I suck! unfortunately my rocket stove does not.

[Donkey]

Great news on the stove. Only 4 feet huh?? Huh.. What gives there? I mean, 4 feet is basically nothing, so it makes no sense to me that the stove would give you such trouble. With a run that short, it's also hard to believe that very much heat is being taken up by the mass.. Not enough to keep your chimney from running properly. So, even though it may be worth a try (just to see), It doubt that reducing will help. I might hurt depending how much the gasses have cooled off. Maybe just a taller chimney, which will help no matter what if there's enough heat left over to drive it.


As to the solar panel, It's off topic but I've got a little experience here.
I bought a load of panels with busted glass and tested them carefully. There appears to be no reduction of power even through the shattered bits. Since the glass is actually glued to the solar cells, removing it is likely to ruin the panel(s). Seems best to provide protection from rain, like a sheet of glass placed over the panel, possibly in a wooden frame to hold it all together and insure weather tight-ness.
As a side note, the guy I bought my panels from is a big solar installer.. He said that every installer out there probably has broken panels stacked up somewhere that they can't sell and have to pay to have taken away. They're fragile and a dropped wrench or other mishap happens all the time.
I got 2300 watts of panels for a DOLLAR PER WATT.. All of them are in perfect working condition, some have missing frame parts, some busted glass.. A little ingenuity and some sweat and I'll have a pretty good array for an exceptionally low price.

[morpho]

hahahaha...it never ends!
We have been using the Stove for a few weeks now and it has been performing pretty well considering the early trouble we had.

Now the problem is the front most burn tunnel roof brick is cracked in half and falling away.

So my suggestion to anyone who is even thinking about building a rocket stove.......even if "the book" says you can probably get away with using normal brick for the burn tunnel roof, especially if it is old slow fired brick.....don't do it. Spend the money and get firebrick. Mine are 100 year old brick, slow fired etc. and they have lasted less than 20 burns.
Live and learn I guess.

Anyone have a suggestion before I pull it apart and start all over again?

And of course this happens as we are set to go into a week or more of -13 fahrenheit weather!

Ok.....have a good day everyone.

[morpho]

Hi Donkey,
Thanks for all the insights. Yes the reduced stack did nothing really.
but as you can see I have a whole new set of self imposed trouble!

I came to the same conclusion about the glass panel. They are only slightly off what they should be putting out. I figure I'll attach a sheet of glass over top and hope for the best. They were free and

[joe]

Hey morpho,
Try building a stand to hold a mirror at 45 degrees above the feed tube...turn it to face where you're sitting and you'll be able to see down the tube.

Joe

[Donkey]

Dec 4, 2009 10:02:22 GMT -8 morpho said:

hahahaha...it never ends!
We have been using the Stove for a few weeks now and it has been performing pretty well considering the early trouble we had.

Now the problem is the front most burn tunnel roof brick is cracked in half and falling away.

So my suggestion to anyone who is even thinking about building a rocket stove.......even if "the book" says you can probably get away with using normal brick for the burn tunnel roof, especially if it is old slow fired brick.....don't do it. Spend the money and get firebrick. Mine are 100 year old brick, slow fired etc. and they have lasted less than 20 burns.
Live and learn I guess.

Anyone have a suggestion before I pull it apart and start all over again?

And of course this happens as we are set to go into a week or more of -13 fahrenheit weather!

Ok.....have a good day everyone.

Huh.. It's my experience that red brick usually handles heat shock better than the rest.
When you replace that brick, use the lower fired firebrick. Higher rated bricks can handle higher heats but don't stand up as well to fast heat up/cool down. They're meant for kiln operations where the kiln is brought up to temp and back down again slowly, rocket stoves heat and cool much faster than all that.
Chances are pretty good that firebrick will crack in the same position. That first brick always takes a beating.. Might be better to place a steel strip under the first brick and put the old one right back in place (or replace it, whichever). It'll crack up, but it won't fall.

I've also noticed that if the top bricks are locked in with cob or something and can't jiggle around, they will crack but they tend not to fall easily. I know of a couple stoves that have had badly cracked bricks for a couple years now, no fall.

[morpho]

I cracked her open and replaced the brick...with another of the regular bricks. When I pulled the brick out it clearly had an air bubble in the brick which probably precipitated the structural failure.
We shall see.

I wish I had the time and temperature to re-do the whole thing. I still can't wander too far away from the feed tube. It has a desire to climb still. So it's a VERY involved burn process. Constantly turning and maneuvering the wood.
Either way it is keeping us warm-ish.
ISH because it's Minus 32 outside right now and I doubt much of anything would keep us toasty in this temporary shelter situation when its that cold.




Thanks again.

[Donkey]

Man, -32..
That's bloody cold. And here I'm thinking that today with a little frost on the grass (our lettuce got hosed) it's cold.

Are you burning hardwood or softwood?? Hardwoods don't climb as easy.
Also if you either keep the box stuffed tight with wood or use a brick against the wood to narrow air intake, it will help.

[morpho]

Lettuce!
wow...ours got frosted to death in August...with that said i have a little wisp of a romaine survivor in a pot here in the shelter.

We are burning a mix of everything.
We have been taking daily walks with the dogs to an old abandoned beaver damn and taking anything we can get our well insulated mitts on.
Aspen, birch, poplar, the odd bit of willow....yes I know all this is probably a nightmare for "Puff" our magic rocket dragon to inhale but it's what we have access to. I also have a few hundred sq. feet of old oak flooring I am burning...slowly... as "it's the good stuff".

You are right about the feed tube working better stuffed but it still creeps up and at some point you have to stop feeding it. Thats when the real fun starts!
I'm turning wood, rearranging it, pouring a little water down the backside of it so it stops creeping up the back, Makes for an eventful meal time. I have become very adept at shovel food, plate down, jiggle wood, pick up plate, put plate back down rearrange wood, pick up plate take a mouth full, plate down, pour water, jiggle wood, give up on cutlery and reach onto plate and shove food into mouth, jiggle wood, move the creepy piece to the front, more food into mouth repeat as necessary. I think I've lost weight on this regime.
I'm thinking about my own work out video.

Later.

[grizbach]

How tall of a vertical stack did you install? I really thought that would have supercharged your stove!

[Donkey]

Dec 7, 2009 14:06:52 GMT -8 morpho said:

Lettuce!
We are burning a mix of everything.
We have been taking daily walks with the dogs to an old abandoned beaver damn and taking anything we can get our well insulated mitts on.
Aspen, birch, poplar, the odd bit of willow....yes I know all this is probably a nightmare for "Puff" our magic rocket dragon to inhale but it's what we have access to. I also have a few hundred sq. feet of old oak flooring I am burning...slowly... as "it's the good stuff".

You are right about the feed tube working better stuffed but it still creeps up and at some point you have to stop feeding it. Thats when the real fun starts!
I'm turning wood, rearranging it, pouring a little water down the backside of it so it stops creeping up the back, Makes for an eventful meal time. I have become very adept at shovel food, plate down, jiggle wood, pick up plate, put plate back down rearrange wood, pick up plate take a mouth full, plate down, pour water, jiggle wood, give up on cutlery and reach onto plate and shove food into mouth, jiggle wood, move the creepy piece to the front, more food into mouth repeat as necessary. I think I've lost weight on this regime.
I'm thinking about my own work out video.

Later.

Ermmm... Man, your stove is kind of a problem child...
There's the brick trick for the end of the burn.
It might help to cut your wood so that it doesn't stick out above the top of the feed, then you can place a brick to cover half the intake or maybe an un-burnable lid with an appropriately sized hole in it.

[Donkey]

Are you at a very high altitude or something?

For some reason, I keep coming back to the idea that you've got some kind of constriction somewhere. Your system is so short a run that if it has a chimney of any kind, it should just race along.
From what you've said, the only thing left is barrel height. When you get the chance, I think you should try raising the barrel an inch or so. It should be a pretty quick and simple operation. Make 3 or 4 shims out of cut brick, stone or tile, loosen and raise the barrel up, pop in the shims and cob it closed.
Of course, mixing cob in 32 below weather won't really be happening..

[hpmer]

Dec 7, 2009 14:06:52 GMT -8 morpho said:

We are burning a mix of everything.
We have been taking daily walks with the dogs to an old abandoned beaver damn and taking anything we can get our well insulated mitts on.
Aspen, birch, poplar, the odd bit of willow....yes I know all this is probably a nightmare for "Puff" our magic rocket dragon to inhale but it's what we have access to. I also have a few hundred sq. feet of old oak flooring I am burning...slowly... as "it's the good stuff".

I wonder if it could be wet wood? The best stuff to use has been split open and stored to dry for a year or so. It would at least be very smokey, but don't know if that would facilitate the fire creep. Do you at least try to dry it on the stove for a day or two before feeding it into the firebox?

[morpho]

Well the stack is about 6 feet tall....I've got limitations to the height. I can add a one foot section but thats the limit.

The barrel sits above the riser 4 1/4" I hope thats enough as I can barely see the top of the barrel as is. (remember it is built up over a wooden floor)

I'm at about 3000' feet above sea level.

I premixed some cob before it got to be -32!
(I'm not just a pretty face!)

I don't know what to do now.

During the day, if it's sunny, I don't need to burn. I have a full on passive solar thing going on that works like a charm. Minus 20 outside today and it was 80 inside just from the sun. But when the sun drops....I am on feed tube duty.

I'll try that extra foot of stack and let you know what happens.

Thanks everyone.

[grizbach]

Ok, time to calculate the passage down to your piping. lets have your barrel ID and your riser OD.

[morpho]

I tried the old brick to narrow the feed tube towards the end of the burn.
I did this early on when I was first having trouble with the stove after I built it.
It didn't work then.
It didn't work this time either. The flame simply crept past the brick and out the opening....it went behind the brick, around the brick.

I'm back to dropping little 3 inch pieces just inside the tunnel so it simply can't creep up.
It really does not make me feel manly.

The Wood is pretty dry. The beavers cut it down years ago and it has been sitting there for at least a few years. I keep it inside and near the stove. The next days wood gets put on top of the flue over-night. On average they are about 2-3 inch thick pieces.

Grizbach, Am I guessing you are looking to calculate the space between the barrel and the insulation around the riser?
It's about 2". (more or less...on some spots the wire was a bit wonky but not bad.)
The Dimensions through the system stayed true to the 5"x6" all the way through. I was super careful with this.

The connection for the stove pipe is ample in space. I can reach into the whole system and almost all the way to the back of the outer sides of the burn tunnel through the clean out.

I'm at a loss.