DIY Rocket Stove Heater

What is a Rocket Stove?

A rocket stove or rocket mass heater is a remarkable way to heat your home, garage, or any other space. It also works very well for cooking food.

A rocket stove is highly efficient. It’s fueled by small-diameter pieces of wood placed vertically into a burning chamber.

The wood burns slower and much more efficiently than a traditional wood stove. It contains a vertical chimney and a basic combustion chamber.

As a result, you benefit in many ways, but here are a few.

• You need less wood to heat your desired space.
• You have far less smoke.
• Comparatively, there is very little wasted soot to clean out.
• You save money and, at the same time, conserve natural resources

Undoubtedly, the rocket stove is an excellent commodity to have at present. This would especially be true in the event of direr economic times in our nation.

More encouraging yet is the benefit rocket stoves have been to impoverished nations of the world. They have been used for cooking food in Rwandan refugee camps.

Not only can they be made at low cost from recycled materials, but they can be used to cook and heat in places of the world where very little fuel is available.

Truly, in certain instances, a rocket heater’s presence or lack thereof could be a matter of life and death to the destitute.

Are you still interested? Good. Skeptical? That’s okay too. Let’s get into the basics of how a rocket stove works to help you picture why they are increasingly valued.

A rocket stove differs from a traditional wood stove in two ways. First, it uses up wood nearly completely. This is made possible due to an insulated burn chamber with a larger draft.

Secondly, the rocket stove provides heat after the fire is no longer burning. The fire transfers heat to the surrounding elements of the stove while hot.

Once it’s gone, those elements continue to give off heat hours after no combustion takes place.

First, a fire is started in the burning chamber and the following things occur. Small diameter strips of wood are generally placed vertically into the burn chamber.

They feed the fire gradually and drop further into the burn chamber after completely burning the end. As the wood burns, convection brings in fresh air to the combustion chamber.

This causes the smoke to exit through the chimney.

If you’re intrigued, it’s no small wonder why. Check out this YouTube video to learn more.

 

In this video, you’ll learn about one man’s successful experience of building a rocket stove that cost him only 20 dollars to make.

It was primarily built with recycled materials. He admits that it took a good deal of time to make. Yet the end product is both aesthetically pleasing and functional at a high level.

The stove was made from two gas bottles as well as other recycled materials. The goal of the designer was to make it as affordable as possible without compromising the quality.

This rocket heater uses one board from a pallet every hour. Due to the incredible efficiency of the stove, it gives off virtually no smoke.

The essentials that any rocket stove must contain are discussed. Some of the needed features shared include a burn chamber, a small door at the bottom to clean out soot and start a fire, a chimney, and an outside air source.

You’ll get to see how the fire is started and how the wood is placed into the burn chamber.

Although the creator of this rocket stove is happy with the end product, he admits that learning the art of making a rocket heater is something to continually improve at.

He shares that if he were to do the process over, he would have included two elements to make the design even better.

First, he would have included a larger burn chamber to maximize the amount of heat that could be produced.

Secondly, he would have included a pipe on the stove that allowed for outside airflow. The outdoor airflow allows the rocket heater to distribute warm air more consistently.

He improvised by making a vent nearby that allowed for outside air to enter.

Although there is a rigid framework to make a sound rocket stove, there is plenty of room for creativity.

The beauty of it is if you decide to do the same, you’ll be able to custom-make your design. There won’t be another rocket stove the same as yours anywhere in the world.

Let’s Build a Can Rocket Stove

Can rocket stove is the most popular because it is portable and easy to use. Let’s start with the supplies:

• A large ‘can-1’
• Two small cans ‘can-2’ and ‘can-3’
• Insulation material (sand, stones, etc.)
• A plier
• Metal cutter
• A drill

Then, follow simple steps:

1. Cut out a hole in the can-1 can with a ‘metal cutting’ hole saw or score the metal with a standard hole saw.
2. Drill small holes following the score line.
3. Now grab a plier, put it between two holes, and pull it together to extract the entire circle tin out.
4. Fit the can-2 into that hole.
5. Now take the remaining can and cut it out to size the diameter of the can-2.
6. Place can-3 inside can-1. Then, insert can-2 from the outside to can-1 and can-3.
7. Fill the insulation material between can-1 and can-3.
8. Almost done, now put the firewood into can-2 and prepare your meal.

Enjoy!