One burn season done. Now I have questions.

[morpho]

Hi everyone.
After a season of burning I am left with a few questions for anyone out there with more experience.

The stove I built was hard earned, but only temporary as we got stuck having to over winter in what was less than ideal housing conditions.

What I built was a 6 inch system that had no bench (we simply had no room for it) It worked great as a space heater and I found a large sandstone slab and would place it on the top of the barrel and when it warmed up. Insta Presto! radiant floor under our feet. as we sat and watched the snow blow around outside.

My first question is about the ability of the system to heat up a bench. I could burn the stove for 3 or 4 hours and still be able to place my hand on the stove pipe even though it was only four feet from the barrel. (sorry, I was too cheap to buy a thermometer so I have no accurate temps, but it was only warm to the touch)
I'm having a hard time imagining how long I would have to burn to heat up 20 feet of bench.
Where might I have been "losing" the heat?

Second was the feed tube was a pain in the butt. I was having to tend it like crazy the whole time. The wood never fell forward. It always wanted to fall backwards which meant the fire wanted to climb up and out. Anybody have any solutions?

Thats enough for now.

Thanks.

[Donkey]

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is step up to an 8" system.
Rocket stoves are fiddly, the smaller the opening, the more fiddly they are.

You mind posting pictures of your creation?? It would be helpful. I can't really comment (with authority) on a thing I haven't seen.

Don't forget to make your images smallish. 512 pixels wide is a good size.

[morpho]

Ya, I'm sure the 8" system will be much better.

I will see what I can do about getting a picture to you of my creation.
I'll have to have a look around to figure out how you post images.

[morpho]

ok, sorry to ask...but how do I post a picture here?

[grizbach]

To insert a pic, look at the tags when you are posting a reply. On the second row, 4th from the left is the insert image button.

This was my first heating season also. I feel your pain about tending the fire.
I didn't have much problems with the fire climbing out though. I do have good draft since I am exhausting up my exsisting chimney. Also I have a guard on my feed tube. It is a 3 sided shield with 2 rungs facing the front. One about 5 inches up, and the other about a foot up. I've been burning wood about 40 inches long with no problems. These are full branches or branches that have been split. I have found out though If I burn kiln dried wood, It is a lot more likely for the fire to climb. A quick squirt of a water bottle knocks that dragon back in its hole!

[Donkey]

You can also use the attach image button.. This will upload the image from your computer to the forums disk space.. Otherwise, you need to put yer images on a server of some kind and link to it.

[morpho]

AHHHHH!
I see. There is a whole other place to write the message in. I have always just used the "quick reply" Which I assumed was the "only reply".
ok.

I thought you were all locked away in microsoft cubicles with extensive programming backgrounds writing code to make smiley faces roll their eyes!

[morpho]

cool.
It worked.

I will shoot a picture of the unit minus the beast and post it.

Thanks for the help.

Grizbach:


I too have burned a wide range of materials in our stove At one point I was burning 7 foot long branches. It worked only when the draw was good, but it sure cut down on the fire tending!
I hear you on the kiln dried stuff. The 2x4's I used were a nightmare. The smaller I split them the better they got though.

[Donkey]

I see the top of your barrel gets plenty hot. Low on thermal mass, I seem to remember you saying that..
When you rebuild, do you plan on lengthening the bench or building a bell or something??

Woof! And it's pretty close to un-plastered bales.