tristan corgni

Thanks again for your support and for the France advices :). I was able to find thick barrels on leboncoin but they are not a lot and often far away. I scavenged old water heater with round and rather thick round reservoir inside but they are too small for a RMH project, I'll keep looking !

For now on I think I will experiment with a motor oil barrel, one thing that bother me is that they are really dirty and covered with paint. In the past I made a small rocket stove (barnabé chaillot's onehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6pm-TD0P84) with a recycled gaz bottle and I burned the paint and gaz residues but it's not really eco-friendly... do you have advices on how to clean the barrel without burning the paint/remaining oil without burning and without a lot of work ?

I'm also considering building a batch stove after thomas posts... Seems like they are easier to use, safer and longer lasting... Lots of thinking, reading and internet searchs ahead !

Thanks for the quick and detailed feedback !

I will not go forward with this pipe then.

Ok for the motor oil barrels, in the book it is said that the barrel must be at least 12-gauge thick, that is why I thought it was not suitable. I plan on doing a "test rmh" before building one in my house so I think I will try with this kind of barrel and see by myself.

Thomas, what are the pros/cons of an "all brick" bell ? Walker's stoves seem nice (I guess you are referring to this design http://walkerstoves.com/batch-rocket-mass-heater-plans.html) but also a lot more expensive than the wisners which only requires a few bricks for the jtube + riser chimney (I've made a quotation for 100 refactory bricks, 250€. for the 300 bricks of the walkers that would be 750€!). Also, what are the advantage of a batch rmh ? All designs of batch rmh I've seen so far where made to be built in a garage for boiling water that is then circulating through the house central heating system. The walker's one is the first I see with a bench and that seems to be designed for a living room.

Hi, I think it's my first post but I've been reading a lot on permies for several years now. A big Thank You to the community !

I'm planning the construction of a RMH. I've bought the book "RMH builder's guide" by ernie and erica wisner and I would like to build a heater like the ones in the book.

One of the main issue is that I find it difficult to source the barrel. I live in France and it seems that this kind of barrel is not common here, the closest I can find is motor oil barrels that are way too thin (<1mm).

I recently found a big tube that is 52cm wide (ID) and 2cm thick, and I think it might be good for the RMH, but I'm a bit worried that the extra thickness (in the book it is said that it must be > 12 gauge, which is 2.05mm, so my tube is 10 times thicker) may be a problem.
The first problem I see so far is that it will take more time to heat and to distribute heat quickly via radiation. An other problem might be the dilatation/retractation of the metal.



Do you think I can use this tube for the RMH ? Are the problems above something to be worried about ?

Thanks!