The settings, scale and geometry of lab facilities to simulate enhanced recovery methods play a significant role in the approximation of underground conditions of oil fields. The reliability more or less of the best replication of these conditions is a question of the reservoir engineer when forecasts are made for cases when enhanced recovery methods are applied. This paper presents the results of two experiments carried on in a steam flooding tube facility adding clay in one of them to assess the influence in temperature growth and production rates and onset times of a highly viscous oil field of the Tatarstan Republic. The results of the runs show that 4% (by weight) of clay content in the porous media has a strong effect on the overall oil recovery, reducing the temperature growth rate in average 73% when steam stimulation methods are used.