Refrax vs Heatstop 50

[bturton]

Re: Refrax vs Heatstop 50

Thanks for the help and the good wishes! We're going with the Heatstop!

Bonita

[Bandrasco]

Re: Refrax vs Heatstop 50

Hello BTurton,

I am currently using Heatstop-50 and it's very easy to work with. I had a bad experience at first but it wasn't product related; it had been exposed to moisture while at the distributor and cured in the bag rendering it useless. The mfg was great to work with and they took care of the problem and offered a lot of customer support as needed. Unfortunately Refmix is not available in my local area. I was told they were 22lb bags and shipping along with product would make it about 30% more than Heatstop-50. Being the impatient person I am I went with local supply.

Good luck; it sounds like you're off to a great start.

Bill

[skoolpsyk]

Re: Refrax vs Heatstop 50

note that we tried to order the refmix from FB and they told us they are out of stock until mid-december. we ordered two bags of hs50 since we couldn't find anyone who had it in stock and it came to over $100 a bag with shipping...

[RTflorida]

Re: Refrax vs Heatstop 50

I used HS50, I found it easy to work with and hard setting. I having nothing eles to compare it to (either the Refrax/Refmix or the fireclay homebrew). HS50 can be pricey...I found the price to range from $55 a bag to over $100, luckily the masonry supplier who also had the cheapest firebricks also had the cheapest HS50....one stop shopping for me.

RT

[Les]

Re: Refrax vs Heatstop 50

I started off using heatstop, but when I saw how fast I was burning through it, I started mixing my own. I saved the rest for the arch. The home mix seems to be working just fine.

Les...

[bturton]

Hey Guys!
Thanks for the fantastic job you do. All the information and shared experience is really helpful.

We poured our slab and foundation this week. Our hope is to do the oven as well as an outdoor fireplace by and by. To that end we did the whole foundation and slab work at one time. 13 yards of concrete which was poured from the mixer truck and then into the bucket of our front end loader and shuttled a bucket at a time to the site. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get home in the daylight hours. Our days now feel like they are about 30minutes long. The plan currently is to try to have the table ready so we can work on the dome over the Thanksgiving break. So now for the question (thanks for your patience) It seems to be difficult to get the Refrax mortar. We're in Georgia and there's not really any place to get it. We talked to a dealer in Florida and were told they didn't have it in stock and weren't sure when it would be in. And then there would still be the cost of shipping... ( still waiting for the question, huh?) In one of the threads I saw Heatstop 50 mentioned as being an option. We are able to locate that product. Also I guess mixing our own is an option. What are the tradeoffs? How much is the use of any of these options going to effect the function of the oven in the end?

Thanks a bunch!