brett hunter

when you have a heat riser,  does a tall chimney outside still benefit the draw?  or is the exhaust all being 'pushed' out rather than pulled?   

so heres what i did,  i added an insulated heat riser inside the barrel as well as extended the exhaust chimney inside down to about 3 or 4 inches above the bottom of the barrel.  it works!  the draft so far seems a bit more sluggish than before but im hoping that im getting a cleaner burn and  more radiant heat in the process.  thanks for the idea woodman!

gonna give this idea a shot,  worried that the draft will suffer greatly, but whatever, im going for it!

if you click on the bold text in ericas quote it takes you to a thread that explains that s curved chimneys can be deadly.

something i wanted to add...  people say that one of the drawbacks of a rocketstove is that you dont get the pleasing view of the flame,  but the light that comes out of my wood feed while burning dances on the ceiling in an amazing aurora-borealis-like effect when all of the lights are out.  its quite nice, some friends and i spent a couple hours last night just watching the light show.

i was thinking along the same lines today, dividing the barrel in half somehow.. 

in my version the smoke is clear or white. zero smokeback, the draft starts up immediately.  i sealed up all of the leaks with high temp fireplace caulk.  most of the heat comes off of the burn tube( 8'' steel pipe), and the barrel gets hot but definitely not hot enough to cook on, though i did keep some apple cider heated in a saucepan on top last night.  my guess is if you had the feed right up against the barrel and the burn tube inserted into it a little bit, the barrel will probably get hotter.  the horizontal part of my burn tube is about 2 feet long,  kind of a mistake, but its made of heavy steel and gets good and hot.  trying to think of how to keep this basic design but make better use of the barrel.

i get the whole heat transfer and thermal mass thing,  i was kind of thinking of just going for a heat radiation effect and maybe working toward some kind of mass later.  the problem right now is that the barrel seems useless, id be better off using just a big burn tube.  thats why im trying to figure out if i can put an internal heat riser in the barrel and get more 'bang for my buck' with the wood(see previously posted drawing idea)  im just worried i wont get enough draw.  bought the book today,  doing more research.

ah,  duh,  the pots already have holes.  this project looks super easy!

i like it!  i have 2 tiny bedrooms and  have been looking for a way to heat them without electricity.  might give this a shot,  i wonder how hard it is to drill through the pots?

took a picture on my phone.  heres what i have going so far, it works and heats the room quite well, but i think it could be much more efficient.