Rocket stove

[501outlaw]

I'm not sure how these things work I just wanted to see if anyone had tried to use one of these to heat boiler ? Rad your up because your the walking , typing , distilling book of helpful information

[Prairiepiss]

What would a rocket stove be? Can you give us a link to one so we all know what your talking about?

[501outlaw]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow




I understand the design and concept but to control heat to desired tempature is a different story

[heartcut]

Interesting. If a wood stove type automatic draft regulator was used on the air intake, it should give the control needed for stilling. A friend in Colorado installed a draft regulator (a bimetal spring attached to a damper with a adjustment lever) on his wood stove and it controlled the temperature plus cut his wood use in half.

[Tater]

https://www.google.com/search?q=rocket+ ... 00&bih=596" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow looks to work about same as furnaces of mud and rock that the old time shinners built

[Husker]

A rocket stove is a hell of a lot more than a simple air control.

It is designed to have damn good raw air intake.

It is designed to have a very small, isolated fuel feed location

But the biggest thing, is there is combustion chamber, that is built to properly mix the air and burning fuel vapors, and this combustion chamber is built of materials which will get extremely hot on their skins (within the combustion chamber), but which insulate very well, so that ALL of the heat is delivered up the flue.

Thus, a tiny amount of fuel is burnt 90% or so efficient (most wood fires are MUCH less efficient than this), AND the stove is designed to maximize the utilization OF this heat, through the holding and redirection of those flue gasses.

So, with a rocket stove, you get the most heat possible out of the least amount of wood fuel, and end up with no smoke (once the stove is heated and in working order).

I have mentioned 'wanting' to build one of these, to mash with, and try to still with. It is still one of my 'want to do' items, but I simply have not taken the time to do it.

There are several good howto's out on the net, and even some pretty decent vid tuts on utube.

H.

[501outlaw]

To mash with would work great Like you said husker the regulation would be the trick because if you start to damper the intake it might not work properly

[Husker]

To mash with would work great Like you said husker the regulation would be the trick because if you start to damper the intake it might not work properly

Regulation takes practice. It comes from 2 things, and they have to be balanced. The 'amount' of wood fuel that is presented at the bottom of the combustion chamber and being burned at any one time, and then the size of the open flue, under the wood platform.

Usually with a rocket stove, you feed it with thin, 'long' pieces of wood. Thus to regulate, you put more or less number of sticks in there, or feed them in 'slower'.


NOTE, with a rocket stove, you do have to somewhat maintain the stove all the time. It is not like a propane flame, where you simply twist the regulator, get the heat right, and then leave it alone. With a rocket, every couple of minutes, you have to push the fuel sticks further into the combustion chamber, since the ends of them have been consumed.

[501outlaw]

I gues after you puke the boiler a few times you will start to learn how to regulate it !!!! I remember when I first did a run my lord it was a hectic mess. It puked , over flowed, leaked, spilt shit every where. But now I believe I can do every thing in the dark with no temp gauge nothing, just gotta Learn your rig .

[Husker]

A rocket stove for mashing would be ideal. It would take practice to be able to get it running well with a pot still. However, I do believe it could be done. Like you mention, there probably would be quite a few runs that end up puking, or burning, before you would get the hang of it. Likely this method would not be good at all for someone that does a couple runs a year. You simply would not get enough practice to make it work.

Now, someone able to get a rocket stove working for reflux distillation would certainly be a true MASTER distiller. I could not see getting it stable enough, so if someone was able to do it, ... damn!

H.

[Prairiepiss]

It could be good for a double boiler or a steam boiler.

[Husker]

PP, that might be a wonderful use. Since a dboiler requires SO much extra energy, something like a RS could be an ideal tool to provide the heat

H.

[501outlaw]

It could be good for a double boiler or a steam boiler.

Steam boiler I think is the ticket. Damn sure don't got to worry about burning or scorching anything

[501outlaw]

If all else fails you can always cook the he'll out of some marshmallows for the kids

[Prairiepiss]

I bet it would make a nice burner for a wok.

[501outlaw]

On the steam boiler I've seen two types the first was a keg with a stainless coil worm inside and the other is the one like jack Daniels has , question is how fast would it get the mash to striping run tempature??? Coil in keg that is

[Prairiepiss]

I've always wondered why you couldn't use a pot still with a thumper as a steam still? Just put your wash/mash in the thumper. And fill the boiler with water. You would have to have a vent valve on the supply pipe to the thumper. So you could regulate your heat input. But wouldn't it work? And even be able to distill on the grain with it? I would think it would make a nice AG stripper. And not that difficult to make. Just need a bigger thumper to handle the amount of charge you want to run.

[501outlaw]

I've always wondered why you couldn't use a pot still with a thumper as a steam still? Just put your wash/mash in the thumper. And fill the boiler with water. You would have to have a vent valve on the supply pipe to the thumper. So you could regulate your heat input. But wouldn't it work? And even be able to distill on the grain with it? I would think it would make a nice AG stripper. And not that difficult to make. Just need a bigger thumper to handle the amount of charge you want to run.

In that case a pony keg would make a boiler and a full size keg to hold mash/wash.

[Prairiepiss]

I think I would go with 2 full kegs. Just to make sure I had enough water to not run dry.

[rad14701]

I'm not sure how these things work I just wanted to see if anyone had tried to use one of these to heat boiler ? Rad your up because your the walking , typing , distilling book of helpful information

I think it's pretty much been covered before I got here... I'm still playing catch up after being out of town for the weekend...

I've never used a rocket stove for either heating a mash or distilling, primarily due to the points Husker covered... They provide very intense heat which can be difficult to regulate as well as evenly disperse... And if you don't regulate the air and heat properly you can end up wasting unburned gases or runaway working temperatures... I like natural convection from coals rather than flames when using wood...

[rtalbigr]

501 - Ya got an interesting idea with lots a possibilities. It does sound kinda labor intensive though. Sounds like something a welder could work out though. With your welding skills ya should be able to make somethin pretty interestin.

Big R

[KY1792]

I built this about 5 years ago as a model mock-up for a larger unit to heat my house with, the pictured unit is a simple outside rocket stove and heated quite nicely with just twigs. The next step which I never got around to was scale up the size and seal the vertical fire chamber and add a baffled side flue that would run horizontally along the cabin floor encased in brick, then exit the house and go up.

This little model is just a can inside a can with the fuel can flanged to the inside one which has a 1" air gap from the outside can and filled with wood ash for insulation.

The horizontal fuel can has a divider in it that stops short of the inside vertical can, this leaves a nice air source chamber below the burning wood and also a place for the ashes to drop and clean out without disturbing the fire. It is also where you put a tuff of paper to start the process.

In the fourth picture you can see a ring between the two cans, the ring was near the top but under use the ashes I used for insulation compressed. I did not want to buy a big bag of high temp insulation like vermiculite for this test and improvise instead. This insulation is crucial to its operation, also thermal-mass as thick adobe or suitable high temp brick/concrete can be used instead of insulation.

I decided against building an inside unit because of the cost of a double walled stainless burn chamber and got side tracked by another pipe dream.

rocketstove1a.jpg

rocketstove2a.jpg

rocketstove3a.jpg

rocketstove4a.jpg

[KY1792]

I built this in February and commissioned in March of 08' when it was 28F outside, it is a simple 4' x 8' copper grid sandwiched in aluminum and painted with flat black BBQ paint under poly carbonate sun-tuff panels, cost about $200 not counting the rocket test sled.

That first test took 10 gallons of 60F water to 125F in 3 hours, subsequent tests later in the year proved too hot for my pumps and hoses and now only preheats a temper tank that feeds my electric water heater. I spend about $6 a month on domestic hot water.

Future plans include building a 8' x 24' collector to heat my entire house with hydronic floor loops via a super insulated 1000 gallon water tank that can store enough heat for extended periods of cloud cover.

I also thought about preheating mash to 150F+ before distilling but the labor and cost involved at this time is trumped by the cost and convenience of using electricity which is about $5 a month.

You can also see from the picture that I have way too many thing going on at once - New roof, new siding, new windows, etc etc.

rocket_test_sled.jpg