Swapped from vertical to horizontal feed. No smoke more eficient heat!

Gave up on trying to find help "without a credit card".

using the 9" high feeder tube as a preheater and smoke catch for "ANY" back feed, as I have
sealed it shut all the way around. I went to a 2 inch high block off the base to hold coals and
feed horizontally = Absolute steady flow, No smoke, and twice the heat on top now.

I could never get my horizontal flowing enough without a vertical stack. That's also gone and hard
to touch the horizontal exhaust. I haven't cobbed all of the thermal engine or any of the exhaust
until I was sure I had good heat and flow. Will be adding the foot-foot and a half cobbing all around
now!

About as easy to feed as the vertical, but took away half the guessing.

Let alone wasting all that money on swapping different tin and pipe sizes, to figure out the smoke back!
I am a steel worker, scrounging for every hour pay I can get, and needing every dime I can muster, in
this greedy corrupt time, to just keep shelling out money aimlessly, on guess work.

Hope this helps a bunch looking for help having had to aimlessly guess like I did.

Need help? I'll give you all I can and sites I found. I won't leave you hanging, either.
AND "No Credit Card First. FREE or return a favor.

Happy New Year!

I just took a look at your post from yesterday and it sounds like you are using steel for your feed tube, is that right? If so, a lot of people have had issues with smoke-back trying to do that. This is why all the books and plans suggest using brick or clay/cob for your feed tube. A horizontal feed will help by reducing the competing chimney effect due to the absorbed heat in the steel, but you have to constantly monitor the burn since it becomes much more likely that the fire will burn up the sticks and spread the fire outside of the feed tube. The point of the J Tube is to make sure that the fire always stays contained and a horizonatla feed removed that safety feature. I'm glad it works for you, but it should not be recommended, IMO. Have you tried using bricks for your feed tube?

Thanks for replies. Nice to meet you both.

My system starts all brick, like so many seen, and is 4.5" dia. I then
have a 6" steel riser, 11 3/4 tin insulating cover, with vermiculite/slip
insulation, a 40" high propane bell with removable top that is lipped
and sealed with fiberglass rope

(Yes, I smoke checked the top for leakage. Don't see minute leakage,
through the rope fibers at this seal, as a big deal on a down draft system this low on flow.)

Thanks for any future input!

Here are pics on my general combustion area:

G Fischer wrote:Thanks for replies. Nice to meet you both.

My system starts all brick, like so many seen, and is 4.5" dia. I then
have a 6" steel riser, 11 3/4 tin insulating cover, with vermiculite/slip
insulation, a 40" high propane bell with removable top that is lipped
and sealed with fiberglass rope

(Yes, I smoke checked the top for leakage. Don't see minute leakage,
through the rope fibers at this seal, as a big deal on a down draft system this low on flow.)

Thanks for any future input!

Here are pics on my general combustion area:

you need to post the direct link for us to see pictures.

I think these are the images.

Will do "Direct" pic links next time. Thanks.

And Thanks, Burra, for pulling them up correctly.
I listed the post on Newbie Greeting in Rocket Stoves with the specs
to my system, if anyone could help me figure out any possible problem
spots, we'd really appreciate it.

I plan on trying many different variations this spring, to find a favorite
style or best/steady running.

Thanks, Guy

I built one out in my yard using a 40 gallon propane tank which I cut the top and bottom off of, and then cut the guts out of it until it was empty.
I took a 12 inch ring about 7" wide that was left over from my gasification stove build and place it in the front and built a chamber out of bricks about 2' deep and 18" wide,
At the back i placed a stove pipe 90* attached to about 2" of vertical pipe I placed the Steel tank over the top of the pipe, resting on the block, and put one end of the tank upside down in the top acting like a bowl. I took a scrap piece of the vent pipe in the bottom to replicate the exhaust vent for a thermal mass bench, then sealed it with clay dirt.
That thing works awesome!!It's not even 100% sealed.
The flame shoots straight up on the bottom of the steel bowl which gets incredibly hot! Now I plan to coil copper and insulate it with Cob then run water through it. It should heat the water pretty well! I like this design the best of all I have seen yet, because you can walk away from it for a couple of hours, I put whole logs in it. The smaller ones are too needy, requiring constant attention, their worse than a puppy!
I'm just playing with it now, I just wanted to see if it worked like everyone said, IT DOES!!!