New to Rocket Stoves 4" Beginner Build from Canada.

Actually, colder temperatures (greater temperature differences) make more vigorous rocket stove/RMH function. It can certainly make it less comfortable to do those tests, though

My father used to paint cars and he'd use a gel paint stripper to remove the paint and primer from old cars. Lay it on, wait for it to bubble up, then scrape it off with a putty knife. Any veterans here have experience with trying this on barrels?

Well, i have tried it. But it's complicated now. As the chemicals once allowed into paint stripers, are getting banned slowly. So last attempt didn't work too well on a water heater. To me burning is much simpler.

http://donkey32.proboards.com/thread/989/burning-paint-off-minutes-tops?page=1

I have two different barrels in my system and i did the burn technique and it worked great on the one barrel but just discolored the paint on the other barrel. i tried multiple times and the paint just got dull. i tried sanding and it was the toughest darn paint i had tried to remove so i said the heck with it and finished the rocket stove and painted over it with high heat temp paint. when burning i get no smoke fumes or smell from the stock barrel paint but running the rocket stove at full speed the barrel paint in the highest heat areas (over 1000+ F cherry red) has curled a bit and i have been sanding those parts and repainting with high temp paint. so i guess it depends on what your barrel is painted with will determine if the burn will remove the stock paint or not.