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Rocket Stove

Nov 20
Love1

The First Ever Rocket-Style Griddle Oven

By Cob Oven, Rocket Stove
Rocket-Style Griddle & Barrel Oven

The first fire ever in the first rocket-style griddle oven ever!

One of the exciting projects going up at the recent Natural Building Colloquium was this amazing rocket stove-style griddle oven. It’s a wood-fired griddle with barrel oven, both heated by the same fire — in this case, a downdraft fire similar to what you see in the now classic rocket mass heater design. This was designed and built by two mass heater wizards, Max Edleson of Firespeaking and Flemming Abrahamsson of Fornyet Energi in Denmark. It was the first of its kind ever built, and it was really sweet to see the griddle oven take shape over the week.

See below for a sequence of construction images and the finished product. Too cool. I wish I could have taken it home with me.

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Apr 23
Love0

StoveTec Rocket Stove Review: Portable Wood Fired Cook Stove

By Rocket Stove
StoveTec Rocket Stove

StoveTec rocket stove next to our DIY cooking rig

I’ve been cooking on a rocket stove on a daily basis (except for winter) for the past three years now, and I recently broke down and splurged for a prefabricated cook stove — the StoveTec model rocket stove. Previously, my food co-op and I had been using a DIY rig that Thomas built, but my patience with it has been waning lately. It’s big, so it can’t be moved (a problem when the wind comes from the west, especially), and wood slipping out of the firebox is a more than frequent issue.

The StoveTec rocket stove solves those problems, and is actually way more efficient, resulting in even less firewood used for cooking. I gotta admit, I really like this factory-made stove. Read ahead for my review.
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Mar 26
Love0

Deconstructing the rocket stove

By Cob Bed and Bench, Rocket Stove

rocketstove-demo00

A few weeks ago, I started dismantling the rocket stove, officially calling it done. I began with chipping the cob around the base of the barrel and then lifting the barrel off of the system, revealing a very blackened, sooty interior. I was surprised by the level of soot – I thought that perhaps the system was definitely choking up seeing how much material had collected in and around the heat riser.

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Feb 03
Love0

I proclaim the rocket stove “not working”

By Rocket Stove, Winter

I have officially proclaimed the rocket stove “not working”. The stove simply does not draw on days without the right wind direction/intensity. It is unreliable. Even when the wind is right, the stove takes too long to heat up (even the barrel itself!) At times, it smokes into the house, which is added frustration.

Something is not right, unfortunately. The stove just does not keep the house warm. When April was home alone in December, she struggled to keep the indoor temperature in the 40s! That is not really livable.

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Jan 28
Love0

An update! (A brief one for now)

By Winter, Rocket Stove

After a week of travel in early January, I returned home to Dancing Rabbit… to cloudy, gray, cold Missouri. After days of thick clouds, the Common House’s power system was depleted and we went powerless (for the first time on this solar system) for five full days! Whoa.

Anyway, I have a fair amount of news to write about, but I have an inbox full of email to get to… It’s piled up after not being checked for two weeks…

But once I have a cool minute, there is some news regarding the rocket stove, winter conditions in the cob house, and future plans for home heat. Stay tuned! It’s been an interesting past couple of weeks…

Dec 09
Love0

The lowdown on my rocket stove performance

By Rocket Stove, Cob Bed and Bench

The past few weeks have been the first real test for my rocket stove with outdoor temperatures dipping below freezing at nights, and daytime temperatures in the 30s-40s. (This week has below freezing daytimes, with wind chills in the negatives – but I am with family in NJ and April is at home tending the stove, so I keep hoping that it works well for her…) I have been firing the stove fairly regularly, and I’ve learned a good deal about its performance – or unfortunate lack of, at crucial times!

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Apr 27
Love0

Building a Rocket Stove: Part 2: Cob Bed and Bench

By Cob Bed and Bench, Rocket Stove

cob-bed06.jpg

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this rocket stove design has proven to be a failure, and I have since deconstructed the stove. I cannot recommend that someone follow these plans. You can read my original post below for what not to do, though.

The rocket stove and cob bed and bench are essentially finished. The rocket stove (which I will detail more in yet another post) has 25 feet of horizontal run that wraps through the bed, into the bench, and out the southern wall of the house.

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