a door to see the fire

[roy]

I'm back on the case with my rocket mass heater after finally getting the solar water sorted ish.
i have recently found an old Rayburn range. I'm interested in using the cast iron doors for my heater. one in the fire pit and one to use as a door to the ash pit.

my wife loves the idea of a mass heater she just wants to see the fire as well.

any thoughts. i ve seen a picture of donkeys heater with a big oven door. I'm not sure this would fit in with a 6" flue system.

thanks in advance

[canyon]

I think this is a common desire. My wife wants a window door as well and I have to admit I really enjoy watching a fire. I think having a door with access to the ash pit and burn tunnel will be a real benefit that could outweigh the loss of efficiency. A friend of mine is going to use the door off of his wood stove. I, being a silly sort, am making my own with a pyrex pie plate for easy and cheap replacement. I'll report back this winter how it works out. No current experience here yet to share, just lots of pipe dreaming and planning.

[Donkey]

I'd try the pyrex plate thing for sure..

It should be pointed out that normally, with standard wood stove design, the air intake is located next to the door. They try to situate it so that incoming air flows over the glass on the inside to cool it BEFORE flowing into the fire itself.

My stove with the "big oven door" is an eight inch rocket stove.. The door opening is quite a bit over-sized.. You could probably do it with a six inch system. It's kind of a weird way to go about it though. Not sure I can really recommend doing it the way I did.

You know who's got a cool thing going is peterburg. His firebox and door setup makes for a nicely visible fire.

[mizwiz]

Been hearing a lot of interest in this from folks in workshops. Anybody got a "see the fire" solution that's working for them in practice?

-Erica Wisner

[Donkey]

Umm.. peterberg went through great lengths to make and keep the fire visible in his "rocket bell stove".

His final and best design on these pages (I believe) is on page 5 of his thread.

[johnjmw]

Would the glass from a Gas grill be temperature durable enough to build into the feed of a rocket? The grills seem to be thrown away often enough and the glass is still intact. Use a double wall of bricks to slide it between with a fiber seal to float the window in. Just use a square end on the feed tube. This could then be lifted out to make cleaning ash out of the burn tunnel easier?
Just a passing thought I am looking at trying when I come across a spare piece of the glass. Either that or find a small piece of Ceramic glass. I just don't know where I'd scrounge a piece of that.
John

[woodman]

I don't think it is the same glass. But in a regular stove the flame washes over the glass. In a rocket the flame dosen't come toward the feed, might work.