Daniel Reed

I'm building a small all season recreational weekend type cabin for fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling, etc, in northern Minnesota on Sandy loam. The plan for water is to use jugs elevated above a sink. I want to upgrade from the 5 gal bucket under the sink and go with a drain pipe to the outside. I plan to run a pipe down about 30' to 50' to a dry well down slope.  I'm wondering if I run the drain pipe from sink, no p-trap, straight through the floor with a 90° elbow to a pipe, buried in the ground then running down slope.  Or, should I stay away from 90° elbow and go with a less sharp angle and use maybe a 45° elbow instead.  Or, even go with flex pipe and no sharp angle at all?  Of course, I need to be mindful with freezing temps that can go well below zero Fahrenheit at times but with the pipe buried and covered with mulch, etc, I don't expect freezing pipes to be problem as long as the slope is enough to keep water flushing down.

I want to thank you all for the input. As of this writing Dec. 16, 2015 I'm still in the planning and education stages. I built a 16x28 barn/workshop (the first structure after clearing build site in wooded land) and a travel trailer as a 3 season residence. Actually it was the second building I put up. The first was the out house. I have my prioritys. I plan to insulate and make the barn a 4 season structure this summer and building a RSH in it. Then I will build the cabin and plan to expand and capitalize on my experience by building another RSH.


Also, anyone have any luck with mixing cob in a 4.1 cubic foot 1/2 hp electric cement mixer, is it practical and doable?

Thanks again, Dan...

I came across someone's video on youtube for a heater he built. He used fire brick to build a J tube and heat riser. He then covered the heat riser, no insulation around it, with a barrel, 2 inch between top of drum and heat riser with a flue coming out of the bottom of the barrel. Pretty standard but his exhaust flue coming out of the bottom of the barrel had an elbow on it that pointed up and his chimney flue went straight up to the roof and out. In his case he did not use mass to store the heat instead used the heat given off from the barrel only. He said that the gases leaving the barrel needed to travel through a flue that was layed in an upward angle and not level. He referred to the mass heater flues of 10 to 20 feed buried in cob mass for heat storage that he has seen on utube.

Question is this: Does the long flue buried in cob need to be at an upward incline or can it be level? Not yet having built a one I thought I would ask for thoughts and input.

Thanks, Dan...

Here is his video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHS6vzVQr90

I’m in the research phase to building a rocket stove mass heater for a 200 sq ft cabin in Northern Minnesota. Many times winter overnight temps can drop to 30 below zero Fahrenheit (sometimes more) which is fine for viewing the northern lights but not for much else.

I understand about the need to use firebrick for the J tube and heat riser instead of metal tubing for longevity so I plan to use fire brick instead of metal tubing.
Will a firebrick heat riser, covered with a 55 gal drum, require an insulating layer around it like one does with a double walled metal tube filled with insulation heat riser? Or will the fire brick have enough of an insulating factor? Perhaps an inner firebrick heat riser with a second one surrounding it?

Thanks, Dan...