Beautiful video because the rocket stove is taken from the homestead into a modern home. The stove design speaks for itself. And the video of the burn is pyro-beautiful.Thank you.
Dear Robert, thank you very much indeed for sharing this beautiful project with us. So far, and from my point of view, is the best I've ever seen. Last years I've been considering to build my own stove rocket, and the starting point will be your design, that's for sure... Best wishes !!
thisIsMe Thank you. But I'm also an amateur in this rocket stove scene. My profession is ICT Architecture. And I just put together all the smart inventions of the other "amateurs", and left out the bad things. OK, I admit that my education (University of applied science) did help in this case.
+ Robert JH Gisolf CIAO ROBERT,BELLO IL TUO LAVORO,DESIDERO COSTRUIRE UNA STUFA COME LA TUA, E' POSSIBILE AVERE I DISEGNI?TI INVIO LA MIA E-MAIL giusepperubicco@gmail.com ,GRAZIE PER L'ATTENZIONE
+giuseppe rubicco I have some Sketchup drawings. I still have planned to put together a building plan, have patience. Ho alcuni disegni Sketchup. Ho ancora programmato di mettere insieme un piano di costruzione, abbi pazienza.
Wow, that is an incredible rocket stove. I dare say the nicest I've seen on the net. I've had the idea to do a vortex rocket stove for some time. Thanks for showing that it works beautifully.
Finally a well made video and well explained. for the supply of air from outside to not cool the air of the house with a cold hose you could use a Canadian well or " puit canadien" in french The pipe share many of the different meters or feet on the ground, if one descends into warmer air and brings it home. A pipe that comes directly from the outside in winter is very cold and cooled air for nothing.
+Laurent t. Interesting, this "Canadian Well". My basement has a sort of same effect. My stove sucks air from under my floor. The "crawl space" under the floor sucks air through holes in the wall of the basement, picks up some energy of the ground beneath my basement. My room-floor is isolated, so will not participate in any heat exchange.
THAT is the best stove of it's kind I've ever seen on RUclips ! ( I've seen a bunch of them too ) It looks complicated ( and expensive to buy , if , one was for sale !!!!
I'd love to see how you did the gap adjuster mechanism. I've been thinking of trying something similar to find the "sweet spot" without having to disassemble it every time I made a change. I also love the idea of the vortex vanes for mixing. And the clips and especially the door prop - all genius ideas and really well executed. Thanks for sharing
Tee Jay Is the "gab adjuster" not visible in the video? The riser has two pins attached to a ring. The ring is turning on an axle on one side and on a screw on the other side. That's no "rocket science" :)
Beautiful build. Your video is rather vague and at times, dark. Excellent engineering, very inspiring. Please make a video that explains your design even if you use sketches. I'm very impressed. I just finished building a 55 gallon barrel version based of zerofossilfuel's design. I used insulated firebrick and went to a 6 inch flue and equivalent burn chamber. I'm getting excellent performance, even from this very basic design without any vortex or secondary air. I find that I need to tend the fire every 20 minutes without fail. Sometimes I can't get to it that often and, I have to rebuild the fire. I have an excellent source of stainless steel bits and will be making a pellet basket. I realize that I'll need to regulate the burn because pellets can really take off. Thank you for suggesting the burn control from the air intake side. Looking forward to my next build. Also, thanks for listing the sources of inspiration. There's some rocket stove rock stars there. My next build will include bits from all of them, including yours. Cheers!
Tomwalz, thanks for your compliments. Did you see my first video, about the design? In that animation I build my stove, part by part. You commented on my third video. I'm happy to help you with "my bits".
Very nice indeed Robert, some great features on the stove its clear you thought out the design well and made future maintenance easy. It all looks superb, many thanks for a mention in the credits. Loz.
Thanks ppotty1. I learned a lot from your stove video's. You'll recognize the door and the double walls of the firebox. They are sort of the same as yours.
ppotty1 is a rocket stove rock star... very nice to see this exchange. I built a larger version of Zero's stove... no vortex but I'm on my 3rd season. I used the super light insulated fire brick. I am interested in how the riser adjustment alters the burn. Please respond, because I was considering it for my next build, which will include a vortex, as well as some other adjustable features. My stove is on my channel... there's also a video of a failed batch box addition... embarrassing, but so many lessons learned... the only change that worked is that I doubled the size of the fuel chamber so I could get longer refueling times. The biggest lesson learned was that metal sucks heat, and is to be avoided within the stove as much as possible. This is very important for those who heat a mass. As for folks like ppotty1 who use it as a space heater, then, metal is your friend. I use mine as a space and mass heater. Rock(et) on.
Very well made. I particularly like the glass face that allows different air settings. The chamber air vortex baffles is over my head but the resulting vortex is awesome. I'm still working on tin can designs. I'd like to make one with a double interior wall sending the air down and through a horizontal and flat surface to a 2nd chamber exit. The flat surface can be used as a griddle while the top of the rocket can be used also. Yours is top shelf. Thanks for sharing.
trumpsahead Thanks. The glass face also shows the fire, which I like to look at.Your idea of the double interior wall in the tin can seems identical to the Rocket Stove Heater plans. Instead of letting the hot air escape from the top you lead it down again. The top of the rocket stove will be very hot, but I don't quite understand the use of the bottom flat surface as a griddle.
Robert J.H. Gisolf Oh, also nothing new about the flat bottom as a griddle. Make it wide & long enough to cook on and only about 1 or 2 inches high to let hot gases pass through into the next chamber pipe which goes up and away. There are videos somewhere on youtube that show this idea. There is nothing new under the sun I'm sure, but we sure have fun rediscovering, don't we? God bless, love your work. ciao.
Great design, functional and good looking! You've presented me with two great ideas for my own concept. The main airflow from under the house and the raising and lowering of the riser itself. I'm planing on duel adjustable preheated ins, they will however be attached running along the top of the fill box and then out the top so as to avoid drawing in excessive air into the fillbox, which essentially means burning more fuel. Honestly can't wait to get my gloves dirty!
+Stefan Bachrodt Thanks. And did you see that my preheated inlet is adjustable too? The stove sometimes runs better with less air. If there is a lot of wind, the drawing of the chimney is too much. In that case I close my inlet a bit.
wow great idea, like a rocket stove and mass heater hybrid. beautiful design and looks great in the home. i wonder if any mods possible for cooking, oven etc. i love the beauty of it, but i also love old wood cook stoves, man food for thought there. thank you for sharing your awesome ideas.
Thanks. And I sometimes put a large pan on the top to boil chicken soup, because that needs a long time simmering. Or pasta, that sort of things. Works great.
A very fine piece of work. Congratulations. Many will watch this and benefit, as I will. On the vortex, since you asked, it appears to me, from the shot provided, that your vanes actually break up the early formation of the natural vortex, tumbling the air and forcing it to reform. If that's what I see, it may be a happy accident that causes a late, last burning in the tumble and a cleaner result, as your result looked exceptionally clean. Anyway, hard to see from here. One hell of a great stove there!
Thanks for your compliment(s). Yes, tumbling and reforming generates a lot of turbulance. And that mixes the secondary air with leftover burnable wood gas (otherwise escaping as smoke). The "natural" vortex (if existing) is not very strong. The flue gasses only contain water vapour and (recycled) CO2. No smoke, no smell.
Awesome performance....thats more what I'm looking for! I'm an aviation guy and I thought it should be modeled more like a turbine engine rather than a wood stove. Nice work.
Nice work, Good video, It's clear y'all put some thought into this. One of the most helpful videos i've seen as far. A role model rocket stove for sure.
you all probably dont give a damn but does any of you know a method to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me!
@Korbyn Brysen i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
I've been researching a great many Rocket stove builds and designs and this is one of the most refined and well thought out ones yet. The one other that comes close was the Zaug stove. Great video and look forward to my own adventure in 'rocketry'. PS. Love the "rocket stove porn music" too.
It was just experimental. It is not much of a difference in the measuremnets that I could change it. Just be sure that the 'area' of the cylinder that is between the top plate and the top of the riser is at least the same as the area of the inner circel of the riser.
was anyone else waiting for Ron Jeremy to come out and start an all new conversation about "pipes"? ok, so the music sounded like something out of a '70's porno, but that design was outstanding. it made me rethink thermal dynamics and some other laws of physics. I never thought of inverting the stack and make the flow go down.
Because of this vortex the flue gasses mix better with the rest of the air, or with the secondary air if that is injected there. So there is (even better) complete combustion. Wood gas is slow burning, so if there is no second combustion, the chance is that unburned gasses escape into the flue pipe/chimney.
What makes this a rocket stove? I just see a continuous feed wood stove that sucks air noisily through a small opening...my 30 yr old wood stove does that. I thought a vortex was to mix enough air in there to get a blue efficient flame - otherwise what does it do other than look cool?
Hi Garry. There is a lot of information on the Internet, but in short: It is called a rocket stove because of the sound of it. And the efficiency is above 90%. And there is no smoke and no smell out of the flue pipe.
very nice work, have not build one yet but thinking about it,, one question from wife >>> if fire box is filled at 11 pm how long will it last before needs more wood put in ???
Thanks. Eh, all those feet, inches, I don't know. But for sure a rocket stove burns wood more efficient. But my design needs refilling quite often. Perhaps you want to build a much bigger fire-box, so you can put a lot of wood in once for a long burn?
Hard to say. The room it is standing in is 25 m2 (and 3,3 m high) gets hot. But it is drawing cold air from several other rooms an a kitchen. That's a total of 80 m2 extra which gets rather warm. Then there is also some heat going to the second floor.
The inside of the concrete box is 125 mm wide, 100 mm high and 225 mm deep. The walls are all 25 mm thick. The riser is a retail isolated double stainless steel pipe. It is 125 mm inside diameter and 175 mm outside. It ha a length of 1 meter. The outer tube has a diameter of 300 mm. The bottom part with the firebox welded in is 280 mm high. The upper part is 950 mm high. All the steel plate material is 2 mm thick. This rocket stove is sufficient to heat two big living rooms. But you need a bigger one if you want to heat a complete barn and greenhouse.
Nice design, but once operating & fill tube full, what is the heat operating time ? Our Schrader Royal Emprise will throw sound heat for 12 to 14 hours on 12 > 6" x 16" sticks.
+Papa Ritz Thanks. I have to refill every half hour, but that's no problem, I like to sit at the fire and looking at it reading (e-)books and (e-)magazines. I searched on Google: No results found for "Schrader Royal Emprise".
Robt. is the height of the stove pipe important? If so, what is the minimum it has to be? Have you used a narrower or wider tube? If so, what were the results? How tall can that vortex flame get.....in what diameter tube? Tks!!
Sure it’s important! It is one of the basic principles of the rocket stove. There is a strong draft in the inner riser pipe because of the high temperature. The longer the pipe, the stronger the draft (well, there must be an end to that when flowing resistance wins from the upstream force by temperature difference). I used a standard double sided stainless steel 1 meter pipe that is available at shops. The inner diameter is 125 mm. Then I designed the rest of my stove around it. So I didn’t experiment with other pipes. I think that the measurements are working well together. If you want more heat, you have to scale up all. You can calculate the “wideness” of the airflows. It must be the same through the whole path that the gasses follow. Correct that upward in the hot parts of the stove, because hot air expands, so it needs more space. The draft in the riser is the reason that so much air is sucked into the fire and it burns so hot. It also causes that sound, that rocket sound. That’s why it is called a rocket stove. The other effect is that you don’t need an external chimney with still hot air to suck out the flue gasses. You lose heat with that, because the chimney needs some hot air to function. In a rocket stove you actually push the flue out of the stove. The draft in the inner riser is the motor for that. So you can extract all the heat out of it by using a very long pipe inside your house. Or lead it through some sort of material (or water) to store the heat. Beware that there is some overpressure there, so make sure the fittings are airtight! Wood gas has a slow burning speed, so the flames can be long. But the vortex mixes the gas and the (secondary) air very good so that makes the total length less tall than then it would be without vortex. And because the gasses follow a spiral path, that path is longer than when it goes straight up. I seldom see the end of the vortex through that inspection I have on top of the riser.
No. It is a bad idea to do anything in the exhaust of a rocket stove! Normally in a chimney is lower pressure but because the draft in a rocket stove is in the INSIDE of the stove (in the riser), the flue gasses are PUSHED out into the chimney. If you block that, the flue will try to exhaust via other ways. The air intake though can be regulated. In my stove that is done by screwing up a circular plate that reduces the opening. The big door is closed then. You can see that in my first video, it is in the smaller box under my filler box. And in detail in the explanation about my secondary air at the end of the same video. But the heat output of my stove is at maximum if that is fully opened, and whith the big door opened slightly. The regulation is needed because if I run my stove at maximum for too long it is far too hot for my rooms.
Something to think about. 1. The burn chamber, the stack above the burn box, must get near red hot to work efficiently. 2. At those temperatures the burn chamber will degrade and be destroyed eventually. 3. The chamber enclosure, usually a barrel, will also be subjected to those temps and degraded developing a weak spot or hole. These parts will have to be replaced eventually and it would be convenient to not have to destroy the stove or have to build a new one. Any thoughts?
+Timothy Runyon Indeed, it even gets hotter than "near red hot". It gets cherry red, sometimes nearing orange. That's why I had to replace all the mild steel with stainless steel. That can survive those temperatures much longer. The fire resistant concrete is holding fine. The enclosure is not getting that hot, not even the top plate is getting red. And yes, parts has to be replaces some time. That's why I designed it as modular parts. So I can easily replace the inner parts without destroying the stove. See my video about the "disassemble inspection".
I'm OK with working wood, but no experience whatsoever with metal... Hence my question: is this kind of stove for sale somewhere (preferably in NL or BE)? Thx for the ideas and help!
Ik overweeg om een bedrijf te vragen om deze kachel in bescheiden productie te nemen. Maar dit is pas mijn prototype. Ben je geinteresseerd in overname van dit prototype als ik een volgende ga bouwen?
adjusting the riser pipe? what does that do? also 3 pipes? I see 1 in the load door, 1 under the burn box? boh of these are air intakes? the 3rd pipe? exhaust pipe? more explanation please. ive just started watching these rocket stove builds. most of the heat generated is in the large chamber due to the metel getting hot and retaining heat? looks like a professional build!
Adjusting the riser gap was just an experiment, read the other comments and replies. Only during the initial startup the front door (load door) is open. Normal air intake is trough the bottom intake, preheated. Then there is the "secondary" air pipe, using some air from the room, preheating it and then injecting it into the burning gasses, to help the complete combusting of unburned wood gas.
Thanks. I already explained "the gab" several times in several comments. See below and in the comments of my other video's. It's because of the discussions about the height of this gab. But I understand that this is an intriguing part of my design?
im gonna do a small one.. just a question tho.. do the flaps in the flu choke the fire down? im gonna do 3 small flaps and run a tube from the bottom side. into the fire then up 4" up the flu.. cheers for the video =)
King Daz The flaps are relatively small, and only change the direction. They do not choke the fire. There is a very hot column of almost one meter above the fire, drawing the flue upwards.
Great design and work. You probably already though of it but, what if you added a spiral water pipe inside the chambers. Not closed together but with a gap so the air can flow around it fully. That might aid in the air vortex and add water heating to the design. Lots of things you can do with hot water. Heating the water would also provide a pumping action as well, ( I think). That could also be added as a bolt in modal to what you have.
If you say "aid in the air vortex" you probably mean to add the spiral in the riser? But that is too dangerous. Gasses in the riser are 700 to 500°C hot. You could add a spiral in the outer chamber. And water has a high capacity for heath, so could store the heath. But security systems are needed because steam pressure is dangerous. You could add a very big water storage and connect it to the spiral. The spiral will pump the water around because the hot water will rise in the spiral and relatively colder water is drawn from the storage. You then store the heat rather efficiently, as long as you stay under 100°C.
How are you with the performance Are you happy with it how much wood would you use in a 24 hour time period did you put in a mass around your pipe which exits the heater? before going out the chimney?
I'm happy with the performance. I don't use it for full time heating, just for evenings in the weekend. No, I did not put mass around the pipe (yet). I live in an old house where I can use the produced warmth directly. But I will move to a modern zero-energy home in the near future, so I will have to change that. To get enough heat to the mass around the pipe, I will have to insulate the stove itself as well. Because now the heat is radiated from the upper part of the stove, and a lot of heat disappears in the convection to the air flowing around the stove.
Thank You for sharing Your design in such an informative way, including professional presentation! I'm getting fascinated with this concept, and Your videos showed me that there is more knowledge and experience behind it, than I expected. For now I need to make small pellet/wood rocket stove about 60 cm high, so it could fit to old open brick fireplace in main room (I can't change fireplace). What are Your findings about the riser gap adjuster? Do You adjust it time to time, or was it only to find the sweet spot and You left it that way since then. As I can imagine making gap too small will restrict flow of the gases and making it to big will reduce temperature in upper section making secondary burn (happening in top of the riser) less effective - is this correct, or are those changes marginal? 1. I also wonder if adding some heat reflecting/acumulating element (like ceramic honeycomb) might be helpful for secondary burn, because approx. 50cm riser that I can fit in seem quite short.. 2. As the stove would be started 2-3 times a day and I want to reduce smoke to minimum, I wonder about making bottom of the feed tube and riser itself rather heat insulated (perlite) than covered by accumulating material (f.e. fireclay bricks). That is to let the burn chamber achieve high temperature faster. For heat accumulation I might use fireclay bricks around the housing, but the old fireplace is covered by them, and that might be enough. 3.For housing I'm planning to use "quite popular heat exchanger" I've bought - its 20 cm diameter pipe, 60 cm high with series of flat bar pieces welded around it. Later If needed I might weld some steel net around it and use some small gravel as extra accumulating mass. 4. Do You think that riser made of 0.6mm wall pipe from inox (or rather acid-proof steel) used for chimneys won't burn-off to fast? From what I watch i videos it seem to be much more temperature proof that 3-4mm mild steel.
Thanks for your compliment. The riser gab adjuster was to experiment with that gab, because there is some discussion about it. But if you make sure that the imaginary ‘cilinder’ has the same area (so circumference times height) is around the same ore a little bit more than the inner area of the riser, then you are safe. 1. My riser is 1 meter, because it is a standard insulated chimney pipe. Shorter will work too, but if it is too short, there is no time for the mixture of (secondary) air and burning gasses to completely burn without smoke. So you need two things. First the temperature has to be as high as possible, so you have to insulate. Second you need enough length for the burn process to complete, by making the insulated riser long enough. So you have te experiment by making the inner parts of your stove, including the riser. You can wait making the outer drum and flue pipe. Place it outside and test it. If it burns without smoke (after the stove is fully heated) you’re fine. 2. Sure, the burning chamber has to be as hot as possible. But is does not have to accumulate heat. An external heat mass, outside of the stove, is much better. You can run the flue pipe through this mass to accumulate heat there. 3. You don’t really need a radiator in the stove itself, you will be surprised what the outer drum can radiate. Better is to store the heat in a heat mass, so you can burn the stove for a period of half an hour at full power. The heat mass will then radiate the heat over a long time. 4. My riser is build from two pipes of rather thin inox with insulation between it. The inner pipe is crackled by the high temperature. So I had to make a part of pipe of 2 mm thick inox to prevent that. Mild steel there is ‘eaten’ in very short time. You can see that in one of my other videos. I wish you luck and a lot of fun building your rocket stove.
Is the vortex counterclockwise, and if so did you place the fins that way because Northern Hemisphere??? Is every stove different or will every vortex in the Northern Hemisphere always be counterclockwise and vice verse???
Interesting thought... But I think that the force created by the fins is far more stronger than the Coriolis force on this small column of air. It does have effect on big masses of air, of course, but not on this scale.
Hello, How important is the gap at the top. I couldn't stop thinking all night, when a woke up I had this idea for the vortex. So now i want to build one. i like to show what I came up with. How could I send this to you??
sharkmotorsports1a The surface of the inner riser pipe circle must be the same as the surface of the cylinder formed by the gap height standing on top of the riser.
As you could read in other answers: it was experimental. If you design enough surface for letting the flue to escape, there is no problem. Bigger is good, smaller is a problem.
+Mark Patjowls In short: for extra mixing of air and flue. That was asked before, so read through the comments of this and my other video's. All those comments contain other useful information as well.
Very handsome and interesting piece, Robert! I hope you post more videos about how it performs. RUclips is full of little vids at the moment by people talking about their 'rocket' stoves; diy tinkerers who clearly haven't studied the principles of rocket construction, as developed over thirty years by Dr. Winiarski and colleagues at Aprovecho - plus lots of end-user women in poor countries feeding back their crucially-important improvement comments to the Aprovecho researchers. At least you seem to be well-aware of all that work, and don't set out to re-invent the - well, the rocket. Quality design and engineering work to; a pleasure to see it. With all the built-in capability in your design to vary important parameters, I expect you're going to learn more about how to get the best out of rockets. I hope you keep posting about what you learn. One thing: lately, in my own rockets, I've begun to wonder about vortices in the riser tube: Is a vortex really what's needed? The principle is to get TURBULENT flow in the riser, to get thorough mixing of residual unburnt fuel and hot secondary air, so that the final burn of all available fuel takes place in the upper riser, with maximum temperature achieved just at the top, where the flue-gases hit the pot, outer-drum, or whatever. Could it be that chaotic, rather than vortical flow would achieve this better? I don't know, Just wondering. At any event, instead of copying your excellent vortex inducer at the bottom of your riser, on the next rocket that I'm building I shall be aiming instead to induce the same fast flow, but in chaotic, turbulent manner, rather than that truly impressive vortex that we see looking down your riser tube. If vortical flow IS the best way to go, though, I'd say you've cracked it with that design! Congratulations! Interestingly, I've always observed vortices in my riser tubes even without any special inducers, beyond the sharp angle of the elbow between feed tube and riser, as recommended by the Aprovecho design principles; but I've never had any vortex as thorough as the one in your riser. That's probably the best I've seen.
Sure I'm aware of Winiarski's work an that of the people at Aprovecho. I just wanted to add my idea's to that. And turbulent air is very good. That's why you need a sharp 90 degree angle from the horizontal feed tube to the riser. The designs that use a smooth 90 degree "elbow"-pipe are wrong. But I think that above that place, in the riser itself, the vortex adds even more mixture of unburned gasses and secondary preheated air. Thanks for your compliment though.
Hi A beautifull piece of work excellent craftmanship! Nevertheless some hints from my side. The vortex vanes in the riser are probably obsolete. Flame vortices are initiated by efficient combustion not by vanes. I very much like your idea of the perforated air inlet pipe. I have concern about the longevity of the stove. The very high temperatures in the riser section will cause desintegration of any steel type including.mild steel or stainless steel. Stainless steels 304 and 316 (and other types such as titanium stabelised) are not high temperature heat resistant. Also the combustion type must be taken into account for material selection --> e.g. oxigen rich environment or carbon rich sooty environment. You should consider the use of refractory materials which are far superior than stainless steel sheet metal. I have excellent results with a home made refractory liner of the steel riser pipe consisting of clay, sand perlite, and sodium silicate. (waterglas). The riser is the hotspot of the stove and a very critical part of the stove. No cracks in the liner! No detoriation of the mild steel riser pipe since in contact with low temp. flue gas only. I have used my home made refractory mix for the fire box too. 👍 Another hint is to give the refractory liner In the riser a venturi shape. You could locate the secundary combustion air inlet jets within the liner integrated venturi. The 2nd combustion air would intensify the combustion process a great deal. The vortex will start in the venturi and will thoroughly mix the secundary air with the carbon rich flue gasses coming out of the fire box. It is also possible to preheat the secundary combustion air by circulation it within the riserwall. This would cool down the riser a bit and would increase the combustion temperature.... resulting in an even better fuel efficiency and longevity. Regards Bert España
Thanks for your compliment and comment. The vortex vanes work fine, the route through the riser is longer because of the vortex. You are correct about using refractory materials for the riser, although my stainless steel part with the vanes is fine until now. Your idea about a venturi in the riser is interesting but obsolete, because there already is a lower pressure in the riser. And a venture will not generate a vortex, nor does a efficient combustion. And I think it is not a good idea to cool down a riser. The hot riser is one of the tricks of a rocket stove, you did mention that yourself. But thanks for the idea's.
Hi, i just watched this vid n noticed it was month ago. Great job!! I hope i have that lots of PATIENCE N knowledge of presenting my vids too TO BE ABLE TO MENTION THOSE STOVIE GUYS WHOM I THANKED A LOT FOR their ideas. Very nice project. Bravo!! Hope to see much more next. Good Luck and God Bless.
Your vortex is poor, but that's because you're trying to make one out of turbulent air. Move your burn a few inches away from the riser, to clean up the flow. Then, instead of welding directly to the riser, choke it laterally, forcing the flame to conform to the side at the point of entry.
I am curious about few design features. I wonder about why you used those vanes to create a vortex which also gives rise to the question of not using the outside cylinder to create the torus. The other question is what you are using for thermal mass.
Perhaps you should read the answers to similar questions. In short: The vortex is to mix secondary air and burning wood gasses. There is no burning gas in the outer cilinder, so no need for a vortex. I'm not using any thermal mass at the moment. Quick heating is my goal.
Nice design, I'm in the middle of building one at the moment too. Could you tell me where you got those fasteners that you're using to secure the top drum please? Thanks
+Callum Mckay Just at the local hardware shop. Like in this link: bouwkern.com/klussen/ijzerwaren/hang/meubelbeslag/eierkistsluiting-gegalvaniseerd-75mm. I did not use te hook but replaced that with an selfmade adjustable one.
absolutely fantastic design. I'm wanting to incorporate a copper coil for hot water and the vortex is fantastic. externally not inside. however have you a design or pattern for this stove if your not producing them yourselves?
Great build . Tell me , is the feedre box double walled on all sides , or is it just the left and right . The air intake at the bottom of the feed box is hard to see . Perhaps you could show it more in detail in a future video ? Pat ( Belgium )
Thanks. The feeder box is double walled on three sides (left, right and bottom). The top wall is isolated with a fireproof plate. Pulling hot air downwards would make no sense. You can see the air intake in detail on my first video in the playlist (ruclips.net/p/PL_-61alqZRX002xu9NtwPaJ2vvZnaRW6T). It shows an animation of the airflow (at 2:40 and later).
Very nice design, after two years of use how is the metal standing up to the job? I tend to be a belt and braces engineer, one or two parts looked a little lightweight such as the top section catches and the secondary air tube. does the end of the air tube at the bottom of the vortex get very hot or does it's position mean it is just below the heat flow enough to stay relatively cool? Anyway an excellent design, if you should decide to sell plans I would be interested in buying them as I am moving to a house in mainland Spain that is off grid and a rocket stove will be a must have for me.
Hard to say. I did a lot of the work myself. And I have a friendly relationship with the metal workshop over here. And had to replace some mild steel part with stainless steel afterwords. Most of the steel is 2 mm thick. Material about 40 euro mild steel. Replacement with stainless steel about 45 euros. Working hours of the metal shop around 270 euros. What do you mean with "cheating" using the stator blades? I deliberately used those blades there to create a better vortex. Without that there also is a possible vortex, but not that strong.
Thanks. And sure you can. I myself replaced some parts with stainless steel versions. But to build it completely out of stainless steel will be expensive?
Graag gedaan. Vuur zie je daar zelden, wel leuke vonkjes. Het was meer bedoeld om te zien of daar nog rook was. En rook is er niet vaak, hooguit bij het net aansteken. Maar nog wel wat roetaanslag. Na ongeveer twee avonden stoken wordt het moeilijk om er door te kijken. Maar het is heel eenvoudig om het glaasje te demonteren en schoon te maken.
+HyperGro DWC Yes it is. Actually it is two parts. The first is thick walled pipe with the vanes welded in. First that part was made of normal mild steel but that corroded to much in the intense heat. The stainless steel is holding fine. But the second part is sliding over the first and is a standard available double-walled pipe with isolation in it. But the inner wall is deforming because of the heat. More and more builders are experimenting with fireproof concrete risers to prevent the heat problems.
I was thinking about the view of the fire, because I like that. The higher angle would be nice to "autofeed", I guess. I just push the wood by adding new wood, so no auto feeding needed.
Thanks. You can find lots of information about vortex and rocket stove on the Internet. In short: for an even better mixing of the secondary air with the leftover burnable wood gas.
Seguiremos tu diseño para una clase de emprendimiento en nuestra escuela... El tema es Disgn Thinking y esto que haces es genial desde esa técnica. Ah, y de paso trataremos de resolver el problema de la contaminación por gases no quemados en la combustión y la calefacción doméstica a precios accesibles. Saludos y mil gracias.
Nice to hear that your school if following me. And rocket stoves do great in burning all the stuff in the exhaust gasses. One problem for "normal" household heating is that you have to refill it so much. So an idea is to combine pellet feeding with rocket stove design. Google translate: Es bueno saber que tu escuela si me sigue. Y las estufas de cohetes funcionan muy bien al quemar todas las cosas en los gases de escape. Un problema para la calefacción doméstica "normal" es que se debe rellenar mucho. Así que una idea es combinar la alimentación de pellets con el diseño de la estufa de cohetes.
Heard that music and thought immediately of Ron Jeremy , Issac Hayes ,bell bottoms and huge shades . Otherwise good design work ! 😸 ✌ 😎 It's too bad that most of that heat is going straight up the chimney and not heating up some mass instead.
Thnaks. Because of the slow speed of the flue going down in the outer drum, there is a lot of radiation of heat. The exhaust themperature is inly abouy 80 to 100 degrees Celcius.
Thanks. This is a prototype. I am working on designing a production model. A few minor changes are still needed. Google translate: Gracias. Este es un prototipo. Estoy trabajando en el diseño de un modelo de producción. Todavía se necesitan algunos cambios menores.
Wat gebeurd er als je de maten van je box maal 2 doet ? denk er naar om hem bijna na te maken zoals deze alleen dan zonder 2de lucht toevoer en hem wat groter ivm grotere brand wil hebben ;) Alvast bedankt.
Dat kan. Ik overweeg zelf om een ander soort vuurkist te maken, nadat ik het laatste model van ppotty1 zag. Zie ruclips.net/video/yK93KkFT7sE/видео.html Die 2e luchttoevoer moet je niet weglaten.
Robert J.H. Gisolf ja die zag ik ook langs komen. De gegoten pijp ga ik vanmiddag proberen na te maken van vuurvaste stenen en vanuit die maten iets maken.
Robert J.H. Gisolf this is exactly what I want too. Really wish I could buy it but I fully understand. I appreciate your attention to detail and craftsmanship. This is a beautiful piece of functional art. I’m a fan!
Hello, I've just moved to The Netherlands and when I buy a house, this is the stove I want. You've created the best design I've seen anywhere. Are you selling them? Plans? Please let me know.
There is still only one prototype. Don't know how to commercially build it yet. Can you tell me what you eventually want to pay for it? And how about transport costs? From the Netherlands to your country?
Hi there, in Brasil. I don't sell it yet, but considering that. But apart from that, how do you think about the transport from The Netherlands to Brasil?
+sannmarc Glasstrip 40mm, zie www.haardmaterialen.nl (onderdelen en reparatie). Die heeft veel nuttige spullen zoals glasvezelkoord, vuurvast beton, Calconplaat, pijpmteriaal etc. En bedankt voor je compliment.
Filler box is around 275 mm long, 125 mm wide. Opening is 135 mm wide, narrowing to 125 mm. Core is 125 mm wide, 125 mm high, around 225 mm long. The walls are cast fireproof concrete, wall thickness 25 mm. Riser is a standard available one meter flue pipe of double stainless steel pipe with isolation. Inside diameter is 125 mm, outside is 175 mm. Drum is 300 mm diameter, thickness is 2 mm. Total height is about 1200 mm (without the legs). Flue pipe is 125 mm diameter.
Beautiful video because the rocket stove is taken from the homestead into a modern home. The stove design speaks for itself. And the video of the burn is pyro-beautiful.Thank you.
Thanks. This is indeed in my home. But my house is build around 1890...
Dear Robert, thank you very much indeed for sharing this beautiful project with us. So far, and from my point of view, is the best I've ever seen. Last years I've been considering to build my own stove rocket, and the starting point will be your design, that's for sure...
Best wishes !!
+Pep Montfort Hi there, thanks for the honor. Mind that you use stainless steel then....!
Very well build. You make the rest of us look like amateurs. Thank you for posting your design and all the effort. Awesome build
thisIsMe Thank you. But I'm also an amateur in this rocket stove scene. My profession is ICT Architecture. And I just put together all the smart inventions of the other "amateurs", and left out the bad things. OK, I admit that my education (University of applied science) did help in this case.
+ Robert JH Gisolf CIAO ROBERT,BELLO IL TUO LAVORO,DESIDERO COSTRUIRE UNA STUFA COME LA TUA, E' POSSIBILE AVERE I DISEGNI?TI INVIO LA MIA E-MAIL giusepperubicco@gmail.com ,GRAZIE PER L'ATTENZIONE
+giuseppe rubicco I have some Sketchup drawings. I still have planned to put together a building plan, have patience.
Ho alcuni disegni Sketchup. Ho ancora programmato di mettere insieme un piano di costruzione, abbi pazienza.
Wow, that is an incredible rocket stove. I dare say the nicest I've seen on the net. I've had the idea to do a vortex rocket stove for some time. Thanks for showing that it works beautifully.
Wow, thanks! The nicest on the net? But there are so many nice rocket stoves on the net...
Finally a well made video and well explained.
for the supply of air from outside to not cool the air of the house with a cold hose you could use a Canadian well or " puit canadien" in french
The pipe share many of the different meters or feet on the ground, if one descends into warmer air and brings it home. A pipe that comes directly from the outside in winter is very cold and cooled air for nothing.
+Laurent t. Interesting, this "Canadian Well". My basement has a sort of same effect. My stove sucks air from under my floor. The "crawl space" under the floor sucks air through holes in the wall of the basement, picks up some energy of the ground beneath my basement. My room-floor is isolated, so will not participate in any heat exchange.
THAT is the best stove of it's kind
I've ever seen on RUclips ! ( I've seen a bunch of them too )
It looks complicated ( and expensive
to buy , if , one was for sale !!!!
I'd love to see how you did the gap adjuster mechanism. I've been thinking of trying something similar to find the "sweet spot" without having to disassemble it every time I made a change.
I also love the idea of the vortex vanes for mixing. And the clips and especially the door prop - all genius ideas and really well executed.
Thanks for sharing
Tee Jay Is the "gab adjuster" not visible in the video? The riser has two pins attached to a ring. The ring is turning on an axle on one side and on a screw on the other side. That's no "rocket science" :)
That would have to be the best "Rocket Heater" I have seen yet. Great design with great results and beautifully finished. I dips me lid to you.
Really? Its obstructed by the weird anti-vortex flaps they put in there.... lol I'd trash this
Gracias Robert por mostrarnos este proyecto, estas haciendo un gran aporte a reducir la contaminación y aprovechar mejor la energia
Beautiful build. Your video is rather vague and at times, dark. Excellent engineering, very inspiring. Please make a video that explains your design even if you use sketches. I'm very impressed.
I just finished building a 55 gallon barrel version based of zerofossilfuel's design. I used insulated firebrick and went to a 6 inch flue and equivalent burn chamber. I'm getting excellent performance, even from this very basic design without any vortex or secondary air.
I find that I need to tend the fire every 20 minutes without fail. Sometimes I can't get to it that often and, I have to rebuild the fire. I have an excellent source of stainless steel bits and will be making a pellet basket. I realize that I'll need to regulate the burn because pellets can really take off. Thank you for suggesting the burn control from the air intake side.
Looking forward to my next build. Also, thanks for listing the sources of inspiration. There's some rocket stove rock stars there. My next build will include bits from all of them, including yours.
Cheers!
Tomwalz, thanks for your compliments. Did you see my first video, about the design? In that animation I build my stove, part by part. You commented on my third video.
I'm happy to help you with "my bits".
Very nice indeed Robert, some great features on the stove its clear you thought out the design well and made future maintenance easy. It all looks superb, many thanks for a mention in the credits. Loz.
Thanks ppotty1. I learned a lot from your stove video's. You'll recognize the door and the double walls of the firebox. They are sort of the same as yours.
Robert J.H. Gisolf
ppotty1 is a rocket stove rock star... very nice to see this exchange.
I built a larger version of Zero's stove... no vortex but I'm on my 3rd season. I used the super light insulated fire brick.
I am interested in how the riser adjustment alters the burn. Please respond, because I was considering it for my next build, which will include a vortex, as well as some other adjustable features.
My stove is on my channel... there's also a video of a failed batch box addition... embarrassing, but so many lessons learned... the only change that worked is that I doubled the size of the fuel chamber so I could get longer refueling times.
The biggest lesson learned was that metal sucks heat, and is to be avoided within the stove as much as possible. This is very important for those who heat a mass. As for folks like ppotty1 who use it as a space heater, then, metal is your friend.
I use mine as a space and mass heater.
Rock(et) on.
Very well made. I particularly like the glass face that allows different air settings. The chamber air vortex baffles is over my head but the resulting vortex is awesome.
I'm still working on tin can designs. I'd like to make one with a double interior wall sending the air down and through a horizontal and flat surface to a 2nd chamber exit. The flat surface can be used as a griddle while the top of the rocket can be used also.
Yours is top shelf. Thanks for sharing.
trumpsahead Thanks. The glass face also shows the fire, which I like to look at.Your idea of the double interior wall in the tin can seems identical to the Rocket Stove Heater plans. Instead of letting the hot air escape from the top you lead it down again. The top of the rocket stove will be very hot, but I don't quite understand the use of the bottom flat surface as a griddle.
Robert J.H. Gisolf
Oh, also nothing new about the flat bottom as a griddle. Make it wide & long enough to cook on and only about 1 or 2 inches high to let hot gases pass through into the next chamber pipe which goes up and away.
There are videos somewhere on youtube that show this idea.
There is nothing new under the sun I'm sure, but we sure have fun rediscovering, don't we? God bless, love your work. ciao.
Great design, functional and good looking! You've presented me with two great ideas for my own concept. The main airflow from under the house and the raising and lowering of the riser itself. I'm planing on duel adjustable preheated ins, they will however be attached running along the top of the fill box and then out the top so as to avoid drawing in excessive air into the fillbox, which essentially means burning more fuel. Honestly can't wait to get my gloves dirty!
+Stefan Bachrodt Thanks. And did you see that my preheated inlet is adjustable too? The stove sometimes runs better with less air. If there is a lot of wind, the drawing of the chimney is too much. In that case I close my inlet a bit.
Most unique and pleasing design...excellent workmanship👍
I really love your rocket stove, this is artwork.
An auto feed would be great. Great product and video. Thanks for posting.
wow great idea, like a rocket stove and mass heater hybrid. beautiful design and looks great in the home. i wonder if any mods possible for cooking, oven etc. i love the beauty of it, but i also love old wood cook stoves, man food for thought there. thank you for sharing your awesome ideas.
Thanks. And I sometimes put a large pan on the top to boil chicken soup, because that needs a long time simmering. Or pasta, that sort of things. Works great.
A very fine piece of work. Congratulations. Many will watch this and benefit, as I will. On the vortex, since you asked, it appears to me, from the shot provided, that your vanes actually break up the early formation of the natural vortex, tumbling the air and forcing it to reform. If that's what I see, it may be a happy accident that causes a late, last burning in the tumble and a cleaner result, as your result looked exceptionally clean. Anyway, hard to see from here. One hell of a great stove there!
Thanks for your compliment(s). Yes, tumbling and reforming generates a lot of turbulance. And that mixes the secondary air with leftover burnable wood gas (otherwise escaping as smoke). The "natural" vortex (if existing) is not very strong.
The flue gasses only contain water vapour and (recycled) CO2. No smoke, no smell.
Awesome performance....thats more what I'm looking for! I'm an aviation guy and I thought it should be modeled more like a turbine engine rather than a wood stove. Nice work.
Nice work, Good video, It's clear y'all put some thought into this. One of the most helpful videos i've seen as far. A role model rocket stove for sure.
you all probably dont give a damn but does any of you know a method to log back into an instagram account..?
I was stupid lost my password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me!
@Devon Ty instablaster :)
@Korbyn Brysen i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
@Korbyn Brysen it worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy!
Thanks so much you really help me out !
@Devon Ty Glad I could help :)
Putting a vortex in a rocket stove is such a great idea. I need to put a vortex in the next rocket stove I make with my everlast welder.
Great work specially the roaring sound of cracking wood similar to Rocket
I've been researching a great many Rocket stove builds and designs and this is one of the most refined and well thought out ones yet. The one other that comes close was the Zaug stove. Great video and look forward to my own adventure in 'rocketry'.
PS. Love the "rocket stove porn music" too.
Thanks. And good luck with your adventure then.
Very elegant and well thought design. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, you`re welcome
What is the effect of raising or lowering the top gap between inner and outer drums?
It was just experimental. It is not much of a difference in the measuremnets that I could change it. Just be sure that the 'area' of the cylinder that is between the top plate and the top of the riser is at least the same as the area of the inner circel of the riser.
Pretty awesome unit. Well done!
was anyone else waiting for Ron Jeremy to come out and start an all new conversation about "pipes"? ok, so the music sounded like something out of a '70's porno, but that design was outstanding. it made me rethink thermal dynamics and some other laws of physics. I never thought of inverting the stack and make the flow go down.
very good build. keep up the good work.
I'm not sure if you covered this yet, but what is the reason for the vortex?
Because of this vortex the flue gasses mix better with the rest of the air, or with the secondary air if that is injected there. So there is (even better) complete combustion. Wood gas is slow burning, so if there is no second combustion, the chance is that unburned gasses escape into the flue pipe/chimney.
Ah, makes sense. Very cool design.
What makes this a rocket stove? I just see a continuous feed wood stove that sucks air noisily through a small opening...my 30 yr old wood stove does that. I thought a vortex was to mix enough air in there to get a blue efficient flame - otherwise what does it do other than look cool?
Hi Garry. There is a lot of information on the Internet, but in short: It is called a rocket stove because of the sound of it. And the efficiency is above 90%. And there is no smoke and no smell out of the flue pipe.
very nice work, have not build one yet but thinking about it,, one question from wife >>> if fire box is filled at 11 pm how long will it last before needs more wood put in ???
Thanks. Eh, all those feet, inches, I don't know. But for sure a rocket stove burns wood more efficient. But my design needs refilling quite often. Perhaps you want to build a much bigger fire-box, so you can put a lot of wood in once for a long burn?
Your video production is awesome. Also, the vortex is awesome :D
nice stove. what the maximum area it will heat up?
Hard to say. The room it is standing in is 25 m2 (and 3,3 m high) gets hot. But it is drawing cold air from several other rooms an a kitchen. That's a total of 80 m2 extra which gets rather warm. Then there is also some heat going to the second floor.
Amazing build. What are the measurements? I am looking to build something similar to heat a barn and greenhouse.
The inside of the concrete box is 125 mm wide, 100 mm high and 225 mm deep. The walls are all 25 mm thick. The riser is a retail isolated double stainless steel pipe. It is 125 mm inside diameter and 175 mm outside. It ha a length of 1 meter. The outer tube has a diameter of 300 mm. The bottom part with the firebox welded in is 280 mm high. The upper part is 950 mm high. All the steel plate material is 2 mm thick.
This rocket stove is sufficient to heat two big living rooms.
But you need a bigger one if you want to heat a complete barn and greenhouse.
Amazing design with neat additions. Can you share your material list?
Nice design, but once operating & fill tube full, what is the heat operating time ? Our Schrader Royal Emprise will throw sound heat for 12 to 14 hours on 12 > 6" x 16" sticks.
+Papa Ritz Thanks. I have to refill every half hour, but that's no problem, I like to sit at the fire and looking at it reading (e-)books and (e-)magazines. I searched on Google: No results found for "Schrader Royal Emprise".
How you clean burning chamber from ash or other unburned particles? Or it is not even needed?
Not needed. The wood burns almost completely. A have a small shovel to get the ash out sometimes.
Robt. is the height of the stove pipe important? If so, what is the minimum it has to be? Have you used a narrower or wider tube? If so, what were the results? How tall can that vortex flame get.....in what diameter tube? Tks!!
Sure it’s important! It is one of the basic principles of the rocket stove. There is a strong draft in the inner riser pipe because of the high temperature. The longer the pipe, the stronger the draft (well, there must be an end to that when flowing resistance wins from the upstream force by temperature difference). I used a standard double sided stainless steel 1 meter pipe that is available at shops. The inner diameter is 125 mm. Then I designed the rest of my stove around it. So I didn’t experiment with other pipes. I think that the measurements are working well together. If you want more heat, you have to scale up all. You can calculate the “wideness” of the airflows. It must be the same through the whole path that the gasses follow. Correct that upward in the hot parts of the stove, because hot air expands, so it needs more space.
The draft in the riser is the reason that so much air is sucked into the fire and it burns so hot. It also causes that sound, that rocket sound. That’s why it is called a rocket stove.
The other effect is that you don’t need an external chimney with still hot air to suck out the flue gasses. You lose heat with that, because the chimney needs some hot air to function. In a rocket stove you actually push the flue out of the stove. The draft in the inner riser is the motor for that. So you can extract all the heat out of it by using a very long pipe inside your house. Or lead it through some sort of material (or water) to store the heat. Beware that there is some overpressure there, so make sure the fittings are airtight!
Wood gas has a slow burning speed, so the flames can be long. But the vortex mixes the gas and the (secondary) air very good so that makes the total length less tall than then it would be without vortex. And because the gasses follow a spiral path, that path is longer than when it goes straight up. I seldom see the end of the vortex through that inspection I have on top of the riser.
wonder would would happen if you welded an auger into the chimney...
would it slow the gases down a bit and cause them to burn even hotter?
No. It is a bad idea to do anything in the exhaust of a rocket stove! Normally in a chimney is lower pressure but because the draft in a rocket stove is in the INSIDE of the stove (in the riser), the flue gasses are PUSHED out into the chimney. If you block that, the flue will try to exhaust via other ways.
The air intake though can be regulated. In my stove that is done by screwing up a circular plate that reduces the opening. The big door is closed then. You can see that in my first video, it is in the smaller box under my filler box. And in detail in the explanation about my secondary air at the end of the same video.
But the heat output of my stove is at maximum if that is fully opened, and whith the big door opened slightly. The regulation is needed because if I run my stove at maximum for too long it is far too hot for my rooms.
Something to think about.
1. The burn chamber, the stack above the burn box, must get near red hot to work efficiently.
2. At those temperatures the burn chamber will degrade and be destroyed eventually.
3. The chamber enclosure, usually a barrel, will also be subjected to those temps and degraded developing a weak spot or hole.
These parts will have to be replaced eventually and it would be convenient to not have to destroy the stove or have to build a new one.
Any thoughts?
+Timothy Runyon Indeed, it even gets hotter than "near red hot". It gets cherry red, sometimes nearing orange. That's why I had to replace all the mild steel with stainless steel. That can survive those temperatures much longer. The fire resistant concrete is holding fine.
The enclosure is not getting that hot, not even the top plate is getting red.
And yes, parts has to be replaces some time. That's why I designed it as modular parts. So I can easily replace the inner parts without destroying the stove. See my video about the "disassemble inspection".
Thanks.
I'm OK with working wood, but no experience whatsoever with metal...
Hence my question: is this kind of stove for sale somewhere (preferably in NL or BE)?
Thx for the ideas and help!
Ik overweeg om een bedrijf te vragen om deze kachel in bescheiden productie te nemen. Maar dit is pas mijn prototype. Ben je geinteresseerd in overname van dit prototype als ik een volgende ga bouwen?
Robert J.H. Gisolf Mijn bericht gekregen, Robert? ;-)
adjusting the riser pipe? what does that do? also 3 pipes? I see 1 in the load door, 1 under the burn box? boh of these are air intakes? the 3rd pipe? exhaust pipe? more explanation please. ive just started watching these rocket stove builds. most of the heat generated is in the large chamber due to the metel getting hot and retaining heat? looks like a professional build!
Adjusting the riser gap was just an experiment, read the other comments and replies.
Only during the initial startup the front door (load door) is open. Normal air intake is trough the bottom intake, preheated. Then there is the "secondary" air pipe, using some air from the room, preheating it and then injecting it into the burning gasses, to help the complete combusting of unburned wood gas.
Brilliant design. Are you manufacturing them for sale? Thanks
Not yet! But we are in the process.
@@RobertJHGisolf please add me to your mailing list, Robert, for when you have a finished product. Best of luck to you!
Very wellk thought of highly simple and excellence of design
hello this is a nice rocket.Can you explain why we have make a adustable "gap"?
thank you
laurent from france
Thanks. I already explained "the gab" several times in several comments. See below and in the comments of my other video's. It's because of the discussions about the height of this gab. But I understand that this is an intriguing part of my design?
im gonna do a small one.. just a question tho..
do the flaps in the flu choke the fire down? im gonna do 3 small flaps and run a tube from the bottom side. into the fire then up 4" up the flu.. cheers for the video =)
King Daz The flaps are relatively small, and only change the direction. They do not choke the fire. There is a very hot column of almost one meter above the fire, drawing the flue upwards.
Great design and work. You probably already though of it but, what if you added a spiral water pipe inside the chambers. Not closed together but with a gap so the air can flow around it fully. That might aid in the air vortex and add water heating to the design. Lots of things you can do with hot water. Heating the water would also provide a pumping action as well, ( I think). That could also be added as a bolt in modal to what you have.
If you say "aid in the air vortex" you probably mean to add the spiral in the riser? But that is too dangerous. Gasses in the riser are 700 to 500°C hot. You could add a spiral in the outer chamber. And water has a high capacity for heath, so could store the heath. But security systems are needed because steam pressure is dangerous. You could add a very big water storage and connect it to the spiral. The spiral will pump the water around because the hot water will rise in the spiral and relatively colder water is drawn from the storage. You then store the heat rather efficiently, as long as you stay under 100°C.
Sooo he, die is in mijn favorieten gegaan. Te gek gedaan, mijn complimenten. Die vortex man... :)
Dankjewel.
How are you with the performance Are you happy with it how much wood would you use in a 24 hour time period did you put in a mass around your pipe which exits the heater? before going out the chimney?
I'm happy with the performance. I don't use it for full time heating, just for evenings in the weekend. No, I did not put mass around the pipe (yet). I live in an old house where I can use the produced warmth directly. But I will move to a modern zero-energy home in the near future, so I will have to change that. To get enough heat to the mass around the pipe, I will have to insulate the stove itself as well. Because now the heat is radiated from the upper part of the stove, and a lot of heat disappears in the convection to the air flowing around the stove.
Thank You for sharing Your design in such an informative way, including professional presentation! I'm getting fascinated with this concept, and Your videos showed me that there is more knowledge and experience behind it, than I expected. For now I need to make small pellet/wood rocket stove about 60 cm high, so it could fit to old open brick fireplace in main room (I can't change fireplace). What are Your findings about the riser gap adjuster? Do You adjust it time to time, or was it only to find the sweet spot and You left it that way since then. As I can imagine making gap too small will restrict flow of the gases and making it to big will reduce temperature in upper section making secondary burn (happening in top of the riser) less effective - is this correct, or are those changes marginal?
1. I also wonder if adding some heat reflecting/acumulating element (like ceramic honeycomb) might be helpful for secondary burn, because approx. 50cm riser that I can fit in seem quite short..
2. As the stove would be started 2-3 times a day and I want to reduce smoke to minimum, I wonder about making bottom of the feed tube and riser itself rather heat insulated (perlite) than covered by accumulating material (f.e. fireclay bricks). That is to let the burn chamber achieve high temperature faster. For heat accumulation I might use fireclay bricks around the housing, but the old fireplace is covered by them, and that might be enough.
3.For housing I'm planning to use "quite popular heat exchanger" I've bought - its 20 cm diameter pipe, 60 cm high with series of flat bar pieces welded around it. Later If needed I might weld some steel net around it and use some small gravel as extra accumulating mass.
4. Do You think that riser made of 0.6mm wall pipe from inox (or rather acid-proof steel) used for chimneys won't burn-off to fast? From what I watch i videos it seem to be much more temperature proof that 3-4mm mild steel.
Thanks for your compliment. The riser gab adjuster was to experiment with that gab, because there is some discussion about it. But if you make sure that the imaginary ‘cilinder’ has the same area (so circumference times height) is around the same ore a little bit more than the inner area of the riser, then you are safe.
1. My riser is 1 meter, because it is a standard insulated chimney pipe. Shorter will work too, but if it is too short, there is no time for the mixture of (secondary) air and burning gasses to completely burn without smoke. So you need two things. First the temperature has to be as high as possible, so you have to insulate. Second you need enough length for the burn process to complete, by making the insulated riser long enough. So you have te experiment by making the inner parts of your stove, including the riser. You can wait making the outer drum and flue pipe. Place it outside and test it. If it burns without smoke (after the stove is fully heated) you’re fine.
2. Sure, the burning chamber has to be as hot as possible. But is does not have to accumulate heat. An external heat mass, outside of the stove, is much better. You can run the flue pipe through this mass to accumulate heat there.
3. You don’t really need a radiator in the stove itself, you will be surprised what the outer drum can radiate. Better is to store the heat in a heat mass, so you can burn the stove for a period of half an hour at full power. The heat mass will then radiate the heat over a long time.
4. My riser is build from two pipes of rather thin inox with insulation between it. The inner pipe is crackled by the high temperature. So I had to make a part of pipe of 2 mm thick inox to prevent that. Mild steel there is ‘eaten’ in very short time. You can see that in one of my other videos.
I wish you luck and a lot of fun building your rocket stove.
Is the vortex counterclockwise, and if so did you place the fins that way because Northern Hemisphere??? Is every stove different or will every vortex in the Northern Hemisphere always be counterclockwise and vice verse???
Interesting thought... But I think that the force created by the fins is far more stronger than the Coriolis force on this small column of air. It does have effect on big masses of air, of course, but not on this scale.
Hello, How important is the gap at the top. I couldn't stop thinking all night, when a woke up I had this idea for the vortex. So now i want to build one. i like to show what I came up with. How could I send this to you??
What would be a good starting gap height?
sharkmotorsports1a The surface of the inner riser pipe circle must be the same as the surface of the cylinder formed by the gap height standing on top of the riser.
send it to my gmail: rjhgisolf@gmail.com
Did you make air intake under the flor??
Yes. See my other videos
No, I did not but i will check them. Tnx
is the adjustability really necessary?
it adds a level of difficulty that might stop a first timer from trying the build.
As you could read in other answers: it was experimental. If you design enough surface for letting the flue to escape, there is no problem. Bigger is good, smaller is a problem.
what's the importance of the vortex?
+Mark Patjowls In short: for extra mixing of air and flue. That was asked before, so read through the comments of this and my other video's. All those comments contain other useful information as well.
+Robert J.H. Gisolf got it, thanks.
Very handsome and interesting piece, Robert! I hope you post more videos about how it performs. RUclips is full of little vids at the moment by people talking about their 'rocket' stoves; diy tinkerers who clearly haven't studied the principles of rocket construction, as developed over thirty years by Dr. Winiarski and colleagues at Aprovecho - plus lots of end-user women in poor countries feeding back their crucially-important improvement comments to the Aprovecho researchers. At least you seem to be well-aware of all that work, and don't set out to re-invent the - well, the rocket. Quality design and engineering work to; a pleasure to see it. With all the built-in capability in your design to vary important parameters, I expect you're going to learn more about how to get the best out of rockets. I hope you keep posting about what you learn.
One thing: lately, in my own rockets, I've begun to wonder about vortices in the riser tube: Is a vortex really what's needed? The principle is to get TURBULENT flow in the riser, to get thorough mixing of residual unburnt fuel and hot secondary air, so that the final burn of all available fuel takes place in the upper riser, with maximum temperature achieved just at the top, where the flue-gases hit the pot, outer-drum, or whatever. Could it be that chaotic, rather than vortical flow would achieve this better? I don't know, Just wondering. At any event, instead of copying your excellent vortex inducer at the bottom of your riser, on the next rocket that I'm building I shall be aiming instead to induce the same fast flow, but in chaotic, turbulent manner, rather than that truly impressive vortex that we see looking down your riser tube. If vortical flow IS the best way to go, though, I'd say you've cracked it with that design! Congratulations!
Interestingly, I've always observed vortices in my riser tubes even without any special inducers, beyond the sharp angle of the elbow between feed tube and riser, as recommended by the Aprovecho design principles; but I've never had any vortex as thorough as the one in your riser. That's probably the best I've seen.
Sure I'm aware of Winiarski's work an that of the people at Aprovecho. I just wanted to add my idea's to that.
And turbulent air is very good. That's why you need a sharp 90 degree angle from the horizontal feed tube to the riser. The designs that use a smooth 90 degree "elbow"-pipe are wrong. But I think that above that place, in the riser itself, the vortex adds even more mixture of unburned gasses and secondary preheated air.
Thanks for your compliment though.
Hi
A beautifull piece of work excellent craftmanship!
Nevertheless some hints from my side.
The vortex vanes in the riser are probably obsolete. Flame vortices are initiated by efficient combustion not by vanes. I very much like your idea of the perforated air inlet pipe.
I have concern about the longevity of the stove. The very high temperatures in the riser section will cause desintegration of any steel type including.mild steel or stainless steel. Stainless steels 304 and 316 (and other types such as titanium stabelised) are not high temperature heat resistant. Also the combustion type must be taken into account for material selection --> e.g. oxigen rich environment or carbon rich sooty environment.
You should consider the use of refractory materials which are far superior than stainless steel sheet metal.
I have excellent results with a home made refractory liner of the steel riser pipe consisting of clay, sand perlite, and sodium silicate. (waterglas). The riser is the hotspot of the stove and a very critical part of the stove. No cracks in the liner! No detoriation of the mild steel riser pipe since in contact with low temp. flue gas only.
I have used my home made refractory mix for the fire box too.
👍
Another hint is to give the refractory liner In the riser a venturi shape. You could locate the secundary combustion air inlet jets within the liner integrated venturi. The 2nd combustion air would intensify the combustion process a great deal. The vortex will start in the venturi and will thoroughly mix the secundary air with the carbon rich flue gasses coming out of the fire box. It is also possible to preheat the secundary combustion air by circulation it within the riserwall. This would cool down the riser a bit and would increase the combustion temperature.... resulting in an even better fuel efficiency and longevity.
Regards
Bert España
Thanks for your compliment and comment.
The vortex vanes work fine, the route through the riser is longer because of the vortex. You are correct about using refractory materials for the riser, although my stainless steel part with the vanes is fine until now. Your idea about a venturi in the riser is interesting but obsolete, because there already is a lower pressure in the riser. And a venture will not generate a vortex, nor does a efficient combustion. And I think it is not a good idea to cool down a riser. The hot riser is one of the tricks of a rocket stove, you did mention that yourself.
But thanks for the idea's.
Hi, i just watched this vid n noticed it was month ago. Great job!! I hope i have that lots of PATIENCE N knowledge of presenting my vids too TO BE ABLE TO MENTION THOSE STOVIE GUYS WHOM I THANKED A LOT FOR their ideas. Very nice project. Bravo!! Hope to see much more next. Good Luck and God Bless.
Thanks. I think I will put some other video's about this stove on RUclips.
Is there a book or plans available to build this?
Not yet...
When you do I sure would like the plans
Your vortex is poor, but that's because you're trying to make one out of turbulent air.
Move your burn a few inches away from the riser, to clean up the flow.
Then, instead of welding directly to the riser, choke it laterally, forcing the flame to conform to the side at the point of entry.
I am curious about few design features. I wonder about why you used those vanes to create a vortex which also gives rise to the question of not using the outside cylinder to create the torus. The other question is what you are using for thermal mass.
Perhaps you should read the answers to similar questions. In short: The vortex is to mix secondary air and burning wood gasses.
There is no burning gas in the outer cilinder, so no need for a vortex.
I'm not using any thermal mass at the moment. Quick heating is my goal.
Nice design, I'm in the middle of building one at the moment too. Could you tell me where you got those fasteners that you're using to secure the top drum please? Thanks
+Callum Mckay Just at the local hardware shop. Like in this link: bouwkern.com/klussen/ijzerwaren/hang/meubelbeslag/eierkistsluiting-gegalvaniseerd-75mm. I did not use te hook but replaced that with an selfmade adjustable one.
absolutely fantastic design. I'm wanting to incorporate a copper coil for hot water and the vortex is fantastic. externally not inside. however have you a design or pattern for this stove if your not producing them yourselves?
Great build . Tell me , is the feedre box double walled on all sides , or is it just the left and right .
The air intake at the bottom of the feed box is hard to see . Perhaps you could show it more in detail
in a future video ?
Pat ( Belgium )
Thanks. The feeder box is double walled on three sides (left, right and bottom). The top wall is isolated with a fireproof plate. Pulling hot air downwards would make no sense.
You can see the air intake in detail on my first video in the playlist (ruclips.net/p/PL_-61alqZRX002xu9NtwPaJ2vvZnaRW6T). It shows an animation of the airflow (at 2:40 and later).
I'm curious why you didn't put your air tube in the center and use 4 vortex fins instead for a complete spin.
The air in the middle of the vortex is not moving very fast. So the secondary air wil not mix very good.
Very nice design, after two years of use how is the metal standing up to the job?
I tend to be a belt and braces engineer, one or two parts looked a little lightweight such as the top section catches and the secondary air tube. does the end of the air tube at the bottom of the vortex get very hot or does it's position mean it is just below the heat flow enough to stay relatively cool?
Anyway an excellent design, if you should decide to sell plans I would be interested in buying them as I am moving to a house in mainland Spain that is off grid and a rocket stove will be a must have for me.
How much did this cost to put together? You have some nice pieces in there.
Isn't it cheating using stator blades to create a vortex? Either way, what a fantastic lil beast you have there.
Hard to say. I did a lot of the work myself. And I have a friendly relationship with the metal workshop over here. And had to replace some mild steel part with stainless steel afterwords. Most of the steel is 2 mm thick. Material about 40 euro mild steel. Replacement with stainless steel about 45 euros. Working hours of the metal shop around 270 euros.
What do you mean with "cheating" using the stator blades? I deliberately used those blades there to create a better vortex. Without that there also is a possible vortex, but not that strong.
i have never seen such strong vortex! so that's created solely by the 3 vanes + the air tube? thanks!
Only by the 3 vanes.
Nice stove. I would like to build one myself.
beautiful piece of fabrication.
That is a beautiful design I was wondering do you think I could make something like that out of pure stainless steel
Thanks. And sure you can. I myself replaced some parts with stainless steel versions. But to build it completely out of stainless steel will be expensive?
bedankt voor de mooie video. nu mijn vraag: kun je ook vuur zien door het bovenste venstertje en wordt die ook snel vies?
Graag gedaan. Vuur zie je daar zelden, wel leuke vonkjes. Het was meer bedoeld om te zien of daar nog rook was. En rook is er niet vaak, hooguit bij het net aansteken. Maar nog wel wat roetaanslag. Na ongeveer twee avonden stoken wordt het moeilijk om er door te kijken. Maar het is heel eenvoudig om het glaasje te demonteren en schoon te maken.
is that stainless steel in the riser?
+HyperGro DWC Yes it is. Actually it is two parts. The first is thick walled pipe with the vanes welded in. First that part was made of normal mild steel but that corroded to much in the intense heat. The stainless steel is holding fine. But the second part is sliding over the first and is a standard available double-walled pipe with isolation in it. But the inner wall is deforming because of the heat. More and more builders are experimenting with fireproof concrete risers to prevent the heat problems.
I want your specs on the rocket heater
What more specs do you want? There are measurements already here in the comments.
Superb ! any thoughts on compressing a second vortex? Beautiful piece of engineering, congrats.
Thanks. A second vortex? Where? So no, no thoughts yet. But open for ideas.
Freaky awesome design, shoddy ass camera work!
Nice ,but your feed tube should be at a much higher angle. Not sure what you were thinking.
I was thinking about the view of the fire, because I like that. The higher angle would be nice to "autofeed", I guess. I just push the wood by adding new wood, so no auto feeding needed.
A.V.E.C. vortex maybe
with air pipe at the center
but more difficult to realise
Nice(s) videos, thanks.
I think the secondary air mixes better at the higher speed air at the outer part of the vortex. More turbulence, better mixing.
Nice design, would of been nice to explain vortex and tube
Thanks. You can find lots of information about vortex and rocket stove on the Internet. In short: for an even better mixing of the secondary air with the leftover burnable wood gas.
Great work. Wish that you can provide design drawing
Hi there this is a really great design is there a way we can get a schematic so we can build one?
Seguiremos tu diseño para una clase de emprendimiento en nuestra escuela...
El tema es Disgn Thinking y esto que haces es genial desde esa técnica.
Ah, y de paso trataremos de resolver el problema de la contaminación por gases no quemados en la combustión y la calefacción doméstica a precios accesibles.
Saludos y mil gracias.
Nice to hear that your school if following me. And rocket stoves do great in burning all the stuff in the exhaust gasses. One problem for "normal" household heating is that you have to refill it so much. So an idea is to combine pellet feeding with rocket stove design.
Google translate: Es bueno saber que tu escuela si me sigue. Y las estufas de cohetes funcionan muy bien al quemar todas las cosas en los gases de escape. Un problema para la calefacción doméstica "normal" es que se debe rellenar mucho. Así que una idea es combinar la alimentación de pellets con el diseño de la estufa de cohetes.
Heard that music and thought immediately of Ron Jeremy , Issac Hayes ,bell bottoms and huge shades . Otherwise good design work ! 😸 ✌ 😎
It's too bad that most of that heat is going straight up the chimney and not heating up some mass instead.
Thnaks. Because of the slow speed of the flue going down in the outer drum, there is a lot of radiation of heat. The exhaust themperature is inly abouy 80 to 100 degrees Celcius.
Buen video y producto te felicito desde Uruguay. Me gustaría si pudieras facilitarme medidas para hacerme una . Muchas gracias
Thanks. This is a prototype. I am working on designing a production model. A few minor changes are still needed.
Google translate: Gracias. Este es un prototipo. Estoy trabajando en el diseño de un modelo de producción. Todavía se necesitan algunos cambios menores.
Wat gebeurd er als je de maten van je box maal 2 doet ?
denk er naar om hem bijna na te maken zoals deze alleen dan zonder 2de lucht toevoer en hem wat groter ivm grotere brand wil hebben ;)
Alvast bedankt.
Dat kan. Ik overweeg zelf om een ander soort vuurkist te maken, nadat ik het laatste model van ppotty1 zag. Zie ruclips.net/video/yK93KkFT7sE/видео.html
Die 2e luchttoevoer moet je niet weglaten.
Robert J.H. Gisolf ja die zag ik ook langs komen.
De gegoten pijp ga ik vanmiddag proberen na te maken van vuurvaste stenen en vanuit die maten iets maken.
can you share the name of the track on the background?
Music "And then sometimes (rhythm in soul mix)" by DJ Razzberry Cronut. Sorry, I forgot to add that. You can find it in the description now.
That's quite a design in drum. I'd like to use my everlast welder to make something nice like that.
where can I buy one
You can't.
Perhaps I will produce some in the future. But transportation from the Netherlands to another place in the world is expensive.
Robert J.H. Gisolf this is exactly what I want too. Really wish I could buy it but I fully understand. I appreciate your attention to detail and craftsmanship. This is a beautiful piece of functional art. I’m a fan!
Where is the music from/artist ?
Artist is DJ Razzberry Cronut, Album EP, track "And then sometimes (rhythm in soul mix)". See freemusicarchive.org/music/DJ_Razzberry_Cronut/
Robert J.H. Gisolf thanks
has anyone tried having 3 burn chambers all feed with preheated air?
Hello, I've just moved to The Netherlands and when I buy a house, this is the stove I want. You've created the best design I've seen anywhere. Are you selling them? Plans? Please let me know.
Welcome to the Netherlands then. And thanks for the compliment. No, I'm not selling them yet.
Robert J.H. Gisolf Yet. Let me ask you, when the time comes in 3-5 years from now, could you help me? I don't expect help for free.
how much for rocket stove?
There is still only one prototype. Don't know how to commercially build it yet. Can you tell me what you eventually want to pay for it?
And how about transport costs? From the Netherlands to your country?
Very good video.
Great video
Do you sell it? I'm from Brasil and it will bee wonderful to my fish store in the winter! Its so expensive make warm aquarium.
Hi there, in Brasil. I don't sell it yet, but considering that. But apart from that, how do you think about the transport from The Netherlands to Brasil?
My God! Its so far... I rally love your project and need one stove to make warm my aquarium store. Thank you so much.
Hoi Robert,
welk glas heb je gebruikt? BTW, mooi gemaakt!
+sannmarc Glasstrip 40mm, zie www.haardmaterialen.nl (onderdelen en reparatie). Die heeft veel nuttige spullen zoals glasvezelkoord, vuurvast beton, Calconplaat, pijpmteriaal etc.
En bedankt voor je compliment.
nice job nice strove
have one for sale?
and the music is by whom?
Music "And then sometimes (rhythm in soul mix)" by DJ Razzberry Cronut. Sorry, I forgot to add that. You can find it in the description now.
Can you be so kind and send the dimensions of the stove ???? Thanks !!!!
Filler box is around 275 mm long, 125 mm wide. Opening is 135 mm wide, narrowing to 125 mm.
Core is 125 mm wide, 125 mm high, around 225 mm long. The walls are cast fireproof concrete, wall thickness 25 mm.
Riser is a standard available one meter flue pipe of double stainless steel pipe with isolation. Inside diameter is 125 mm, outside is 175 mm.
Drum is 300 mm diameter, thickness is 2 mm. Total height is about 1200 mm (without the legs).
Flue pipe is 125 mm diameter.