thomas rubino

Hi all, for the first 48 years of my life, I have lived with a traditional wood-burning stove.
All of them were metal box stoves of different makes.
When getting firewood for these stoves, I looked for the tallest, largest-diameter trees I could find, predominantly Douglas Fir and Western Tamarack (Larch).
In my teen years, we could still find old-growth larch. no bark, no branches, all grey colored, known as Buckskin larch. Usually 2-3' in diameter, easily over 100' tall, with up to two full cords per tree!
Solid dense wood, that was the best of the best!  When splitting these rounds, each chunk was split only enough to fit through the wood stove door; the bigger, the better. As with all box stoves, they were run partially shut down, virtually day and night, from September to May.  Clouds of noxious smoke and vast amounts of wood are needed.
We also always have had a wood cook stove in the kitchen; its wood needed to be split all the way down to 2-3" chunks to facilitate easy starting and hot burning.
These cook stoves are generally run wide open and require smaller pieces of wood. (not to mention the tiny size of the firebox.)
Wood for the cook stove was split "as needed." No one wanted to pre-split wood that far, until they had to...

Then, in 2013, I built our first J-Tube in Liz's art studio (the Studio dragon).  An awesome, incredible stove design that was run wide open at all times.
The wood, of course, needed to be split down to 2-3" to allow the Dragon to roar.  Yes, with an 8" J-Tube I could fit a 5-6" round in the feed tube, but the fire performance suffered, and barrel top temps dropped several hundred degrees.
Switch back to the smaller wood, and the Dragon roared  
We have two different wood sheds, one is strictly for Liz's art studio. It holds apx 5 cords of wood.  All the wood for it is split down to "cook stove" size.
Our other wood shed is much larger, holding 8-10 cords. Its wood is for our house, my shop, and the Walker Black and white oven in our outdoor kitchen (AKA The Smoke Shack)  
Until 2024, that wood was left as large as possible because our home still had the original box stove.
My shop stove is a 7" Batchbox; the larger chunks intended for the house needed to be split smaller.
Batchboxes do have a large door, and you can toss larger pieces in than the old J-Tubes could take.
But I quickly noticed that output temps fell if I used larger wood.
In 2024, in my 100-year-old log cabin, Gerry and I built the first Shorty Core Batchbox in the USA.
With her huge viewing window, you can sit and look down the throat of the dragon (an awe-inspiring sight!)
It was glaringly obvious that you wanted only cookstove-sized wood to produce the most heat.
Unlike a box stove, which you never ever load with small wood and run wide open!
Unless you prefer a glowing red stove and chimney pipes with all your heat racing up and out of the chimney.

Having somehow survived, I have now reached the Gilded years (always heard them called the golden years... They lied!)
I no longer go up in the woods to cut firewood. Now I have a long load of logs delivered directly to my field.
12-15 cords per load. My logger offers me a choice: I can get large wood, or I can get the tops.
They smile when I always ask for the little wood, since most folks still believe their $ 3,000 Blaze King stove is the best, but it needs the larger wood so they can run it shut down...
Needless to say, I get a better price on my load than the other guy.

Yes, even with tops, it takes longer to split down for use as Dragon chow.
But when the house's wood consumption drops from 3-plus cords to perhaps 1.5 cords, you do not have nearly as much time involved.

The Bottom line with RMHs: bigger is definitely not better; smaller wood burns hotter and more efficiently.

Hot tubs do not get nearly hot enough; most run below 104F.
Fill it, heat it, use it, and drain it, all over one weekend.
There used to be a "snorkel stove" wood burner sold specifically for hot tubs.
Will a rocket stove work?
Yes, probably, but your stratification chamber would need to be small, or it will stall on you.
How long would it take??? I'm guessing quite a while (many hours)
Perhaps simply putting your tank on a stand and building a fire underneath might be quicker.

Hi Jjuk;
I was just looking at your numbers on the six-inch J-Tube
I see an issue, you have the covered portion of the burn tunnel at 450mm (18") (This should be 10-12" (250mm-300mm)
The total length of the burn tunnel is 750mm (29.5"). (This one should be no more than 24" ( 600mm)

I tried this myself many years ago.
Here is what happened.
My J-Tube roared; I was very happy.
For about 3 months... and then in the middle of a Montana winter, she started acting sick.
Just not burning as it had been. I was beside myself, it is the middle of winter in northern Montana...
I had no choice but to pick a day that was marginally warmer and open her up in the middle of winter!
What I found required a partial rebuild (OH SHIT) !!!

This is when I discovered just how wonderful working with clay mortar is!
Bricks just pop apart with a rubber mallet; the mortar goes in a bucket to be rehydrated and reused.

What had happened was (unknown to me) an incomplete burn, but you sure could not tell that for the first 2 months of operation!
Ash buildup had plugged my transition area and almost all of my piped mass!
That all needed to be vacuumed or blown out; and the burn tunnel roof had to be shortened to 10" (250mm).
Once I did that (and it only took four hours!), my J-Tube Dragon was back roaring around our mountain valley, and she stayed that way for the next six years, until I replaced her with my first Batchbox!

Try contacting Matt at Walker Stoves.
https://walkerstoves.com

He may know if someone is currently offering these.

Hi Matthias;
No, the angle-cut bricks on the floor are not required.
I do not use them in my stoves.

I use a short handle scoop and pull ashes to the front.
I use my gloved hand to pull any ash from the port.
Inside the riser, I use a vacuum.

Shorty does use a bypass high in the bell until it is warmed up for the season.

Hey Scott;
Next, try using slimy mud between each brick and then coat the whole outside with mud; it will work even better.
Clay bricks will work fine.
If you try concrete, beware that it will crack or even burst if the wrong materials get superheated.

This is an L-Tube design; you must keep pushing your fuel into the fire.
Play some more with bricks and try out a J-Tube.
After you try that, then get firebricks and try out a Batchbox...
And before you know what hit you, you will have caught the RMH bug...
After that, you may find you are an apprentice Rocket scientist.

Check it out, a few blows with an 8# sledge, and the smoke shack is back in place!
The door works, but I still need to repair the Walker chimney before I can fire up the oven.
I will do a real repair on the building later this summer.
Back in business, I cooked lunch for the kids out there today

Oh My Gosh, all sorts of damage or injuries could have happened.
The smoke shack, just sitting back in place, was amazing!
The seriously strong roof with light-gauge tin that was hardly damaged.
Had I built this with rebar, it would have been much worse.

Oh yes, the boys were all bombarded with many thanks.

John, I just do not believe that for a minute:)

The boys showed up this morning, and two hours later, the tree was on the ground!
No problems, and most importantly, no one was hurt, and nothing new was damaged.
Once the tree was off the smoke shack, it moved right back close to where it belongs, with no holes in the tin and only a couple of wrinkles in the metal itself!
Once the weather warms up, I will jack each corner up and add new cement. Perhaps I will add a steel strap at each column for extra strength.