So comprehensive, you'll think you can DIY, September 26, 2010

This is best masonry design book I have found to date. It presents a good overview of the designs/options available as of 2010. It also contains many color pictures of actual masonry heaters to whet your creativity. For those interested in calculating masonry heater heat gain (BTU's) we added a calculator to our website that you can find by Googling Borst Engineering & Construction LLC.

Excellent, and modern, up-to-date review of Masonry Heaters and their use and construction in America.The rationale, use, differences, and construction of MHs is exhaustive; there are scores of beautiful full color photos of different heaters - it almost seems he has a photo of every current heater in America.The author shows the different uses and qualities of masonry types, right down to how fast they transfer heat, and how much heat each can store. He provides formulas for calculating how big the firebox should be, the length of heat channels, how much chimney you would need according to your altitude. Importantly, he reviews the half-dozen or so Masonry Heater companies, and delves into what type of heater they install, the design principles behind each companies' furnace, and the benefits and liabilities of each.I've been reading about these stalwart hearts of the home for some time, and this book is so soup-to-nuts I learned much and altered...

This is the best book I have found so far for mass masonry heaters. The text has many illustrations of different heaters, and includes quite a bit of design information-- almost enough to design your own and certainly enough to avoid making obvious blunders in heater size, design, and placement.The text isn't technical enough to actually design your own heater-- the general impression I get is that custom masonry heater design is still more of an art based on experience than a science. Regardless, one could make a tolerable first pass at a design. The text does contain a wealth of useful information on materials, chimneys, placement... a great deal of detail that many would not be familiar with. The sections on air supply, ventilation, and how chimneys work are particularly useful.There are some areas that could use improvement-- in one section the author inexplicably used metric (SI) units (mostly) rather than English (Imperial) units (the source was SI,...