posted 5 hours ago
Hello all Rocket Stove builders!
I am going to share an experince basically for one reason and that is simply to tell the good and bad of my past few seasons of the 7" batch box build.
The good: It worked right out of the gate on the first burn and nearly every burn after, easy to light, easy to clean and it simply worked.
As most of you that may have followed my various suggestions on stove building, I was and still am pretty insistent on building to the KNOWN working numbers. (for both the stove and bell) I don't have any experince with ducted benches thus I never comment on them.
Make no doubt about it, I have relied heavly on the advice of Tom of Dragon Fame. Fox James and his great expriments and of course Peter van den Berg who without him I might be still rubbing two sticks together.
The bad: Late last season during my monthly inspection I noticed a piece of IFB laying on the inside floor of my bell, but all was working well so didn't think much of it, later I found another and this kept going... but all was working so I was only puzzled.
So finally on 9/25/2026 I took off the face plate of my bell, (very easy to make, worth every bit of time to construct, as with it off I can crawl right in if need be)
and what I found was very simple, anything I built with good hard fire brick was perfect, anything I built with IFB (Simon Brand) which was all of the riser and some re-enforcement pieces was simply junk, (cracked, broke, or completely out of place) I doubt I will ever use those again. If I feel something needs extra insulating power, I can always add some of the Mineral wool, or many other product out there that seem to hold up well if this don't have to touch the wood.
I am sure other bricks might stand up better, but I am never going to take the risk again.
So now the really good. Everything is repairable, (replaceable) the bell is in great shape, and the mineral wool inside was good too. With the large face plate this would require reworking the bell to some extent,
WARM regards to all.
10
