Smokey tent stove question

Hello,

I have a question regarding the performance of a camping tent stove that I made.

When the door is open and the fire is not sufficiently hot, a lot of smoke exits the from door, particularly when blowing on the fire either through the mousehole or the front door. I would like to prevent this.

The stove is made from a 20 L jerry can. Please have a look at the photos.

The stove pipe is 1 m in length and 8 cm in diameter. I constructed a rain cover/spark arrestor, also 8 cm diameter,  that sits atop the stove pipe.

Is the door too large or is it’s placement a problem? (Or both?) How can I prevent smoke from exiting?

Thanks for any help!

I removed all paint and galvanization before using the stove by the way.

To be honest I would not have such a fire in such a small tent . The potential for a tent fire or smoke in particular carbon monoxide poisoning are frankly too great for me even to consider it .
I dont think it worth the risk

David  

From what I can see you have a problem with the "draw" required to get the air headed in the right direction. The door needs to be sealed to the can; with the stamping detents and the hinges you will have air flowing OUT of the stove before the flue gets hot enough to draw. Seal the door with fireplace gasket or the like. The door is so large and reaches so high up in the can that it will always be a problem, it should extend no higher than 1/2 way up.

I'm guessing that the "mouse hole" you refer to are the two pie shaped holes on the end of the can. You need to have a way of adjusting them so as to control the inlet air. A wheel with cut outs to match the holes already there that can rotate to close them off would work.

The exit port of the stove pipe is below the top of the can because of the placement of the spout hole. You should probably try to build a ceiling to block off that extra area above the bottom edge of the vent stack.

Always make sure that your flue damper is wide open when starting the stove. And an extra .5 m of flue wouldn't hurt. They make expandable nested flues for camp stoves where each section nests inside the next. You may want to look into something like that.