1734 The Ultimate Rocket Stove 

Whoa, GO LUKE! I did it for 3 years, if any advice is needed then please do shout. I expect he'll do much better than I did though lol Especially with a nice stove like that. My main observation is that yurts are NOT designed to be sedentary nor to take the constant rain of this country. They are meant to be taken-down and cleaned/maintained once a month or-so and while they can deal with extreme cold it is dry cold not rain and mud etc. Which the entire extended family all do together. A couple of layers of Tyvek housewrap in between the outer canvas and the inner insulation layer (which is inch-thick animal felt) was very useful. But personally, I would now go with straw-bales for a wall and cob or lime-strengthened cob or something of that ilk. Another point, is that this kind of "primitive"-modern living is not yet a happy mixture. In the past one was part of a larger community or a nuclear extended family. So you could go-out all day to work or hunt etc and come-back to find the fire is still nicely roaring, wood has been cut and stacked, water is boiling... and you could return the favour for your neighbour. This doesn't work if you are on your own as I was. So some thinking is needed to overcome all the extra time for those little jobs that keep one warm and fed and morale high. Also, you WILL get some kind of rodent at some stage. Hopefully mice. Be ready for that. If you use a raised platform to put it on, you can get rats living underneath it, but if you don't do that then you get damp coming-up through the floor. Perhaps a raised platform and filled with gravel or sand etc might be a solution. The absolute best of luck to Luke on this adventure, I am rather jealous!

I made one basically the same and had a beer keg on its side on the top as an oven . Just cut the top out as a square and put a hinge on . I had potato size rocks in it to diffuse the heat and cooked pizza and all sorts in it . Even a cob of bread too. In hind site I would leave the keg upright and cut a door in the side .

I've seen a lot of rocket stove designs, that's a beauty. So simple, it's elegant. A few Peltier devices, and Luke could have enough electricity to light an led lamp in his shack out the back ;)

Wish you well in your off grid adventures! Look forward to the updates!

I live in Alaska. I heated a 600 sq. foot room for two winters with what's basically a large homebuilt rocket stove. Three immediate changes I had to make. 1) External air intake. Air sucked from inside the room must be replaced by air from outside the room. Which is c-c-cold air. 2) Larger wood capacity, else one spends all one's time feeding the dratted thing. And 3) External venting of flue gasses. Else it will kill you. PS - I now own a pellet stove. It's only a (roughly) gazillion times better.

A pre heat tube to your holes on the 800 upright will be better

Great piece of work! Perhaps an alternative is to use a round chimney. Then it is easier to twist a copper tube around it and feed water through to produce hot water😊

Gotta be honest. I find the information very helpful and incredibly broad. But your enjoyment of the process of creation and discovery is what I enjoy almost as much as the info itself.

I did 2 years off grid in a static caravan, I had a stove made from an old gas cannister, took the WiFi from our local pub using a dongle and an old colander - it's all about the focal point! Best of luck to u Luke! A nice fire that is Rob, nice clean chimney during the burn!

Fantastic present Robert well done mate we love watching your channel thanks for sharing

Have you tried to mount the Catalytic Converter to the chimney to get more heat?

Quick & easy functional design, a great inspiration and basis on which to add improvements or features as needed or desired. For instance, having the bottom on hinges too, to instantly collect the ashes into a bottom tray. A cylindrical chimney might work better to form a coil of copper all around it, etc.

You are such a wonderful man. And so very brilliant at what you do.

Onya Luke for the decision to go off grid. If you are using the rocket stove inside, put a spherical stainless steel grill over the chimney to act as a spark arrestor. If it is large enough it should not impinge on draw characteristics. Great job lads!

This is great. I'd probably add a little stove top above the fire and definitely the sand battery/boiler pipe around the chimney. What would be great for that though, would be a removable sand battery - so if he finishes working outside with it, he can transfer some of the heat back into his living area like a super charged hot water bottle... but with a box of sand.

Did exactly the same in my youth… good lad, Luke.

Looking good. And good luck to Luke. A hinged plate on the front feed with a damper would be a good addition; so the stove doesn't have to always run at the maximum rate.

A great rocket stove ! Incorporating a 1/4 " steel plate as a hotplate for cooking on would be useful 👍🙂

A fire blanket on an old umbrella frame would be a great canopy for that stove for sure!

Good luck to you Luke! Always wanted to wander off and build off grid, but it's a distant dream for now. Look forward to seeing your videos on the process.🍻

Great video, thanks for the upload. For anyone trying to weld for the first time, one small tip make lots tacks along or around the piece your working on to stop it warping.

love robert and lukes videos so much! please never stop

Nice one Luke. This must be like when Marty parts ways with Doc Brown. All the best

Brilliant job. Good idea buying the majority of the steel cut to size, saved a lot of work. Tony

It needs somewhere to cook on, either behind the sloped feed tube or up top over the chimney. Burns grate (great) 🤣👍

He looks a right happy chappie! Well done :)

Great to see someone having such fun from creating something useful 👏👏👏

Excellent video as always! Thanks for the tutorial & best of luck Luke! :)

Robert, you're the ideal neighbor. Wish you were living next door to me. Saturday afternoons would be a blast. Now I have to go source some square steel tubing...Thanks, man!

Love the video, thank you. Wishing you all the best Luke on your new adventure ❤

Putting a heat collector on this would be great maybe with a fan IDK but they work great on wood stove

GREAT LITTLE PROTECTS ... EXELENT & EFFICIENT for CAMPING & EMERGENCY !!! THANKS for SHARING 🙂‼️

Thank you! Great stuff!

Brilliant man love watching and learning ❤️👀👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Very nice!! This looks very efficient.

Here’s Mate! Good luck to the Lad! Also, you gave me a wonderful idea for an outdoor heater for those cold nights that you just want to go outside and have a fire. I’ll send you a link to the video when I shoot it.

You're an Awesome Man, Robert!!!😁👍🏻

What I love about this design is, it's inconspicuous. You can be burning wood/fuel and staying warm, and nobody can 'see' or find you, from the smoke, because there is none!

I am jealous Luke. Great design Rob! Love those things.

Using a shovel to fling poop hehe, no digging a hole to down to the earths core to dispose of it 😆😂🤣😂 Brilliant! I've never heard that one before : ) Go Luke!

Good luck Luke, will be following you with interest.

A grinder and paint, makes me the welder I ain't...

How do you clean the ash and whatnot out after a few burns?

Good luck Luke!

Have you looked at the rocket Mass heaters. Your stove with a barrel over top 1.75-2 inch clearance, forcing expansion down and into a sand or stone mass for homes

Beautiful!

Great job mates!!!

welding, easy to do, hard to do right ;)

Love the added holes at the bottom! Would it help if the riser was higher and could you fix a cooking grill on top of the riser, knowing it might be a little unstable without support?

Great present 👏🎉

How do you deal with the waste? Once fitted up to something you will need the ability to disconnect auxiliary systems to handle the stove to empty the leftovers, perhaps a cut out section you can slide to access the burn section. Maybe a drop shoot up the back end and a plunger like device to push the material towards the back with a hatch? An idea, use a latch to keep it closed and make plunger out of wood perhaps.

Well done to Luke and good luck.

Total burn! And it's cute! That's it. I'm learning to weld ...

Your stove doesn't form a vortex, it can be achieved by directing the air in to one side of the feed, this leads to better heat and burn 🔥 😎

Eoi Rob! Have you wired up a PC fan as a generator and set it into the air intake of the rocket stove? Fast strong air with a robust generator would be a steady output for electrical needs.

Awesome. Go for it Luke. When you're out in the bush Luke, maybe make a battery to run LEDs for lighting. Good luck mate :)

Hey, that is exciting Luke. Looking forward to the videos. Nice stove!

You do have a point on the welding. In my experience, you should have soldering experience prior to welding. The point on that is once you are used to making the connections clean prior to making a heated metal connection, you already have one of the most important habbits for both. It will be a poor weld with soiled metal to metal without that habit of cleaning where the connection is. It definitly looked like really good welds with your experience, keep it up and keep experimenting!

Happy camping Luke..

Good luck Luke! Hope to see the video of you charging a powerblade battery bank with your rocket stove powered Stirling generators soon! 😆. Hope the stove lasts a long time and provides you with all the heat you need to have a great off grid life! (Live the dream for those who can't... Yet)

Awesome, I have a off grid home, a axe and shovel, with mods you can do anything with them, maybe start from scratch and have both in one , and more, cut/ chop with it, dig, heck you can even cook on it, maybe even eat off it, and about anything else, depending on design!

Luke you go for it bud.. take care mate.. kudos ✌️

Good job

Ultimate my behind. Your decision to place the wood entry so close to the chimney... means that there is virtual no "Burn Chamber" at all. Hence, its not burning nearly as Clean as you believe it to be.

wonderfull

2 questions. 1. You mentioned burning pellets. Would they need a screen to control the feed rate? 2. Could you give an opinion on ammo can oil stoves?

Nice job.

That stove should give Luke a head start staying warm is half the battle 👍 enjoyed these Rocket Stove videos and after watching your welding intros decided to have-a-go myself but unsure if you used MIG or MMA on this ( noticed it was the Rohr machine but looked like MAA), need to order a welder along with the metal box sections, thanks again Robert.

Good luck, Luke, stay safe

A thick flat slab of steel between the hopper and the up pipe would make a nice hot plate

what a cool gift!

I wonder the effect of having the extra air holes a little higher, say 100mm from the bottom of the chimney tube. It looked like sparks or coals could come out the back.

This is a great way to save money over winter with the inflation issue! Please don't suffocate yourself!

Very nice, I was wondering if an air tube made of half pipe that circled around the three sides and back up the Firebox would super heat your secondary air? If that doesn't do it perhaps a little bit of insulation may increase the burn as well, I made a camping stove about 20 years ago with a 3 inch exhaust pipe, inside I used a propane burner upside down on the top for the secondary superheated air Inlet, I was amazed at how well it burned, it may be time to revisit that old project LOL

If you weld a metal shelf to the chimney you can use it to heat your tea. You might want a screen on the chimney to reduce anything but smoke/gas from escaping.

Very neat...

Imagine a rocket stove and a sand battery combined.

Don't forget the grill plate for the hot water pod frying pan and cooking in general, also you may want to incorporate some kind of a thermal siphon hot water pumping system so that you can keep your bed warm with heated liquid run through tubing under the mattress, or perhaps in the floor of whatever kind of off grid building your Constructing

Is there any mileage in incorporating a mantle in the chimney perhaps with some kind of door or shield to close it when not required?

Put some "Crenels" at the top of the tower. Then you can put a pot on it to cook.

Enjoy your off grid location Luke

The perfectionist in me can't help but wonder what would be the ideal amount of air holes. When i save up enough money to do this i think i'll put a sliding panel where the holes are so i can adjust the air flow. I also had my air fryer our tonight and noticed how the pan has slits around it designed to create a vortex with the hot air inside the pan so i'm also wondering if air intakes like this on the side (instead of the holes in the back) could create a vortex inside the rocket stove. Wish i'd never discovered this bloody channel, i can't turn my brain off lol. P.S good luck Luke!

The two of you are like, "Breaking Good", "Breaking Bad" flipped over. Robert Murray-Smith : Luke :: Walter White : Jesse

Need that Sterling engine on there for a fan No electric bill no water bill no heat bill for over 6 years now you go Luke....

Hey Luke ur setting off to live a dream we have all had at some point or another. Go Luke👏👏👏 I would love to do it. Sad to hear that Rob has lost his partner in crime, Batman has lost his robin😆I hope your not too far away from each other to make the odd vid together. Good luck mate. And nice work on the rocket stove rob 👍

I'm all for the upcoming Rocket stove / Sand battery ! Reminds me of when you guys combined the gravity light with a flywheel generator .. and maybe Luke can live in a tower to trap the wind as well aha.

I like it but what makes that stove design better than the original one you built? apart from the extra holes, which, just in my opinion seem like they would be more effective in a different place.

Super cool. Have you ever thoght to add a additional gassification chamber on the backside of the chimey to produce charcoal. or to use this chamber to heat a zeolithe imersion heater (Zeolithe filled in copper pipes, for hot water without the need of a boiler)

You could have some stand off,s for a kettle and cooking

Wonderful build- radiant heat for the homesteader, wanting to keep their quarters toasty in the winter time. That being said; in order to maximize the potential gasification, assuming that the goal is to consume as much of the fuel as possible, thereby releasing the maximum energy from your fuels, which will create less ash, and drastically reduce smoke, and ideally- the only thing that comes out of the chimney would be Co2 & a bit of H2o vapor. After building over 100 different variants of the overall concept, It seems to be the insulation, effectiveness level and care of installation of the insulation that ensures that the gasses are not able to escape from the chamber without ignition. I have come to focus on the concentration of the heat energy being released from the smallest possible point at the top of the line. A tube within a cylinder, whereas -the air intake from the opening between the two is ideal,, and should match your original fuel to air ratio and combustion equation with relation to the measurements. This allows any stray (lighter than air) gasses to re-enter the main combustion chamber along with fresh oxygen which is heated as the vacuum created pre heats, dries and expands the air intake as it forces it down, which creates positive, relatively consistent pressure for auto ignition of available oxygen/hydrocarbons, etc. Assuming again, that a massively awesome roaring loud (rocket)jet of blue bottom ultraviolet flame shooting a meter out the top of the line, is what you have in mind. My most recent, and undoubtedly the most effective Insulating material by far? A mixture of shop-made sodium silicate(silica gel kitty litter no dye and pure sodium hydroxide crystals), (very safely shredded in old 2000w vitamix) blenderized ceramic fiber, chopped 48k x 10mm carbon fiber tow, chopped 10mm Kevlar tow, Q-cell (10 nm quartz microspheres used in sail boat building and surfboard repair) cornstarch and confectioners sugar (carbon) oxidized and washed graphites, alum powder and finally an olivine/peridot rich blue clay I make from lava-tube stalagmites in the ball mill, ( freshly erupted back yard in Leilani Estates on the big island of Hawaii) I chop the top off and use the aforementioned mucus mud to fill up one third-between an old steel 100lb propane tank, or large steel water pressurizing tank with a thick walled 100-200mm diameter steel pipe (salvaged from a sugar cane era steam engine train) welded to the bottom of the cylinder. After it’s filled about a third of the way up, I weld the top of the cylinder to the rim of the pipe, welded 6, 1/2” black iron threaded fittings around the top of the outer cylinder and then jammed the fittings with pinky-thick green bamboo the full length of the cylinder. Next, cut out the inner diameter of the internal pipe-out of the outer cylinder- ran another weld bead around it to clean up the mess I made trying to blind weld it from outside in my first attempt, grinder, sander clean up. Capped the black iron fittings and tipped the whole thing on its side, rolled it around on the driveway for a while to mix it up (the muck separates after a while)un Capped 4 of fittings- plumbed them all into a 1” pipe, reduced back down to 1/2” - plumbed them to a catch bucket and turned on the 2stage vacuum pump… opened the valve, jammed up the inner pipe with hardwood charcoal and a small box of mothballs. Used a brazing torch to get it burning and used my electric leaf blower to stoke. 😅 if you have read this far you’ll likely be able to infer the result. For lack of a better way to say it- it sounds like a jet taking off of an aircraft carrier. Once it’s warmed up (white hot) it will melt alllllllmooost- anything I (you) have to test out. Insulation is the key. (Warning) I am still working on growing my eyebrows back. Thanks for being awesome. Good luck going off grid!

Don't just chuck out the 10 3 2 rule for chimney. Fireplace to chimney ratio. This rule means that your chimney's shortest side needs to be at least 3 feet above the roof penetration, and its top has to be 2 feet higher than any part of the building that's within 10 feet. Can't expect the boy to live outside.

Now that it's raised on a platform you could cut the bottom tubes underside out and replace with a grid or mesh to let air in and ash out. Would that work or would that be detrimental?

very very cool

when i was a boy, my grandfather would take me around friends of his that worked in machine shops. i knew then i wanted to work with metal, steel and iron. the smell of a machine shop is like heaven to me, we are talking 5-6-7 years old i was, this back in the mid 1970s. i took every class i could take in public school to learn all i could, metal class, welding class, lathe work class. i agree anyone can weld, with lil practice to learn pace and fell, muscle memory will take over and u will get better and better, it's like with anything, once u gain muscle memory, it's like riding a bike.

will eventually burn itself away; why im hesistant to make one myself... as a suggestion, maybe a wire mesh & hinge at the front to prevent coals from falling out? or a catch tray?

@Rob I can see just how effective it is to start and heat... my question is, how easy is it to shut off and cooled?

So I had this wonderful idea.... or atleast I think it is. Rocket stove with heat batteries. For those a little like me looking for something a little safer in my home with a 3 year old. Run the rocket stove outside heating some recycled storage heater blocks in a cage. Make as many as you like and take them in and out as heat is required. Am I as mad as a hatter or did I just have a good idea for once

nice. I like it but same time more a fan of a rocket stove mass heater. it has a barrel over the chimney then a couple chimney's out the bottom of the barrel coursed through dirt and rock to collect and slowly radiate heat for many hours. just a couple small fires a day will keep a place warm. after it exits a simple maze through the mass, a taller chimney outside helps flow. they do need to be designed with access for cleaning. the stove in this video would be a pretty decent "heart" for a mass heater, it looks like a 30 gallon steel barrel would be a good fit for the second stage (barrel directly radiating heat NOW) feeding the third stage (storing heat in the dirt+rock mass to keep radiating longer term). there's a few videos about "how to" and the idea is really fairly simple.

Legends.

Hey Rob, As you pretty well know, I keep messing with vegetable based oils (mainly because I have an oil extractor and its crazy cheap even new), but one thing that keeps popping up in my mind is that after a bit of time the soot will burn off clean... Could you tell me your thoughts on if built in a similar fashion as even this (I know you had an waste oil version), could the soot essentially become a form of gasification? Appreciate the content as always.