Ron Mills : Welcome to
Permies.com / Richsoil.com, and a Big Welcome to the Rocket And
Wood Heater Forum/Threads, & the
Cob Forum !
To a Man with a hammer all problems are nails, I once had a neighbor with a dump truck who believed all drainage problems could be solved by
'trucking in more Fill'.
With mad welding skills like you have, I can understand Your natural bent to attempt to create a
Rocket Mass Heater RMH out of metal pipe.
Also I am sure that you probably have been exposed to a Few Frankin-stoves on U-Tube !
I am afraid that I have little but bad news for you here ! A iron/steel
RMH will quickly Fail due to the Freaky High Temperatures of its normal
operation and a Condition Called High Temperature Hydrogen Attack, Creating Hydrogen embrittlement!
The
Rocket Stove which does not have the Heat
pump effect of the RMHs well crafted Heat Riser, burns at lower, less efficient Temperatures
and the presence of both trace
Carbon Monoxide and Carbon soot particles also helps preserve the metal from Hydrogen embrittlement but not
the day to day loses due to the metals increased affinity for Oxidation (rust) at its elevated temps!
RMHs with Combustion cores made out of metal are doomed, Rocket stoves much less so, they can even be made out of the larger sized soup
cans and last a few Weeks, but they too will fail!
So you have successfully proved that a
Rocket Mass Heater does work, we just need to find out why yours is not doing better !
Most of Your fellow members responding in these threads are not far removed from where you are right now ! We found that 'reading from the
same book' was our best way to save Time and frustration in communicating with each other, as now most of us are beyond that hurdle we
often just assume you have "The Book'' !
Please, consider going to
Rocketstoves.com to download your PDF Copy of the Brand New 3rd Edition of
Rocket Mass Heaters !
With 100,000 + Rocket Mass Heaters Built World Wide- This is ''The Book''! Most RMHs have been built from the pages of this Book and 95 %
of all the 1st time builds (that worked) were built after an understanding of the core ideas allowed other builders to gather- Knowing that
they were using the same words to describe the RMHs Parts, their sizes, shapes, materials, and the orientation of its parts both to each other,
and to the Whole !
Again,Today Permies is the largest
Permaculture Group in the world with the most active site for RMH exploration, When a new member comes
here most of your fellow members will assume you have read "The Book"! This one step will greatly improve communication and save time,
frustration, and money from understanding what are the right parts and where to 'source' them !
With as simple a horizontal run as you have shown in the last picture a well built vertical chimney should provide all the draft that you need !
A very common area for problems often seen is in the transitional area where the rapidly falling exhaust gases are swept into the Horizontal pipe
of the thermal mass, this 90º bend needs to be very generous, located above a deep
Ash pit, and all the curves sweeping gently and gradually
into the 8" opening of the horizontal piping! A hand mirror and a flashlight will let you do a quick check for the internal condition of your chimney,
If there is an Outdoor Clean out at the base of the chimney make shut that it is in good condition and air tight !
For the Good of the Craft Big All