ben welchlen

And I have never seen exh. Temps that high. Maximum recorded was 120. But that was 2" away from the exit of the barrel

Well ive had the stove about 450. But have yet been able to duplicate it. It usally stays right around 350. It is not burning all the fuel tho. Quite a bit of ash. I took your advice and put vermiculite around the entire burn chamber and riser. No noticable differences. Im thinking your right about the metal cooling too much. I did another burn today and the top of the barrel was350 but at the bottom it was 120 max. Sooo if I extend the riser to say 40" overall that should produce more draft and pull more air in. Possibly producing a hotter fire? Or should I try some 8"dia pipe at 21" length. That in theory is 2x the area I have now.?

thanks james. ive actually got a 10'' 1/8'' wall pipe on the heat riser and burn chamber on the inside the barrel. that gives me close to 3'' of vermiculite around everything. and im still not getting any big fire seems mostly lazy.

The insulation in the pic has been changed. Read post

The barrel is 12" dia. And about 24" long. I have 2" of vermiculite completly surrounding the burn chamber and riser then used fiberglass ins. Around that only on the bottom and on burn chamber inside the barrel

The stove does "rocket" but it is just that much air being sucked into the burn chamber..I hear nothing in the barrel

Thanks shilo. So a 10" long feed tube. Then a 20" long burn chamber and a 40" riser?. I really cannot make it out of brick or other materials because of space limits. I need it to be as compact as possible

i just finished my rocket stove heater yesterday to heat my shop. it is made out of 4'' 1/4'' wall pipe. the riser is 21'' long and has a 1.5'' gap befor it meets the barrel at the top. the fire tube is 12'' long and the feed tube is about 10'' long. i place a cap onto the feed and regulate air via the open end of the fire tube. ive tried everything i can think of except cutting down the riser to try to get a reburn. No luck with anything ive done. ive got the riser wrapped wit fiberglass insulation about 3'' thick. do i need more insulation? the max temp ive seen off of the barrel is about 425 degrees. im assuming the reason im not getting any hotter is because of no reburn? any info will be much appreciated. im about to scrap the idea and build a regular wood stove with a heat ex-changer.