Hans Pelleboer

Stainless steel comes in different grades, some are pretty brittle.
What may have been the trouble is the temperature difference between the water inside
and the flames on the outside. How high up did the fire actually come?

A fundamental issue that I would like to make explicit:
How many hours per day do you, the users of RMHs, actually fire up
your stoves in order to maintain the comfort zone?
Multiple burning sessions or just one long one?

It would be great to gather some numbers from you all and see if there is some general
pattern. Additional information about climate, latitude, c.q. altitude would help, too.

Well,
I do not intend to violate the concept of the RMH, I was just wondering if a highly conductive metal plate
above the inner chimney would be sufficient to build up the required heat gradient, thereby eliminating
the need for a steel barrel. If that amounts to conversion to a masonry stove, then, yes. Trouble is,
I do not know what a masonry stove entails. Could you tell us some more?

Hello,

As I see cob being presented as a viable covering for the drum, I wonder how much of a necessity the metal drum really is.
From other posts I understood that the main function of the barrel is to provide a steep negative heat-gradient to the inner
chimney pipe. Given materials with high emissivity like, for example, bricks, could the outer barrel not be replaced
by a nice, cleanly masoned, brick mantle topped with a metal plate? The plate could couple thermally with the
inner chimney, the bricks radiate gently and would substantially reduce the risk of inadvertently touching hot steel.