The Big Difference
If you - up to now - think every Masonry Heater is quite similar - we will demonstrate you that there is a difference. From the outside you see only the casing with stucco or tiles - but the big difference is working inside.
Radiant heat - why is that relevant? Just a simple example: imagine you are skiing and having a break in the sun. Although it is perhaps 14°F, you can sit in the sun outside in a T-Shirt on the terrace. But woe you go to the shadow. This intense energy e.g. from the beam of the sunlight - That's radiant heat!
In a metal stove ("Warmluftofen") the wood is heating up the metallic charge up to 600°F surface temperature. This metallic charge is warming up the surrounding air - this warm air is climbing up in the room, getting cold again, falling to the ground, absorbed into the stove again - and circulating in the room. These metal stoves heat up quickly, create much air circulation, disperse a lot of dust but saving not much of the heat and a lot of warmth is blewn through the chimney.
The combined stove ("Kombi-Ofen") has the ability to buffer only some heat. Hence the heat loss is not that big than with the metal stove. Anyway there are still a lot of air and dust circulating in the room and producing only a minor percentage of radiant heat.
Best of is the OSA "Grundofen". The heat of this special type of masonry heater feels much like a beam of sunlight on cold winter days. The whole wood is burned in one time. The heat of this fire is warming up exactly calculated chamotte flues, is then preserved there and then dispensed continuously and constantly over the day. There is no dust dispersed and almost no heat lost at all.
You will only feel NATURAL HEAT!