Post by nixsee on Aug 5, 2020 6:44:45 GMT -8
I made my first L tube rocket stove recently out of some pumice stone concrete blocks that I scavaneged. It works great for cooking - I've boiled 4 gallon pots of water, heated a 21" ceramic "comal" for making tortillas etc...all with minimal wood and smoke.
However, once I'm done cooking, there's a pile of nearly white hot embers glowing in the bottom. They're extrmerly useful while adding more wood - igniting it almost instantly - but seemingly go to waste when I'm done adding fresh wood. Cooking over a traditional fire, your pot would be close enough to (or even on top of) the embers to make use of them. But the riser height in a rocket stove means that they are more or less wasted, left to slowly turn into ash on their own
I'm still using considerably less fuel than a normal fire, but I'm hoping to make better use of these wasted embers. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong? Is it simply a necessary, but desirable, tradeoff for using a rocket stove?
Another question while I'm here - I'm just using some expanded steel (diamond hole pattern) grate as a fuel shelf. Should the shelf go all the way to the back of the burn chamber or stop at the start of the chamber? I seem to have better results with it going all the way to the back, as it keeps the embers both close to the fresh wood as well as fed by fresh air from below.
However, once I'm done cooking, there's a pile of nearly white hot embers glowing in the bottom. They're extrmerly useful while adding more wood - igniting it almost instantly - but seemingly go to waste when I'm done adding fresh wood. Cooking over a traditional fire, your pot would be close enough to (or even on top of) the embers to make use of them. But the riser height in a rocket stove means that they are more or less wasted, left to slowly turn into ash on their own
I'm still using considerably less fuel than a normal fire, but I'm hoping to make better use of these wasted embers. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong? Is it simply a necessary, but desirable, tradeoff for using a rocket stove?
Another question while I'm here - I'm just using some expanded steel (diamond hole pattern) grate as a fuel shelf. Should the shelf go all the way to the back of the burn chamber or stop at the start of the chamber? I seem to have better results with it going all the way to the back, as it keeps the embers both close to the fresh wood as well as fed by fresh air from below.
