art rocha

hey just wanted to give an update on my heater. I redid the feed tube putting it straight up and down and probably 3/4" closer to the barrel and surrounded it with more perlite. I also raised the barrel up around a 1/4" and it is working way better.  it heats the top plate more evenly and it gets hotter faster than before.  it is drawing great and burning clean only thing I notice is a decent amount of moisture.  thanks again for your help

ok I will try that tomorrow and let you know the effects thanks again have a good one.

ok I thank you very much for your help. I have been testing and tonight I got my 750 square foot garage to 59 degrees and it is 21 outside and only used the amount of wood I would have starting a fire in a barrel stove so I guess I'm headed in the right direction.  I might try insulating with pearlite and mortar mix but not sure as of now. thanks again for your help

sorry for the lack of details and thank you very much for your help.  the dimensions are from the top of burn chamber to top of feed tube, inside the burn chamber from feed tube(barrel side) to riser and inside of riser.  the top of the barrel is one whole piece of plate that bows up a little.  the top does heat up more in the middle maybe 50 degrees difference toward the edges.  the insulation goes to the front of the feed tube (side facing you standing in front) on the sides and bottom but nothing on top.  the perlite is contained in sheet metal made into a box around everything.  as of right now I just have the exhaust running along the rafters and then out through the wall then 90 up for 6 feet and a t with 2 elbows on it.  thanks again for you time.

hey all new to the forum and hope you can help me out.  I know its not recommended to use steel but I have it and am going to use it.  I put the heater together using 5" square tubing for a j tube and using a 55 gallon barrel over it with a 1/4"  top and bottom plate.  I put 2 1/2 inches of perlite around the riser and burn chamber. my feed tube is 10" tall at 22 degree angle, the burn chamber is 14 1/4" and the riser is 32 7/8" tall with 1 3/4 gap at the top. the exhaust is 6".  upon the first few burns it draws great but doesn't heat up very much.  are my dimensions  off or do I just have an insulation issue? hope you can help me out and thanks for you time.