Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree And Updates

Hello everyone.

The 2021 Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree was a blast. I got to meet Paul Wheaton, see Chris "Uncle Mud" again, and meet face to face with many of the other builders and some people that were interested in the Liberator Rocket Heaters we produce. I also got to see and test the Gamera Rocket Heater, a well built stove, hands on and in person. It was an excellent time, even if I was only able to stay for a couple days. I look forward to attending the next Rocket Mass Heater Jamboree as well. I got to fire up Pauls Rocket Mass Heater in the Fisher-Price House, and it was a very inspirational moment. I always knew that 8" core rocket mass heaters were good, but I didn't grasp how much better they were until I experienced it in person. There is a bright future to be had in this regard.


Whilst I'm thinking about it, I wanted to give out some updates as to whats been happening on our end. Some of you guys may already be familiar with the Gen 2 Liberator Rocket Heater from the video's that Chris "UIncle Mud" has published, linked below. This heater has been in development for a long time (some, including myself, would say too long) but the wait has been worth it. Linked here is Muds Video


The first bit of news is that we're introducing a second generation Liberator Rocket Heater. And, just like the previous Gen 1 Liberator Rocket Heater, we're fully building code compliant to UL-1482, ULC-S627, and additionally, ASTM-E-1509 for pellets. However, we received a lot of helpful feedback on the drawbacks of that design, particularly the lack of insulation on the combustion chamber and riser. So for this heater, we decided to include ceramic refractory fiberboard insulation into the design, a removable cooktop plate to facilitate easier cleaning and maintenance, we nixed those old ugly cooling fins that reduced efficiency, and now offer custom paint colors. A replacement fireglass door for the Gen 2 is something we would like to introduce next year. And I can testify, the insulation went a long way towards improving the burn! the EPA certified testing lab concluded their emissions test results on the Liberator Gen 2 Rocket Heater this week, and we have the third cleanest burning room heater in the world. So we get the bronze medal. At 0.38 grams per hour of solid particulate, we're barely behind a catalytic stove and an electric pellet stove. Not bad for a gravity fed non-catalytic rocket heater with a 4" core! This is actually much better than I had originally hoped for. The test results are provided below. These test results also vindicate every rocket mass heater builder and espouser, that has battled for years to get the recognition and respect they and this technology deserves. Henceforth, anytime some particularly negative person wants to say "If rocket stoves we're so great. . . ." We all can just point to these test results, and show them the proof.


The second bit of news is that we've been renovating a new factory to keep up with the high demand. This has been a long process, taking far longer than we had originally hoped for. But the progress is coming along, and we're almost finished. Attached below is a before and after picture. We've hired a few new helpers to speed up production, along with acquiring some new machines.

This has been quite the journey thus far.


We will be accepting pre-orders again soon. Demand has been very high, so I don't think they will be available again for a while after we fill these backorder slots. Also, we made a new website, rocketmassheater.com. Please let us know what you think, and dont hold back on the criticism!


I've also attached a PDF of Liberator Gen 2 Rocket Heater's owners manual, which covers installation, and may be of use to someone thinking about building a rocket heater, or might be of interest for their considerations.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you have any thoughts, criticisms, requests, recommendations, ideas for an improved version, or etc. that comes to your mind I'd be elated to hear them.

Cool! Keep up the good work!

T Blankinship wrote:Cool! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Blankinship. We will continue to provide updates here as things come our way. If you have any suggestions or questions at all, feel free to ask.

Has anyone hooked one of these Liberators up to a brick bell combustion chamber? If so, please provide any details on dimensions, connections, and results.

C Lungpin wrote:Has anyone hooked one of these Liberators up to a brick bell combustion chamber? If so, please provide any details on dimensions, connections, and results.

I know that these heaters have been integrated into thermal mass. I'm unaware if a brick bell chamber has been used with this heater or not.

This is great stuff.

The fact there really hasn't been much improvement in wood burning technology, sold on the public market, in decades has long bothered me.  Even some of the antique stoves did better than a lot of the units sold in the past several decades.

When I lived in Bridgeport, Washington, around the early 70's, I was renting an old, two story farm house with no insulation. We stayed warm in it thanks to an old, brown, ceramic coated cord wood stove. We did it on only about a cord of wood over the winter.

Later, after moving to the coast, friends there would brag about ONLY burning four cords of wood to heat their well insulated and sealed homes.  STRANGE and SAD.

I've known about rocket stoves and units designed so the stack temps burned off a lot of what would have been wasted and tossed into the air and wondered why more manufacturers haven't figured out A LOT OF PEOPLE want efficient stoves, EVEN if it means less in the way of pretty, cute or contemporary appearances.

Sky, I recently got to help with a RMH build with Uncle Mud, here in Massachusetts, which used one of your Liberator Rocket Heaters. Pretty spiffy.

A quick look at your website (so far) and I think the "details" page needs an edit. There's bullet points at the top about the Liberator, then a picture of a conventional wood stove, then numbered points which seem to duplicate, but not fully, the bullet points above... then there's some text about the conventional stove...
So, it is confusing. I suggest, to keep the bullet points, delete the number points, and move WS photo to correct location?

Kelly Craig wrote:This is great stuff.

The fact there really hasn't been much improvement in wood burning technology, sold on the public market, in decades has long bothered me.  Even some of the antique stoves did better than a lot of the units sold in the past several decades.

You would think we would have progressed from the Russian stove in the hundreds of years since,  but alas, no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_stove

Sandy
Edit: I did not mean to say that technology has not progressed, only that the stoves on the market are not better now what we have had in the past, We are just now getting one RMH commercially available.   I was agreeing with Kelly's anecdote about his experience using an old stove working much better than new ones.  I apologize for any miscommunication.

S,

What did they do for a riser?  What is it insulated with?  How high of temps did they get?  Smokeless?