pre-burning barrel.

I did not pre-burn my barrel. I didn't consider the paint and questioning if these shipping barrels are galvanized. It was previously used to ship maple syrup.
Is this a problem? taking it out now to burn it safely would be impossible as it's bricked in

Hi Anomika;
Let me see if I understand correctly.
So you built an RMH and used a painted barrel.
Have you built a fire in this yet?
Is the painted barrel part of a home cast riser?
Or is the painted barrel overtop of your riser?


If you used a painted barrel to build a home cast fireclay/perlite riser and the painted barrel is completely in the exhaust path, then it will not be all bad.
The painted portion will not get severely hot and burn the paint.  It may smell bad outdoors the first few times things get hot. I would expect that to stop after a short time.


If the painted barrel is over a riser and you simply bricked around that barrel to hide it from view in your home, then you have what could be a big problem.
The barrel is going to get plenty hot enough to burn that paint.  If your brick surround is not 100% airtight then your house will receive all sorts of nasty smells that no doubt are hazardous to your health.  

The second case. I have a barrel over my riser like the standard rocket build. and it is bricked instead of cobbed. The good news is that it is outside, but in near proximity to my windows and other peoples breathing area.
There is 1 and 1/2 barrels inside the bricked area. Neither have been pre-burned. See attached photo.

Anomika;  
Very nice looking first build!
You will have to try it and see if it is bad smelling or not.
The fact that it is outdoors makes this much better.
I assume you used concrete mortar to build with.
Worst case if it smells bad, will be removing enough brick to access the barrels.

I had 2 small burns already and didn't smell anything. not sure it got hot enough to burn off. How long do you think it would take to burn off with this set up? The second barrel might never burn off as I can touch the top during a burn. I mean it's outside. If i pre-burn it, i would be outside too. Although, I would ware a vapor mask because i love my PPE.