Thor Thurman

Thanks for your response. I appreciate everyone's experience. I will make a RMH work somehow, I just need my concerns resolved first.

Okay, So I recently finished reading Rocket Stoves III edition. I have loved all of the great information packed into that book! I have watched several videos on this site and richsoil.com But I still have a few questions. I watched a video where Ernie and Erica showed a build in Oregon that they were trying to do to code and from all the pictures and information and forums I have looked like it seems like no one is following code. so here are my questions:

1. Do most of the builders not care about building a stove to code because "technically" there isn't a code for RMH, just for woodstoves and they are building off-grid or in homes where they hope no one will come check to see if code was followed? I see most builds of RMH right next to walls, maybe 8-10 inches away from the riser at most. When code puts you at 18-24" depending on location. Is this because a lot of people are putting these in Cob homes? What about the normal Joe who lives in a stick-built subdivision in Eastern Idaho and just wants a more efficient way to heat his house? Am I gonna have to spend thousands to get my RMH to code?

2. So for those who build right next to walls, like those Ernie an Erica did at the education center in california, have there been problems down the road with lowering the flash points of materials? Has anyone had a RMH in new wood frame construction for more than a few years and can they attest to its safety? Even If I put in a brick wall behind the stove, the Bricks will still get hot and heat up the sheetrock, rockboard and studs behind it... It doesn't feel like a RMH can go in normal construction homes... At least not on my main floor, it would need to be on or next to cement...?

3. I read in the book how heavy some of these RMH can be (Several tons) and yet everyone says to put them in the center of your home where you live and move and have activity already. So for us that would be in the kitchen/living room upstairs, but how would I know if my floor joists/I-beams can hold the weight. I have a 3500 sq foot house that is heated by a gas forced air system. I would love to heat my basement and have it flow upstairs. I have read about putting a RMH in the basement but is seems there is a lot of negativity there with the Stack effect and the fact that it is far from your main living area and would be hard to tend. But at least in the basement I could remove some framing and get my RMH back against some cement or brick and it would be fine on the slab of concrete without concern of weight.

4. I really want a form of heating/cooking my family can enjoy and rely upon in case of the grid going down or as a way to reduce the cost of heating all the "air" in my house. I am just not seeing how a RMH can work for me without spending a lot more than the general contributors of these forums have spent. Any help?

So in summary

1. Does anyone follow code? Do you have pictures of any of these builds?

2. How can you tell if a main floor with a basement can take the weight? Don't really want to do trial and error here ( wait and see if the floor sags... yeah right)

3. How come all these builds are right next to walls, how does that work without creating "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE" as mentioned in the book, or all the stoves so new that we don't know yet?

Thanks for everyone's support in trying to figure this all out. I am loving this community of innovators!

Good info and good ideas! perhaps we will plan to do a padded top to match the sweet natural curvature of our little bumpers. Also the vent will have to rise about 16' to get out the roof of our great room. hmmmm...

I am planning to do brick and cob on this build and also tile the outside with a nice ceramic tile that will match the kitchen. I hope it ends up looking like a nice permanent seating that was intended for the place. So do you think I need a clean out at each level? Like a TEE at each level that I can access to sweep out material? I also would love some advice and perhaps insights on covering part of the 55 gallon drum with cob, partly for protecting the littles from intense heat, partly for aesthetics. Also, I have seen a few builds with what looks like "white cob" is it actually a glaze or a paint job?

Hello everyone!
Okay, so I have a design question on a RMH. My wife and I would like to use our mass as multipurpose seating and have it serve as bench seating along our 7 1/2 ' long bar. But here is the problem, bar seating is 24" tall and that makes for a fairly high mass. So is it possible to run my vent down the length of the bar and then instead of doubling back at the same elevation to vent out, could I instead vent back at a slightly higher elevation. (See image: I tried to illustrate this in the attached image, where the lower elevation run is blue and the higher elevation run is green. Essentially the series of pipes would need to be stacked upon each other with several inches of cob between them. Would this work? The reason I would like to do this is 1st to effectively heat that size of a mass and second we don't really want our mass to be wide, as it will be in the kitchen/living area, if we could go tall and still have it function that would be great. So tell me what I am not seeing or thinking about, and share if anyone has ever seen someone use RMH as seating at a kitchen bar?

Thanks!