Casserole Door - an innovative door for batch box rocket mass heaters

Great job Bob! Really appreciated reading your posts about your experiences with the building and operation of your DSR. Highly recommended to anyone interested in thinking about building one.

Does anyone have updates to share about casserole lid doors? I love the simplicity of this solution but am wary about their longevity and safety.

Some have had no problems and others see them break fairly often. It could be due to the material/brand or those who see breaks might be touching the hot glass with a cold and wet glove which causes thermal shock. As you can find lids used for $5 or less, I would give it a try and see.

My breakages  seemed to be more connected to accidental drops/bumps weakening the structure of the glass and then it was more likely to break when it got hot. I also tried some of the flatter glass fry pans, and they have a better handle to grab that stays cooler. I never actually broke any of them.

Theoretically, the expansion coefficient of ceramic glass should not pose a hot to cold breaking problem, but i agree that exact quality of random cookware is likely not reliable .

But if you can afford it, buy ceramic glass, and weld up  a more conventional type door, and /or keep on the lookout for an old stove you can salvage a door from.

I finally had afriend weld up a door for me, paid for the real water clear ceramic glass -cut to order- and it is so nice to have a tight latch and easy hinge. That works real well for the DSR2 that I built. A history of my builds