Reverse engineering Riley pellet burner

[ibebirdman]

I have been watching this thread for a couple years now. Just about ready to embark on my build.

Just stumbled on this gravity feed stove that I had never seen before, thought it might interest readers of this thread:

prairiedogstove.com/ice-shack-heater.html

[gooch]

Sorry for the delay, I just finished building a Stumps Stretch XL clone and will be starting a new thread for the Clarry clone build. Merry Christmas!!!

[johnnieq]

I have been watching this thread with great I interest. I have an ice shack (8' x 10') that I am heating with a small woodstove. I'm finding it impossible to keep the temperature at a comfortable level. I cannot wait to see Gooch's new Clarry clone build. Hopefully I can regulate the temperature better with a similar build. The description and pictures are great but actual dimensions would really help. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[painterd]

I copied that idea and made a 4" burner for my wood furnace. The burner itself is simply a 3-1/2" box made out of 1/4" stainless steel rod, welded together leaving 3/16" gaps for burned pellets to fall thru. I used 4" square stock 16" long. I had to make another door for my furnace, and added a small window so I could watch how the flame reacts while playing with the air inlet. (6" of the tube is outside and 10" inside the stove) I made a hopper that holds one 40 lb. bag of pellets.

 The dam thing works!! Actually works too well, I have to turn the intake air down or it cooks us out. I get 450 degrees in the stove and the fan kicks out 100 degree air to the upper level of my home. I got 12 hours out of a 40lb. bag of pellets, which really surprised me. During my first test burn, I was playing with the burner and air intake and heard my wife yell down the basement, "Are ya tryin' to burn the house down?,!! so I guess I ran it hot enough and had to turn it down. After going back upstairs, I had to open a window to cool things down a bit  (and it was 10 degrees outside)

 I tried a couple over night burns and it seemed to work quite well, and the wood furnace fan runs all night ( just what I want)

 And there is very little ash. Just a fine black powder on the stove grate in the morning. I figure I can burn pellets for a month before emptying the ash drawer. Now I don't know that I'd burn pellets all winter, but it sure is a nice option if I choose to instead of burning cord wood. Who said you need a fan and auger to burn pellets in a woodstove? I guess I proved them wrong! PD

[painterd]

I made a pellet burner for my stove, well actually for the wood furnace in my house. I first had to fabricate another door for my wood furnace, which is just 3/16" plate steel with a small window in it and a 4" square hole cut out for the burn tube to be bolted onto. I wanted to be able to unbolt it to make changes if needed.

 I made a 4" system (16" long) and used 1/4" stainless steel round stock to construct the burner. I made the burner so it sits 3/8" above the floor of the heat tube, so the air can pass under it and 1/4" on each side. It's basically just a square box (3" X 5") with 3/16" gaps between the steel bars for air to get at the pellets. It throws a good one foot flame into the wood furnace and runs around 450 degrees. The fan blows 100 degree air to the upper level of the house, which is plenty hot when it's 10 degrees outside. I can't believe there is enough draft to keep the pellet burning like it does. It sounds just like a rocket stove. After seeing how they make them for the Clarry tent stoves, I figured it should work in a larger stove also. I was taking a gamble with only going with 4" tube, (didn't know if would burn hot enough) but now I'm glad it didn't go any bigger. No fan, no auger, just gravity fed pellet feed and a simple burn basket that works perfect! PD

[rp14]

Can someone tell me the measurements or if there are plans to build the riley pellet stove?
I am looking to build one for my ice fish house.
Thank You

[hunter1]

At the first of this forum there are pics and plans that should get you a pretty good model

[rp14]

I was looking around here to build. Just did not know if there is a simple size to use to make the pellet heater work.
I am going to try my first one and see how it goes.
This will be used in my Ice Shanty for heat and I wanted to do it right the first time.

[hunter1]

I just finished one today modeled after the scale pics for my wall tent it works great with the 4" square tube

[rp14]

Would like to see some of the units people built.

[painterd]

I may have to try making a "Riley" burner in place of my existing burner, which is 1/4" stainless steel rod grate (like a basket) that burns very well. My basket design is 1/2" off the bottom of the square tube to allow air to rush under it to burn the pellets.
I have mine incorporated into the door of my wood furnace to heat the house and it's seems to be working very well. I have a 4" square tube mounted thru the door of the stove, which extends 15" into the stove. The flame roars out of the tube and the flame bounces off the back wall of the stove, back and up over the baffle, then out the chimney. There is absolutely no smoke once the pellets ignite. It takes about 15 minutes for the stove to get up to temperature before the blower starts. I have been running the air intake open about 1/8" and the stove runs 350 degrees, which makes the blower air around 120 degrees blowing upstairs to the main floor of my house. It's right at 32 degrees now outside and my house is toasty warm right now. Some times I have to shut the pellet feed off and let it go out or it will get too hot in here!

[painterd]

Update:

I've been burning the wood furnace with the new, Riley style burner that I made yesterday, and it works perfect. I also made my pellet feed tube (from the hopper) smaller. Before it was a 3" X 3" tube, which had issues with it back burning a little too much for me to feel comfortable about it. So now I have a 2" x 3" tube, so the pellets will drop out at a faster rate, eliminating the back burn. So far it works very well.

 The new burner works very well also, but it takes longer for it to get up to temp on the furnace compared to the basket style burner I used before. It took about 20-25 minutes this morning for the stove to get up to 400 degrees, where the blower starts blowing hot air up to the main level of the house. The Riley style burner is a success and it looks like it will be my main burner from now on. I don't see it that it will deteriorate any time soon, unless the two side tubes get too hot, but we'll just have to wait and see. It's all made out of mild steel, so I always can remake it out of stainless if need be.

 My setup is a 4" x 4" burn tube, 16" long, and my exhaust pipe is 6", so there is plenty of draft for the burner. I had used it in a rocket stove, but with limited success, so being I already heated with a wood furnace, I figured I experiment with that instead and I'm glad I did. The efficiency is off the chart. My 6" steel pipe going into the chimney is running at 150 degrees when the stove is up to temp, and no smoke at all. It's even hard to see much of a heat wave coming out of the chimney outside. My neighbor even thought I quit burning wood it burns so clean!!

 So now seeing the ton of pellets I bought (a pellet which is 50 40 lb. bags) should last 2 months at the rate I'm burning, so it's a success and I won't be hauling out ash much anymore. It looks like there will be about 1/2 of a 5 gallon pail of ash for a ton of pellets, not bad. Burning wood would means hauling out a 5 gallon pail of ash every two weeks, so a lot less work too. Just fill the hopper with a bag of pellets and light the burner, simple.

 Now if I do want to go back to burning cord wood (which I still have a wood shed full of) I can convert the stove back in about 5 minutes. I just have to unbolt the burner unit and slide it out and remove the stove door and put the original door back on to burn regular log wood again.

 I'm also in the process of building a smaller wood furnace, just for burning pellets, much the same as a Riley stove, only it will have a hot air jacket around it with a blower. The ash pan will be a lot smaller because I won't need a large one anymore. The whole stove is only 2" long and 14" X 14" with no door. The front is bolted on incase I need to take it apart for some reason in the future. The 4" X 4" burn tube will go into the stove only about 10" for the flame to bounce off the rear of the stove, come back to the front, go over the baffle to the back of the stove and out the 4" pipe (which will expand to 6" before it goes into the chimney) I made it out of 1/8" plate steel with a 3/16" plate for the front, which will be heavy enough to last for many years. I lined it with fire brick to retain heat and save the steel from deteriorating over time. The baffle inside is high temp refractory cement I poured (good for 2500 degrees) so it burns very efficiently. I should have to keep it burning about 400 degrees to get sufficient heat out of the blower, which should be enough to heat my home.

 I'll try to get some photos of the burner in my furnace so yo can get an idea how it works so well. PD

[trapperjonmk]

New here also
Would like to see Clarry or Riley clones, I plan on making one for a 8x10 fish house and would like some input on size and what works. Thanks Jon

[painterd]

 For an 8 X 10 fish house, you could get by with about 12" X 12" square, and around 22" long stove, with a 3" burner tube should be sufficient. All mine have been done with 4" burn tubes, because that's what I had here to work with, but I'm sure smaller would work just as well.

 One thing I do differently to control the temperature output, is to cut down on the intake air to regulate it, instead of sliding my burner in/out to control the rate the pellets fall. I haven't had any problems with that setup so far. I did have one problem with the pellets back burning into the hopper, and found that a 3-1/2" square feed tube was too big and the pellets fell too slow that way causing it to burn them up the tube over a 12 hour period. And I made sure my pellet hopper has a sealed lid on it too, to prevent air from entering down the pellet feed. Now that I switched to a 2" X 3" feed tube, I don't have that problem anymore. The pellets never get a chance to start on fire in the tube now before they fall down on the burner.

 The one I'm build now is 14" X 14" square and 2' long, which should be big enough to heat my house (keeping my finders crossed) because the one I have now is just too big and gives off too much heat once it's up and running. I only use 1/2 bag of pellets to heat the house and let it run out or it gets too hot in here.

[trapperjonmk]

So you are talking about a Riley style?
I have a piece of 7"x7" 1/4" tubing I could use for the body or would that be to small? Thanks Jon