paul madalinski

No I think what your seeing is that the last inch or so doesn't have the outer metal collar all the way to the top.  the whitish color at the top is the vermiculite and fire clay.  I have done some reading up on this and am going to add more insulation around the riser.

The riser had a 6 inch pipe on the interior  with a 10 pipe on the outside.  The two inch gap between is filled with a mixture of vermiculite and fireclay  The 6 inch pipe has burned away.  From the brick base where the barrel sits it is 32 inches to the top of the heat riser.  From the bottom of the jtube burn chamber to the top of the heat riser it is 52 inches. Hope this answers your questions. thanks in advance

After looking at other posts about how their stoves are working I decided to take part of mine apart and post some pictures of the manifold construction.   the space between the heat riser and the barrel top is 2 and an eighth inches and I know the top of my stove never got hotter than 550 degrees.  I have attached photos of the riser and manifold.  I suspect the manifold is much too large Thoughts?  Thanks

Thanks for your input I will change the way the crimps are running

Hi Glen thanks for the quick reply
the temperature I get on the top and sides of the barrel when the stove has been running for a while average around 400 to 450 degrees.  I typically run the stove two to three hours a day and have about a handful or so of ash every three days.  Lighting the stove is sometimes easy but not always though I did have less trouble after using it for a month or so occasionally there is some smoke blow back especially when first starting up.  But there has always been some condensation on the outside of the exhaust pipe .

Hi
I built a rocket mass heater in my wood shop last fall and for the most part it heated well but I have a buildup of creosote on the outside of the exhaust pipe.  I wand to make the mass bench larger and possibly change the outside exhaust pipe but would like to know if anyone has any idea why I would be getting creosote on the outside of the pipe.  Attached are pictures of my setup