alan stewart

Excellent , thanks for sharing.

If the the safety steam vent coming from the inside the water-tank had a whistle from a kettle on the end of it you would hear when the water inside to starting to boil and you could make fire adjustments if necessary.

Awhile ago I was reading about Finlanders that make all kinds of water-heating apparatuses for their sauna's and hot water needs. That lead to a site with a nice pictoral of how a guy lays copper coil in a steel box and then pours a cast of plaster of paris into it. It is then installed on the side of the woodstove.

http://www.michigan-horse.org/preheater/



This got me thinking about if this had any applications to rocket-stove water heating systems. The plaster of paris wouldn't likely stand up to extreme high heat but it might work in some uses like on top of the barrel. Also I was wondering if refractory material could be used instead of plaster. Anyhow , just throwing it out there. Might be a dumb idea... might have some uses.

Big Al...

Sure enough I hadn't seen that thread yet. Very interesting, thanks. Now of course i'm thrown for a loop because those pics are state of the art, not seen before designs. As far as how the barrel attaches its easy to see those pics, but less so in many videos and books on RMHs.

I'll keep investigating.

Earlier I was asking if the manifold exit hole from the bottom of the barrel was okay being cob, or did it need to something stronger. In that pic you mentioned the whole shebang is cast.
Its going to take me awhile to get going and by the time I do there might be some good options available with casts. But I still will likely make a system with brick riser and basic setup. Looks like I may be able to buy a shippable core at some point in the future...maybe.

Also, great tip on rocket-sauna doubling as a mass dehydration unit !!! That is excellent.

Cheers

Thanks very much for the info. I'll read up on those leads you gave.

I live in the interior of BC and generally it is about 20 F or so in a mild winter, but it can and does get colder. Right now I am just getting going on the land and have built a 12x16 cabin to start with. This cabin is built on cedar log skids, jacked up & on blocks, so it's not really conducive to a RMH system as the building could shift and what not.

I will take your advice and build my first one outside for some kind of project such as a sauna or another more permanent foundation structure like a small house or outdoor kitchen. I will definitely build whatever structure with RMH in mind from the beginning.

I'm looking forward to reading the info you mentioned. In the books I bought and have read they show how the barrel is attached to the base and the first ducting hooking onto the base, but it doesn't go into much specific detail about those connections and the materials used. Most videos I've seen skim over the topic briefly as well.

We'll its off to do some more homework ..

Thanks again.

Hello Permies.

New member here. Lurked for sometime and I knew it would be either Huglekulture or Rocket Stoves that got me to finally make an account & participate....

The timing is perfect because I just bought my first property, a sweet 3.5 acre piece in the interior of BC and now I can implement and experiment with many of the permaculture techniques i've been researching all these years.

As far as rocket stove go, i've seen a pile of youtubes, ordered and read some books, cruised the websites and am now letting it all sink in and swirl around a bit. Many questions are answered by further reading ,but there are a few things still foggy to me. Such as:

What are the current best ways to attach the barrel to the base of the heater where it sits? I understand through my reading that there are some newish techniques where a part/half barrel is embedded in the stove-base and the full barrel clips on to that by way of a barrel strap (or similar). I'm assuming the reason for this mod is to allow access for inspection/cleaning/repair of the riser area. I'm trying to grasp the basics but also get up to speed with innovation.

Basically I was wondering if anyone had the time to help link me to info regarding how the barrel is afixed to the base of the RMH (is it just cobbed in place) and if one uses the "barrel and a half" method with the lid strap, does anyone have a link as to how its done?

The other grey area for me is how the first piece of ducting that attaches to the under-barrel area is done. My limited understanding after reading the books and seeing the videos is that an opening/channel under the barrel , made of cob? , is built and then the T-shaped piece of ducting attaches to it. What material is used to make the exhaust channel? And how does that first ducting T get attached? Getting this connection right seems important, this is why I ask...

Anyhow,just saying hello and I would appreciate any help anyone can give.

Thanks in advance & sorry for the blatantly newbie questions.

PS: Just for clarity, what I'm hoping to build is a simple RMH cob-bench system for a small cabin using refractory brick riser, barrel and 8 inch ducting.