Author Topic: Rocket Stove (Read 1537 times)

Cornbelt · « **on:** November 01, 2011, 01:32:36 AM »

Anybody ever see one of these in action? Care to comment on their use?
http://www.stovetec.net/us/index.php

The video doesn't show the stove till the 3 minute mark, but it looks pretty interesting and simple.

blind ear · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2011, 08:19:13 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uh2VExcdbY

tacklebury · « **Reply #2 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:27:33 PM »

Nope, looks neat though.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #3 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:32:04 PM »

Thanks for the link, blind ear. Whole bunch of interesting stuff there.

RemingtonMagnum · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:48:55 PM »

Hi Friends

Go back to YouTube and click in Rocket Stove/Heater you will find a huge amount of information. Study Study and Study more before you start. It is fun and exceptionally efficient. Also research Thermal Mass heating.

Don Jackson Remington Magnum/Ultramag

powderman · « **Reply #5 on:** November 01, 2011, 04:24:46 PM »

Thanks for the links, very interesting. I'd never heard of them before. POWDERMAN.

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #6 on:** November 02, 2011, 01:41:58 AM »

with that open draft im sure it gets hot but id bet it eats wood too.

blind ear · « **Reply #7 on:** November 02, 2011, 07:04:11 AM »

Quote from: Lloyd Smale on November 02, 2011, 01:41:58 AM

with that open draft im sure it gets hot but id bet it eats wood too.

Thermal mass/heat sink is the key in home heating. For cooking the transfer if heat to the vessel is what counts. The same can be done with conventional stoves/heaters if stove design, heater design is correct.

The main point of the rocket stove is to eleminate as much "smoke that harms health in third world countries" as possible. Doing so by extream high burn temps. ear

jlwilliams · « **Reply #8 on:** November 02, 2011, 07:53:09 AM »

That looks liek a great craft project to build with a scout troop. That way we can build a few and have a bunch of kids test it thoroughly. Teach them a skill and get the process ironed out.

tacklebury · « **Reply #9 on:** November 02, 2011, 11:24:36 AM »

Hehe, I ended up watching a bunch of vids on it. Definitely going to make one to test.

Bugflipper · « **Reply #10 on:** November 02, 2011, 08:06:52 PM »

When I was little we would butcher out chickens several times a year. My grandpa made a rocket stove to heat up the cauldron to dunk the chickens in for plucking. It was cinder blocks, but the same design as the brick one linked up. I have one made out of bricks and mud that is pretty well like the one in the video and works pretty good for campfire cooking and plucking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=273u-9HlR1w I also have one made out of cans for camping that works pretty good. It was just made from youtube instructions. If you think about it, pretty much every fireplace with a chimney is a rocket stove. Most of the heat just goes outside. If you put a pot on top you would have one.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #11 on:** November 03, 2011, 03:03:38 AM »

I'd like to apply this to a sorghum cooker, something w/o insulation or thermal mass so it would heat up fast and cool fast when it came time to drain it off.
I'm thinking it would have been a lot easier than laying up blocks and bricks like we did this yr. Took a lot of wood too, and the smoke gave me a headache.

blind ear · « **Reply #12 on:** November 03, 2011, 04:07:53 AM »

Suspend the pan so you can lift it a little and put tin over the heat source and block the intake to the firebox? Just a wild A$$ sugestion. Don't know what I am talking about. ear

Cornbelt · « **Reply #13 on:** November 03, 2011, 04:58:20 AM »

The typical technique is to drown the fire w/a hose and spray the bottom of the pan, then drain it off and refill before the fire comes back.

If we used the same system, the fire would drown much easier being 90% smaller with a rocket stove. With about three of these in line under the pan, we'd have more control over the fire and still be able to drown it easy enough.

Gotta think of something. The sugar shack is all torn down now, but with another year till harvest, we might get a better system. And we have a lot of scroungables.

ShooterSATX · « **Reply #14 on:** November 03, 2011, 02:08:38 PM »

I actually have one in the loft of my cabin...as an emergency tool when needed.

I bought the 'Grover Rocket Stove' and the steel box that goes on top. It is the 'Oven' portion of the kit. To be completely honest, this is a must have for an SHTF situation. It uses very little wood, burns hot and keeps a cast iron skillet going.

Many third world countries prepare all of their meals this way. They vary in materials from clay brick to tin cans but the basic idea is the same.

This has worked for centuries and makes a great means for back-up cooking. It's also fun to do when you get the whole family involved (training them and they don't even know it).

Cheers!

Shooter

mechanic · « **Reply #15 on:** November 03, 2011, 02:14:38 PM »

Kinda' sorta' like the old hobo stove that we make of #10 cans in scouts. It's actually quite efficient, heats quickly and can be fed with anything from straw to twigs. With good dry wood there is almost no smoke.

Ben

bilmac · « **Reply #16 on:** November 07, 2011, 04:06:06 AM »

I hate to be a nay sayer but I think this is all about some youngsters suddenly realizing that their way of life is unsustainable. Guys who have lived their whole lives in a modern house are suddenly deciding that they can build a better stove than what has evolved for a thousand years by people who were using them for practical living.

The cookstoves described on U-Tube are all little more than enclosed campfires. They have huge uncontrollable draft systems and use tiny quantities of very small fuel. As a result you have to tend them continuously, turn your back for 15 minutes and you about have to start over. They also cook right on the flue gasses. So, you can't use them indoors, the smoke is curling right around where you want to work, and your pots turn black.

The heating stoves have almost no firebox where you could put a worthwhile amount of wood and let the stove take care of itself for awhile. A good heating stove will burn all night without tending. They have no way to easily remove ashes, you about have to shut them down to take care of ash disposal. Most of them have long complex gas channels. As woodsmoke travels down chimneys it cools and deposits creosote. When it builds up enough, it will catch fire and probably melt the thin skins these stoves are made of. I don't see any way to take some of these stoves apart to clean the creosote and fly ash that will accumulate in such complex smoke routing.

There is one good book that takes into account all the experience of our ancestors. Wood Stoves How to make and use them, by Ole Wik. There are probably lots of other good books, this book by Wik was published in 1978 by Alaska Northwest Publishing, so it may be hard to hind a copy.

I hate it when guys post and have only negative things to say, but I really think this fad is mostly just a crock.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #17 on:** November 08, 2011, 02:28:20 PM »

That's enough to intrigue me.

tacklebury · « **Reply #18 on:** November 08, 2011, 02:35:50 PM »

Me too Cornbelt. I ask the VFW here to save me some #10 Cans and I got 4 the first day!. I'm gonna assemble a couple of the small ones and test it.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #19 on:** November 08, 2011, 02:49:19 PM »

I'm thinking a crock of boiling crankcase oil on top of the stove under the cookpan with a duct to the firebox and it might sustain itself longer.
At any rate, it won't cost much. Beats darning socks.

ShooterSATX · « **Reply #20 on:** November 10, 2011, 09:55:06 PM »

To be honest, the question was actually asking about Rocket Stoves and this IS the section for Self Sustainable Living. I assume this section implies that most of the questions fielded here are in case of a situation where modern technology has failed or is declining...what to do next. The Rocket Stove is merely another means to cook, plain and simple. Although it may appear cumbersom or some new re-invention of the wheel, it is efficient and effective. In contrast, cooking indoors on a wood stove in the summer would have a direct effect to the indoor temperature.

I for one, welcome any and all suggestions to make my self sustaining potential more efficient. Like it, love it or hate it, your choice.

One of the great things about this country of our is the ability to express our opinions...a right I gave over 20 years of my life to defend.

And now sir, you have mine.

Shooter

bilmac · « **Reply #21 on:** November 11, 2011, 01:34:14 AM »

Cooking outdoors in the summer makes perfect sense, our ancestors for sure did it that way. However if you are staying in one place there are lots of better stove designs. Likewise if you are on the move I think that the space these bulky things require could be better used. The only application I can see for this kind of stove would be in a situation where fuel is scarce like in an alpine environment. But even then most often it is chilly in that environment and I think that some sort of collapsible stovepipe would serve a person a lot better. A chunk of stovepipe could be built into some sort of rock stove to carry smoke away from a sheltered work area.

Bugflipper · « **Reply #22 on:** November 12, 2011, 02:22:42 AM »

Another advantage is they tend to not have visible smoke. That could be a plus in a bad situation if you don't want to advertise. I wouldn't want one inside though. Just because the smoke generally isn't visible doesn't mean all the nasty stuff is not filling the air you are cooped up in.

Cornbelt · « **Reply #23 on:** November 17, 2011, 03:50:22 PM »

Well, I made one out of a gallon paint can, qt. bean can and something in between. It was encouraging enough to consider on a larger scale, like a 55 gal drum. While it did work, I'm guessing a larger one would be more efficient for a bigger job. Not too much smoke, but I'd hate to use one anymore inside than under a roof w/o walls. I eventually filled it all the way up w/charcoal, and it burned from the bottom up. a stove this size is a do-dad, but it worked, and just for the heck of it, I might try a sealed can of wood chips on top w/ a duct into the lower part.
Reminds me of the old salamanders. Smokey to start, smokey to stop, but while running hot have a good downdraft that burns the smoke it draws in. And quite terrible inside a building.