Newbie Help: I can't find the plans I want - Large Rocket Stove 55,000 BTU

Hello,

I have been surfing the site for years. However, the plans/projects I find don't exactly suit my needs.

The goal is to boil large amounts of water for canning and brewing beer. If I want to bring 50 gallons of water to a boil within ~60 minutes I need 55k BTU. The plan could be reduced to 10 gallons of water for a test run.

I'm considering casting a refractory in a 30 or 55 gallon drum. I'd use forms and pour perlite/concrete mix around it. The entire refractory would be encapsulated in the barrel. This would be super heavy and stable. I figure it would be very efficient and last a long time.

Has anyone done this? Can you provide links to plans? I prefer to learn from other's mistakes instead of my own!

There are a ton of tomatoes in our future this year. It'd be great to can outside with a rocket stove instead of heating up the house. We like to play with fire and brew beer too!

Any help is appreciated. My apologies for the noob question...

ß!

You probably want something where the (big) "pot" can be somewhat surrounded by the flue gasses, which are then diverted away.  I'm picturing something like the canner portion of the Lorena, scaled up to the size of the water heater at the shower shack.  

Peek at the Lorena plans and imagine hacking off the cooktop and enlarging the pot:
https://permies.com/t/193727/Plans-Rocket-Cooktop-Lorena-Option

Brent, welcome to the forum!

My first thought was why not build a rocket mass water heater?

Here are some threads that might help you or other folks:

https://permies.com/t/22471/Large-Rocket-Mass-Heater-Boil

https://permies.com/t/27920/Rocket-Heater-Boil-Water

Hi Brent;
You can build a J-Tube or an L- tube rocket as large as you have room and materials for.
Most folks stop at an 8" J-tube but there is no reason you can not build a 10",12" or larger.

As far as casting refractory in a barrel.  If your mix is correct it will work for a while.
Cracking is a common issue with homemade refractory, a vibrating table is needed to get a solid pour.

I would build with heavy firebrick, they also can crack but are much more durable than a casting.