FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

If you prefer to take a bath with your partner, friend or alone, a wood-fired bathtub is the best choice since it has fast heating and requires less water than a hot tub, you don't have to plan far in advance when to take a bath. Little effort and the joy of being spontaneous allows you to use it often. Our customers also highlight the minimal maintenance of bathtubs and durability as crucial factors in choosing between a wood-fired bathtub or the bigger hot tub. It should also be added that our customers value the design as well! And that makes us very happy.

No, no danger. The metal in the bathtub never gets hotter than the water. The stove pipe, on the other hand, gets hot, so we have equipped it with a heat protection.

Yes, it is ok because the stove is inside the tub. However, be sure to place it on sturdy, load-bearing joists - the tub filled with water and bath can weigh around 850kg. 

Also make sure to prepare where the water will be released after a bath.

If the water takes on a yellowish-brown tone after the first bath: empty the tub and clean it thoroughly. On delivery, the tub's wooden details are oiled with raw linseed oil, which is washed out under water. The oil in combination with the wood's natural pigments can slightly color the water, something that diminishes with each use. Therefore, do not leave water in the tub after use for the first few baths.

Please note! Natural pigments can release from the oak interior and frame when the tub is new, even before it has been filled with water the first few times.It can cause discoloration under the tub if it is placed on a light surface, such as light-colored tiles or a light-colored wooden deck. Our recommendation is therefore to place the tub on a non-damaging surface the first few times the tub is filled with water to ensure that no discoloration occurs.

Bohemen has two connections on the back , it is so that you can direct the water to a sand filter and lead fresh water back into the tub. See how to do the installation in the Bohemen manual

Water filtration placed over the edge of the tub is available, if you want to use the same water for a whole week. The filter removes particles and debris but not bacteria, for that you need to add salt tablets. Do not use chlorine in the water as it may discolor the aluminium. Hikki does not sell filters but they are available at spa shops. 

How can I treat the water in the Bohemen without using chlorine?

Bohemen is made from marine-grade aluminium (alloy 5754) with a wooden interior. When the tub is new, the aluminium surface is shiny and more sensitive to corrosion. For that reason, we recommend that you do not keep the same water for more than 2 days during the first year – even if you use water treatment.

Over time, aluminium develops a natural oxide layer that protects it from corrosion – especially when it is exposed to outdoor weather while dry. This gives it both a characteristic look and long-term durability.

If you wish to keep the same water longer than 2 days, it must be continuously circulated through a filter pump to prevent discolouration on the submerged aluminium and to keep the water clean.

💧 If you don’t have circulation (max 2 days):

• Use a mild, chlorine-free disinfectant (e.g. active oxygen or MyWater Spa Cleaner)
• Dose according to instructions for 500–600 litres
• Remove debris manually with a net or strainer
• Try to keep pH between 7.0 and 7.4
• Always shower before bathing to help keep the water fresh
• Drain the tub after max 2 days, especially when new

🔁 If you have a circulation pump (max 7 days):

• Use active oxygen + activator (e.g. SpaCare Oxybox) or bromine tablets in a floating dispenser (e.g. Planet Spa Brom Tabs)
• Let the water circulate for several hours each day
• Clean the filter as needed and maintain pH 7.0–7.4
• Always shower before bathing
• Watch for white spots or signs of discolouration on the metal
• Drain the tub after max 7 days

🌊 If you use lake or seawater

Natural water contains more microorganisms. We recommend you drain the tub immediately after each use if you fill it with lake or seawater.

🧼 Aftercare for the wooden interior:

• Clean the wooden parts thoroughly with soap and a stiff brush
• Let the wood dry slowly in a cool, dark space – preferably an unheated storage room
• After cleaning: Avoid drying wet wooden parts in direct sunlight or warmth, as this may cause cracks

🛠 Tips:

• Use water treatment sparingly and follow dosing instructions carefully
• Make sure the product is compatible with aluminium
• When in doubt – drain and refill with fresh water
• When not in use, leave the tub empty and dry outdoors to allow the aluminium to build its natural protective surface

In two ways: not at all , or with crude linseed oil at regular intervals. If you do not oil the oak, it will eventually have a beautiful silver-gray color, and with oiling it retains its brownish-yellow color.

Your bathtub's interior is oiled with raw linseed oil upon delivery to you. It is entirely on your own responsibility if you want to try another vegetable oil. Remember to wipe off any oil that get on the aluminium as it can cause stains if allowed to dry. Clean the wooden interior with soapy water and a soft brush.

Allow the interior to dry completely before you apply oil. Make sure to oil the end wood of the wooden ribs thoroughly. The humidity depends on where in the country you live. You've probably gained an insight into it by seeing how the growth of organisms is on for example your outdoor furniture. You can grind away dark spots that occur on the interior of your bathtub and then apply oil. Some customers prefer that the wooden interior have a rustic character and if so, do not use any oil. Then it becomes completely silvery gray over time.

About 1,5 hours in summer and 2,5 in winter. If you use the accesoires Vinterpäls and Eldvakt, you shorten the heating time in winter by about 30%.

If you start with a water temperature of about 8 degrees it takes around 80-90 minutes. That's from spring to autumn. Winter time from 4-degree water takes about 120 – 140 minutes. It is good to use the accesoire Eldvakt and Vinterpäls to shorten the heating time. 

We have bathed when it has been-20 degrees without any problems, but you should wear a hat.

You need around 30 liters (10 kg) of firewood for a bath during the warmer season, a sack of firewood of the kind you find out in the shops. Wood from hardwood works best, preferably high quality dry birch wood.

Stir in the water at regular intervals while heating the tub. Measure the temperature with a bath thermometer. Stop fire when you have reached about 36 degrees and keep the fire at a level that maintains the heat. If it gets too hot, you can close the air supply to the stove. A comfortable bathing temperature is about 40 degrees. It's a good idea to use the stick for Bohemen when stirring the tub.

Yes there is cover for Bohemen in strong and durable marine textiles. 

The cover Regntyg prevents falling leaves, debris and rainwater from ending up in the bathtub. Regntyg is made of heavy-duty marine textile that is water- and dirt repellent. The cover is held in place by velcro at the corners and sides and the hexagonal wooden stick that holds the Bohemen backrest in place making a ridge when threaded through the cover, causing the water to drain instead of collect in puddles.

You connect a hose to the flange of the tap hole and divert the water to the appropriate drain. Check with your municipality what is best suited where you live. If you have your wood-burning bathtub on the countryside, you can let the water out on the lawn or drag the water to a ditch.

Find instructions how to attach a hose to the taphole in the Bohemen manual

Bohemen is easy to move if you want to take your bath somewhere else. Remove all equipment from the tub to make it easier. Two people can easily carry an aluminum bathtub for a shorter distance. You can hardly do that with a hot tub!

It is of course possible to use it during the winter. If you want to winter store the tub, remove all loose parts. Oil the wooden frame with for example teak oil. Wipe off any spillage that drip on the aluminium. Lay out two rough wooden rails on the ground and place the tub upside down on them. Make sure that air can flow between the wooden frame of the tub and the ground. Oil the visibly exposed wood-edge of the tub. If you put a tarpaulin over the tub, you must not make a dense environment around it, it must be airy.

Clean and oil the interior after it has dried. Preferably store it in a cold storage room.

We want the bathtubs to be easy to move and able to age developing their own beautiful character over the years. Over time, scratches and stains merge with the surrounding surface. Aluminium is attacked by oxidisation and when attacked, it forms a protective layer with the effect that the aluminum gets self-healing. Clean your wood-burning tub with soap and use only soft cloths or sponges that cannot scratch the plate.

At certain times during the year there is higher growth on wood than normal. This can vary greatly between different places in the country where you live. When the humidity is high and the sun is warming on top of the cover of your bathtub, condensation can form inside the bathtub. Especially if the interior is already damp after previous baths. If you have problems with mold formation on your interior. Make sure your interior is dry before putting on the cover. We treat the wood with raw linseed oil to make it a non-toxic environment for those who bathe. Because raw linseed oil does not contain anti-mold, black mold develops more easily as it is nourished by the linseed oil.

Black mold on wood is completely harmless. However, it can look unpleasant and you have three choices:

1. Do nothing

The wood will turn gray over time and the black mold will fade away during the process. 

When oak is new, it easily becomes stained and ugly outdoors. But it is a temporary problem. And nothing that can cause health problems. An easy way to make the interior look beautiful over time is to let it fade from the weather and wind. Wash the interior with soap after bathing. Place the interior on a wooden plank against a wall where the sun shines on it. Leave it there when not in use. Over time, the wood gets a beautiful and fine silver patina.

If you find that the wood becomes rough over time, you can gently sand away the fibers that rise on the surface with a fine sandpaper. However, it may happen that more cracks occur in the wood when you do not oil it.

2. Scrape away

Remove with a scraper and do as the pictures below show. However, be very careful not to cut yourself. Make sure the wood is completely dry before scraping it.

3. Use vinegar, organic soap or anti-mold treatment

Black mold	Take a new blade
Make sure you tilt the blade so that you scrape and not cut the surface	Scrape off the black mold - it may take some work
The roots of the black mold go down a little into the wood, but keep scraping and you will get rid of them	In the end you have a surface free of mold! Now you can oil the wood again.

If the water takes on a yellowish-brown tone after the first bath: empty the tub and clean it thoroughly. On delivery, the tub's wooden details are oiled with raw linseed oil, which is washed out under water. The oil in combination with the wood's natural pigments can slightly color the water, something that diminishes with each use. Therefore, do not leave water in the tub after use for the first few baths.

Note! Natural pigments can release from the interior and the oak frame when the tub is filled with water the first few times. It can cause discoloration under the tub if it is placed on a light surface, such as light-colored tiles or a light-colored wooden deck. Our recommendation is therefore to place the tub on a non-damaging surface the first few times the tub is filled with water to ensure that no discoloration occurs.

1. Faster heating
   Think of Eldvakt as the function that a lid has on a pot and how much faster the water heatens if you use a lid.
2. Protects the frame
   Eldvakt's plate protects the frame against burns. Please note that burns on the wooden frame do not normally occur if you follow the instructions in the quick guide and if you keep the lid on the stove at all times when having a fire in the stove.
3. Protects against debris and leaves when heating the water

Lots of things! Pizza, bread, gratins, steaks and slow cooker - basically everything you can do in a regular oven. But Faster Greta is not only a baking oven, the lower part is also a grill. So when the fire has burned down, you simply push in the included grill grate and take care of the embers!

It depends on what to cook, but we usually say about an hour to get up to a good pizza temperature. There are also nice thermometers to buy that you can set in the oven part if you want a detailed check of the heat.

Faster Greta is made to stand free outdoors. We have many customers who use it on the terrace, but it is at your own risk. If you place it on the terrace, you should think about laying paving stones or concrete slabs underneath (4 pcs 50x50cm), and always have it well insulated around Faster Greta as it emits radiant heat, on all sides. Common sense and caution should prevail.

It works great as a fireplace! Start by removing both doors before firing. Sitting around a crackling fire with good friends on a cold autumn evening is magical. With our baking oven Faster Greta, there will simply be more time for outdoor enjoyment in autumn and winter.

No, on the contrary. Because it is made of corten steel, it can withstand being outside all year round, in all kinds of weather. The only thing you basically need to do is empty the stove part from coal and soot a little now and then, and brush the stones in the oven part with a wire brush when they get dirty.

It is not difficult, but it requires two people. The first thing you do is remove all loose parts - doors, stones, plates, etc. Then you lift it in the round bars that sit on each side. Once the corten steel has gained its patina, it colors easily, so wear clothes that are durable.

Newly made corten steel is gray and shiny. If the corten steel is contained outdoors, it will change color to reddish brown before it darkens even more. It is the effect of rain and moisture that gives the steel its rusty surface and depending on the surrounding conditions, this normally takes about 1-5 weeks.

During the first year, while the rust layer is being formed, the product can leave stains of rust on other materials that come into contact with the steel, for example on wood. This can be brushed off with a metal brush.

After approximately 1 year will the corten steel hardly emit rust anymore

About 3-4 times a year. It depends on the climate where you live, so you have to keep an eye on it.

Brush the oven with rapeseed oil or raw linseed oil (raw linseed oil can be a bit stickier than rapeseed oil). When you have oiled it, you heat up the oven so that the oil etches on. Then it will become like a film on the steel.

If you do not use Faster Greta for a longer period, you can wrap the oven in a tarpaulin.

Yes – our outdoor oven Faster Greta is completely legal to use outdoors in Germany. It is not subject to the German regulation for small-scale wood burning (1. BImSchV), because it:

• is only used outdoors,
• is not permanently installed,
• is not used as a substitute for heating.

Its use is comparable to a barbecue or an open fire pit in the garden. According to the German Environment Agency, no national emission limits apply to such products, as long as they do not regularly cause smoke disturbances for neighbours.

Source: Umweltbundesamt – Holzfeuer im Garten, senast uppdaterad 2023

Newly made corten steel is gray and shiny. If the corten steel is contained outdoors, it will change color to reddish brown before it darkens even more. It is the effect of rain and moisture that gives the steel its rusty surface and depending on the surrounding conditions, this normally takes about 1-5 weeks.

During the first year, while the rust layer is being formed, the product can leave stains of rust on other materials that come into contact with the steel, for example on wood. This can be brushed off with a metal brush.

After approximately 1 year will the corten steel hardly emit rust anymore

Newly made corten steel is gray and shiny. If the corten steel is contained outdoors, it will change color to reddish brown before it darkens even more. It is the effect of rain and moisture that gives the steel its rusty surface and depending on the surrounding conditions, this normally takes about 1-5 weeks.

During the first year, while the rust layer is being formed, the product can leave stains of rust on other materials that come into contact with the steel, for example on wood. This can be brushed off with a metal brush.

After approximately 1 year will the corten steel hardly emit rust anymore

Basically nothing. As Lillhälla is made of corten steel, it can withstand being outside all year round. So the only maintenance you need to do is empty it of ash and clean the grill grate a little now and then.

Yes, it works really well!

Yes you can. But rather see it as a movable fireplace in your garden. It is made of 3 mm corten steel and weighs almost 20 kilos, so you do not take with you on an excursion.

Bohemen has a stove inside the tub - so no open fire. If you do not know what applies to wood burning, contact your municipality's environmental and building office to find out what applies exactly where you live. Describe how you intend to fire. Keep in mind that the smoke from wood burning can be annoying to neighbors.

Wood and other types of bioenergy are renewable energy sources that are part of the natural cycle. Biofuels, usually wood, are renewed within a foreseeable time and when they burn, carbon dioxide that goes out via the flue gases is released. The forest grows and uses carbon dioxide to build up new biomass and the carbon cycle is closed.

Read more about firewood and wood burning in the excellent book "Ved" (available in Swedish) by author Lars Mytting.

Yes, it works splendidly. Examples of websites that sell these products:

Briquettes- Jula

Eco heat logs- Amazon

Faster Greta is a wood-burning oven suitable for all kinds of outdoor cooking. You can slow cook, bake bread, bake pizza or prepare gratin in the oven while grilling tasty accessories over the embers in the lower opening. Gömsle is specifically developed for baking thinner bread and pizza and reaches higher temperatures than Faster Greta.

So if you want a versatile oven for all kinds of cooking including pizza and which can also be used as a fireplace, Faster Greta is the one you should choose. And if you want to bake the best flatbreads or serve the perfect pizza with a wonderfully crispy base and fluffy edges, Gömsle is the right choice for you.