End of burning season report from Minnesota.

This is Gary B here and I thought I would give a short report on my heating season with my new batch box rocket stove. The first thing though I would like to thank Dale (trying2hard) and PPotty. Both guys made all of the difference in my stove project.

Well I used by batch stove from late November to now. I never let my shop go below 60 degrees F. and most of the time in the 70's F. If you watched the videos on this stove you know it can produce big heat on very small amounts of wood. Normally in years past I would burn 4-5 logger's cords of wood (4ft.x4ft.x8ft.is a loggers cord). This year I burn't a little under 2 cords. One other thing I should note is with my new batch stove my shop feels way more evenly heated. This may sound funny but many friends who have been coming to my shop for years have all made the same comment. In my new stove I have vertical heat tubes running up through my heat exchanger these tubes draw air in the bottom and throw the heated air out the top. This stove has no blower (my old stove did). Before my shop temps would fluctuate with blower cycle. Now the heat in my shop is even all over even in corners and no annoying blower to listen to cycling on and off. I am very happy with my stove. I did a complete inspection inside and out and I am happy to report no damage issues of any kind not even the smallest warp. I have no plans of
changing anything on this stove other than buffing it all up and painting it. I have figured out how to get the right amount of heat out of my stove with out having to open my windows even with warmer days and still stay smokeless. My heat exchanger has a smoke by-pass on it. So when I need less heat out put from my stove I just open my by-pass and now very little heat comes of my heat exchanger and I have control of my shop temperatures and no windows open. Couple things this helps me with. I can burn a cleaner fire and I don't have to baby sit my one small log burning (which is a pain) and it sure beats sweating and opening and closing windows. Once I figured this out I could not be happier with my stove. Bare in mind I only need to do this in the afternoons and like I said I still am burning very little wood and I am smokeless all of the time. The heat I get in this configuration comes off my entire batch box and the very top of my heat exchanger.

Now I am already gathering material for another stove for one of my neighbors. He has a smaller shop about half the size of mine (1000squ.ft.). I really am impressed with PPotty's latest stove. I plan to copy it very close with a few of my own ideas. I will have it ready for the next heating season. I will share with group like my last stove.

thanks for the info to do with the loggers cord

is this one of your neighbours that loves your stove alot and has been daily to see how its running and how much wood you have gone through so far over the winter period of time

as youve had alot of interest with your stove since you built it you have proven it can go to some real temperatures and able to keep your place warmer and yet using less wood than your previous years

id say it was a job well done and was worth all the build in this version and has proven itself to be efficient even better as you now have learnt more things on how to control its heat output at all times of the day

Yes the next stove is for a close friend and yes he has been here on and off all winter. I am so glad I stumbled on this site as it inspired me to jump in with both feet and go for it. As you know stainless is spendy and I did not hold back not to mention this batch stove was very labor intensive. Well this leap of faith has really been one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. Not to mention I have met so many new people because of this stove. I never get tired of showing this stove in action. The look on peoples faces when they feel all of this heat standing around my stove visiting and then I open the stove and theres just a small amount of wood burning in my stove it is eye opening and at that point I really have there attention. I just want to thank everyone on this site. I read every post and watch all videos and it seems like I am learning something new all the time. Thanks again!

Look for my in depth report this fall on my PPotty stove with a few twists.

Gary

its been a real pleasure seeing that the rocket stove can be pushed much higher than most ever thought it could be and you have kinda done that

ive got to ask but how much is a loggers cord

is it seasoned and what type of wood are you burning in your build

i must say the stove has some real potential in heating water up really well and its the way i have an interest in with these stoves as i think they can save money and logs for burning in them if they could do then you would have economy as well a good source of hot water for central heating or other kinds of stuff

thats as i see it myself

1 cord =
3.62455636 cubic meters

The wood I am burning is white oak. I season the wood for no less than 2 years. White Oak is our best locally grown fire wood. Right now I have 60-70 cords drying. With the rate of wood my stove burns I am good for 25 to 30 years. I do have a place to store inside. Now I did burn a number of different kinds of wood and I can say it was very noticeable the different heat outputs and length of burn. The harder the wood the better firewood it makes.

Im looking forward to your new build Gary and to see the changes and improvements.

PPotty I will do my best to to copy your burn chamber. Your riser entry area you where you made smaller and put that flip in it I think that was brilliant. I am going to try and reproduce that as close as I can. I am going to try and stay true to your size ratios of burn chamber, heat tunnel, and riser. I do really like the window on the top of my riser. I will also make a heat exchanger like my current batch rocket stove with the vertical internal tubes. These are extra work but I am sure it more than doubles the heat out put of my stove. I also have an idea for preheating combustion air. I have a good preheating air system on my stove now. But I think my new design will be much improved (hotter). It is my opinion preheating combustion air is the key that makes my stove work so well. I can run my current stove now with either preheated combustion air or room air. I can tell you there is an incredible difference in the heat out put of my stove with preheated combustion air. My plan is to start the construction of the new stove in September. I will give a complete report after some burning time.

Gary...Im also going to make a smaller version of my last stove this year im going to reduce the diameter of the riser slightly and improve the preheated air supply those are the only changes I think will make any difference..

PPotty I wish we didn't live so far from one another. I have watched all of your videos and I like your thinking. I would love to sit down with you over a Coke and bounce a few ideas off you. I have been watching for a video from you on the final mods you did on your latest stove with your thoughts after a season of burning it. Now there is a beg for a video if I ever heard one. I do want to thank you as if I had not seen your stove videos I doubt I would have built my batch rocket stove. I have had more fun with my rocket stove between burning it and showing it and I would have missed out on it if I had not taken on my build. When I saw your stove videos I knew I could build a rocket stove that could heat a large area and not have to add wood every 30 minutes. I had no idea how great this stove wood turn out. To say I have people talking around here is an under statement. Thank you again.

Yea its great that the web connects us all but a pain that you cant chat face to face where I think the best ideas can be created. Im still going to fit some glass over the riser and when i do that I will put up a video which will be as interesting to me as it will be to anyone.
Since the temps have lifted away from freezing cold to around 7 C in the daytime I have not been able to run the stove long enough to start the gassing, the shop gets far too hot just burning a few logs on one burn, great in a way as the log pile is hardly shrinking now.

Gary I need to get out more!:>) lol
I missed your post here.

Would you believe I am still learning how to navigate the forum?

I am so glad to hear your report, if you do not mind I would like to do a video that includes the journey and the end results.

We took a beating very early on challenging the claims as to the btu production that many of us were obtaining with modest applications.

The wonder and beauty of this is the free exchange of research and development we all get to decide how much and how far we want to go into the deep end of the pool.

I am so glad you took the dive.

Take care my friend I really do appreciate all you have shared and your years of experience working with 1/8th inch stainless.
Looking forward to your new build.

Dale yes you can make the video and if there is anything you need me to do to help you just ask me. I stumbled on to my by-pass low heat out put setting. One day I was burning my stove and I just plain forgot to slide my smoke by-pass, so in other words instead of smoke(heated air!) going down and coming out the lower area of my vertical heat exchanger it just continued to exit the top of my heat exchanger. Well normally I start opening my windows around noon or it gets just to hot in my shop. Well my stove heat out put is very predictable and when it became apparent my shop temp was holding 70 degrees F.  I started looking at my stove to see what was happening. The only thing out of the normal was I forgot to close the by-pass. Mean while my fire was burning smokeless at a reasonable rate and I could further fine tune that with my preheated air control. In other words I can maintain any temperature I want in my shop with very little effort. Plus I stay smokeless. This was the answer I was looking for. Because the one thing about my stove I really did not care for was the lack of temperature control. Opening windows worked but kind of a pain. I was at one point thinking of selling this stove and building a smaller one because of the over temperatures in my shop. My shop is 2000 sq. ft. and I knew it would work really good for a shop twice that size. Now I am so glad I did not sell it. I only go into my heat exchanger by-pass mode in the afternoons for a few hours. I know it is not quite as heat efficient but I am still burning way less wood than my old stove and I am smokeless. I know I had discussed with you my smaller version stove with some new twists and I am still going to build it but now it will be for one of my neighbors who has caught rocket stove fever. Pictures and report of this build will be coming in the fall. Thanks again for all of your help.

thats all your fault that your neighbour has caught rocket stove fever gary

that and the bonus of it being smokeless as well

you do realize that as one neighbour catches on to the new system they will be more wanting it as well more so when they realize that there wood is halved and still getting the same amount of heat output from it

for me Id like to see a video from the lighting of the stove
how to control your stove output
and finally a video explaining your savings in one year since the install of this new stove

Yes I agree gadily, and Gary if you will do the video I can help process it if you want to.
I think about the clean air the neighbors get to breath!

Great report and comments guys,

As an IT guy, I can tell you that face to face chatting is great, and already here.
Any cheap webcam or built in cam on laptops work great.
Personally I use Oovoo, it is great for multiple users from all over the world.
Of course others use Skype.

Garry, do you have vids of your complete build, I don't remember seeing that,

Cheers from the frozen north.
Stovie Junkie
MaddMacc

Yes trying2hard posted for me a video on youtube named Rocket Stove Details.

all known vids of garys stove is here

https://woodstoves.forumotion.co.uk/t524-gary-s-stove