive gas supply lines;
- The system is easy to maintain; it will be enough to clean the chimney and add firewood in a timely manner.
Please note: to increase safety, it is recommended to clean the ventilation ducts twice a year! There is no ash, but soot and condensation still settle.
There is one drawback: significant fuel costs, but this does not take into account the fact that there is no expensive installation.
What kind of stove should I install? Should I bake a simple potbelly stove or a buleryan?
The heating system of a country house must meet a number of criteria
- Autonomous, that is, not dependent on external energy sources;
- Focused on a common type of fuel, most often firewood;
- Economical;
- Easy to use.
All of the above requirements are met by simple metal stoves running on wood fuel. Convection ovens are recognized as the most effective of them. These primarily include the Buleryan oven and the Breneran oven.
What is good about breneran?
Unlike a potbelly stove, the Breneran has a combustion chamber of two compartments. Fuel is added to the lower chamber. In it, the firewood is heated to a temperature that eliminates the possibility of active combustion. It finally burns out in the upper chamber. Thus, the Breneran stove option allows you to use the thermal energy of firewood to the maximum extent.
Manufacturers install an interesting combustion process control system on the stove. It allows the furnace to operate in two modes: “fast heating” and “gasification”. The “fast heating” mode will help quickly heat the air in the room. If the owners of a country house decide to visit it, for example, on New Year’s Eve, the Breneran stove, thanks to this function, will warm the room within fifteen minutes after ignition. As soon as the room becomes noticeably warmer, Breneran can be switched to the “gasification” mode. From this moment on, the heating device switches to economical fuel consumption: one load of firewood will maintain a stable temperature for up to 7 hours. Buleryan requires more frequent addition of firewood to the firebox.
Pros and cons of Buleryan
Buleryan is produced in the version of a conventional and gas-generating furnace. Therefore, the price of a Buleryan stove depends on the specific model, as well as on the size of the room it is designed for.
Breneran stoves are also available in several models. There are models that are installed separately and heat the room with heat emanating from the body. And there is an option when a water circuit is connected to the stove, and it becomes an element of the entire heating system.
Breneran equipment and their prototype were created by foreign engineers. Therefore, in our operating conditions, their effectiveness may decrease due to a number of reasons. For example, in order to increase the level of efficiency to the maximum value, fine tuning of the damper system, draft, and proper installation of the chimney for the stove or boiler is required. In addition, stoves are quite expensive.
How to put this stove on the foundation and connect the chimney?
You can make the following foundation for the Bulleryan stove: concrete 3 piles with a diameter of 20 cm and a length of 1 m and 70 cm. The thickness of the slab itself should be 20 cm, approximately 1.4 x 1 m in size, and it must be combined with the grillage lintel. Reinforcement should be done like this: two meshes with reinforcement parameters of 10 mm and a spacing between the rods of 15x15 cm. If everything is done correctly, the level of the top of the slab will be 24 cm lower than the finished floor - and then a base will still be needed for the shield. For reinforcement, it is necessary to drill approximately 25 holes with a diameter of 12 mm, and glue reinforcing bars 10 mm in diameter into them. They will simultaneously hold the slab and reinforce it. But the formwork is made suspended: as soon as the concrete sets, the formwork can be removed.
It is allowed to install Bulleryan no closer than 1 m from flammable material. A metal pipe must lead to such a stove, which is then connected to the chimney. This distance can be reduced to 75 cm if there are flammable materials, but they are covered with a thick layer of plaster - 25 mm, and to half a meter if the walls are protected with special insulation made of non-flammable material.
The sauna room where the Bulleryan stove will be located must be made of non-combustible materials: the ceiling, the floor, and the walls. A minimum of 1.25 m of free space must be left in front of the firebox.
You can also often find a complaint among bathhouse attendants that “Bulleryan” smokes. But, as it turns out in practice, most often this is due to the fact that the stove was installed incorrectly. So, the height of the pipe from the elbow must be at least 5 meters up, and no right angles! And insulation of pipes is also necessary - otherwise condensation cannot be avoided. This, by the way, is also a minus.
Advantages of the Buleryan stove
The advantages include the following features of this oven:
- Efficiency.
- Economical due to low intensity fuel combustion.
- Inexpensive stove.
- Possibility to use several types of fuel.
- Full autonomy.
- Ease of use.
- A convenient and simple way to regulate the gas supply.
- Low fire hazard.
- Possibility to install air ducts throughout the house.
The all-metal design of the case warms up quickly and begins to radiate heat almost immediately. This quality comes in handy for rooms with periodic heating - outbuildings, garages, as well as for heating a winter cottage during the rare stay of the owners. After lighting the first load of firewood, 10-15 minutes later, by turning the control knob, the damper shuts off the air flow and the stove is switched to slow burning mode. Now the firewood in it is slowly smoldering. Moreover, it makes absolutely no difference whether they are chopped logs or not.
And it doesn’t matter what exactly you heat with, since the stove is not picky about the type of fuel. Naturally, we must understand here that we are talking about solid fuel
Among many heating methods, this is the cheapest and most effective. To light the stove you don’t need anything other than firewood and a lighter. It melts easily. Powerful air draft promotes combustion. After switching the stove to slow burning mode, you can leave the filling in it and forget about the need to add it for 8-12 hours. The controls are very simple - two knobs that adjust the air inlet and outlet flaps.
The oven is safe. Since a person has contact with open fire only when lighting. And during the remaining periods of the stove’s operation, the fire is isolated from human living space. Due to the low combustion intensity, the stove does not overheat, that is, it does not reach a temperature at which objects located near the stove can ignite.
Having decided to buy a Buleryan stove, reviews of which are mostly positive, the buyer makes a choice in favor of high heating efficiency and the cost-effectiveness of the heating system, but sacrifices the aesthetics of the room.
How to properly drown a Bulleryan?
Here's how to heat the Bulleryan stove so that its efficiency is at its highest: the regulator and smoke damper are fully opened, and the fuel is placed so that it does not touch the window. The paper ignites the whole thing, and after 20 minutes you can close the smoke damper. And the furnace power itself is easily controlled by the same regulators.
The most pleasant moment is that within a couple of minutes, as soon as the firewood in the Bulleryan ignites, heat begins to flow through the pipes and warm the bathhouse, which has been frozen during the working week. And while warm air flows through the heating system, cold air is sucked in from below - and the heat is even close to the floor.
An important point: during the operation of the Bulleryan, ash will slowly accumulate - but it does not need to be completely removed; on the contrary, the lower air pipe should always be covered with it. But soot can be periodically removed from the viewing window using special cleaning agents.
Bulleryan stove for baths
Despite the complexity of the design, Bulleryan does not require special care. Its efficiency is high, and the consumption of firewood is minimal - what could be even better? Bulleryan stoves are convenient and economical, and even with extremely intensive work they serve faithfully for at least 5 years. If in a bathhouse that is used periodically, it will take much longer.
