Can you convert a standerd wood stove to a RMH?

So I’ve been working my way through The Rocket Mass Heater Builder’s Guide by Erica and Erinie Wisner and I would really like to build one of these things some day, but one thing I’ve been thinking as I see so many for sale houses with perfectly good wood stoves is that it seems like such a waste to toss one out.

I’ve seen videos and examples online where it looks like people have adapted an existing woodstove to a rmh, but I don’t understand how that would work given what I’ve read in Erica & Ernie’s book with the firebox-to-heat-riser ratio. Can anybody walk me through how you could use the material in an existing woodstove in a rmh design? Or has anybody thought of any other cool ways to recycle a woodstove after converting?

Well lets see;   You could take them apart and use the metal in your mass...  You could seal them well and use them as a bell... You could sell them to an unenlightened person, and then regale them about RMH... If your boat needed an anchor...
Seriously everybody in the world who burns wood, should do so in a RMH  ITS GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.  But there is always somebody who can't have a rmh and they will need a box stove. Sell them one.
As far as trying to use one other than as a bell I think it would have a limited life before warping.

I guess I was talking about something like what this guy seems to have built. Is this just a stove door on a masonry firebox you think then? Or maybe he took an old wood stove and just lined the inside with masonry or ceramic and insulation so the metal wouldnt go molten on him and used that as his firebox.

Possibility that could be a batch box design.   Could be a widow on the feed tube of a J tube rocket.  I suspect its probably a door for a masonry stove.  When you are the builder and you work with cob you can try anything you like...if it doesn't work out, its easy to make changes.

It's been done,  used just as the firebox, of a l tube or batch, lined with bricks.



Here the post by Hendrik.

http://donkey32.proboards.com/thread/1556/why-side-window-door?page=2

Eric Marshall wrote:I guess I was talking about something like what this guy seems to have built. Is this just a stove door on a masonry firebox you think then? Or maybe he took an old wood stove and just lined the inside with masonry or ceramic and insulation so the metal wouldnt go molten on him and used that as his firebox.

This is a batch box design built by Adiel Shnior and  Shilo Kinarty in Israel. As far as I know they use custom doors for their builds.

What you ask for has been done before though, here's a video of a French conversion from wood stove to batchrocket.
You need to skip through the initial start, building a simple rocket cookstove and a demonstration model. Mark however, how everybody is convinced when seeing the double vortex forming.

Hi Eric

I've used the 'shell' of a Charnwood Country 4 woodstove as the basis for my own 5" Batch Box rocket Mass/Water heater and it works very well. I basically cut off the rear of the stove body and extended and lined the firebox to match the dimensions on Peters excellent resource site.

I posted some details when requested advice on heating water with the unit.

BB Rocket Heater

Thanks a lot! That’s very helpful