I think the carbon from the fire sticking to the walls of the inside of the stove protected it from excessive melting. Idk. I'm not certified in making that claim in any way.
The principle around Igloos and other ice buildings is that snow is a very good insulator. I think that a snow stove could work, but the project in the video was lacking some major understanding of how Igloos work (I know, it's just a fun video, but I think it'd also be fun to create a better project). Basically, an igloo works because the snow inside melt from the heat, but then freezes due to the temperature outside being low. Snow, being a good insulator, doesn't heat up really much, so it has plenty of time to cool down from outside. Also, the ice formed by the snow melting can absorb more heat (and, of course, more cold, have mercy on me for using simple terms physics). The main issues of this video are two: 1. The heat source is too hot to stay that close to the walls; 2. The walls are not large enough to withstand the fire. In order to improve that stove, I would: 1. Make the snow even more compact; 2. If possible, bury it in the ground; if not, make the walls wider; 3. Have the fire burn as centered as possible. Since heat generally goes up, there'd be a certain point at which the snow would be able to cool down the ice walls enough to prevent further melting. You'd have a wider stove, but it would fine with a suspended structure as you mentioned in the video.
Fun fact, the reason this works is also why igloos are a thing, Snow and ice are pretty good insulators So if you need a location, that's much warmer than the outside air. If you have a bunch of snow, that's a pretty good starting point. Now if you want your structure to stay intact, you're not getting it about above 0° c but seeing as that is substantially warmer than -30° c and you don't have any wind in this close to 0° c location. That's generally a massive improvement with relatively speaking. Not much effort
@@selfactualizer2099 as far as naturally occurring materials are concerned, snow Is one of the best naturally occurring insulators for a lot of the same reasons that arrow gel is the best insolative material on the planet, there is a lot of air, and it's not a brick of air. It's a maze so the heat either needs to track its way through this maze or it needs to transfer between the snow then back to the air then to the snow then to the air. Repeat thousands of times. The density has very little to do with it. Ice is actually a relatively poor insulator if you just built a block of ice, and in igloo from what I understand about the physics, it's more of a structural reinforcement/ thermal mass between you generating some heat and turning it off because that door is not perfect (It's not even a door, it's just a massive hole)
This ain't related but it's a poor choice to wear dark clothing in the summer or at night. Why you may ask? Dark clothing is terrible at reflecting the sunlight and will absorb a lot more heat. Not to mention that you're less likely to be seen at night on the road. Bright green clothing is a great choice for a nighttime walk because it reflects so much light that you'll be like a walking glow stick in the light. White clothing absorbs the least amount of heat which is brilliant for summer.
@@Sainttheslugcat for clothing in the summer, what matters a lot more than the color is the breathability, The amount of heat you're going to absorb from the sunlight hails in comparison to how much heat highly insulating clothing will keep in. For example, I would rather wear a long sleeve workout shirt, then a t-shirt made out of the same material that most sweaters are made of, When it's hot outside
the reason there's so much heat at the top is because snow is actually a surprisingly good insulator until it melts. that's also why some animals roll around in the snow, it helps them keep body heat.
More info those who are interested: It is the closest natural black body we have. A black body is an object that can emit and absorb all type of radiation thrown at it(theoretically). So snow can absorb the heat(thermal radiation) but since it's a black body the heat doesn't pass through it hence trapping the heat inside.
And if I’m dying of hypothermia, simply just roll around in the snow? I’m pretty sure most of the people who died from it tried something along those lines, so…
Watching this gave me the same kind of fascination I had almost 40 years ago when I watched people build a bonfire on a frozen lake. That worked fantastically because the ice was VERY thick that winter, and any ice melted by the fire soaked the bottom layer of wood, keeping it cool and unable to burn.
@@jchill2095 This is called a maillard reaction. It's not soot but the proteins and aminoacid in snow reacting with the natural sugars to create melanoids. Very healthy and tasty. Personally, i like my snow medium rare with a good charr.
@@salamiloukoum amigo, não a sorte nem uma nisso, você não tem ideia de como é tentar dormir em um calor infernal mesmo de noite, mal sair já ficar todo suado... é horrível
most invention start this way. Its make sense if goverment pay a man to play around with their hobby, In 50 year that country will be leading in invention.
The reason it works so well is the ash coats the snow and starts to insulate it slowing down the melting. We use to do something like this in winter survival badge for scouts.
@@no_guarantees in most places, if it is cold enough for the snow to not be rapidly melting all the wood around is actually even drier than in the summer, because winter is an extremely dry season. Obviously the temperature would have to be below freezing, but i think it clearly is in this video considering how all the trees in the background are completely coated in snow.
@@no_guarantees When it is cold and not near melting point, you can find wood, twigs and things that are really dry. If you can't find anything to start a fire with, even getting some sticks and whittling them down to finer wood fibres light up really easy. I live in an area with a lot of birch trees, their bark is highly flammable. You can also make some oil out of it to make future fires easier to start. The cold weather dries things out. Have you ever hung clothing out to dry? When it gets cold enough it dries faster than in the summer. It'll freeze solid and you bring it inside, its dry to the touch even after warming it up.
@@Azsunes tagging just to add some clarity for those who need it: 'Cold and not near melting point' means way below 0 degrees Celsius, which is really f*cking cold.
@@kimballchooon top of copium's most recent response, snow itself is ALSO a surprisingly good insulator, which keeps the majority of the heat at the layers of snow directly facing the fire, which is why the entire structure stayed stable as long as it did. Plenty of winter-climate animals know this instinctively, which is why huskies/malamutes, polar bears, elk, etc. will roll in snow to get their fur coated with it because the snow is such a good insulator that it works with their fur to stay frozen, yet still keep their body heat trapped in.
Не такой там большой мороз. Вон как легко снег лепится. При больших морозах и низкой влажности снег рассыпчатый и никак не склеивается. А тут ещё и снег идет. Похоже, температура около нуля. Это я к тому, что тут многие пишут, что нормальный сухой материал для растопки и горения будет, если сильный мороз, потому что при очень низких температурах влажность сильно уменьшается. Видимо герой видео сухие щепки принес с собой вместе со сковородкой)))
How? How would he light it in blizzard conditions? How is this useful for starting a fire in a blizzard much less maintaining it for more than a couple hours.
@@nickkirschner3719 he would light it the same way he lit this one. And he doesnt nessicarily have to maintain it long, but its better to know how to potentially make a fire in a blizzard then not.
Is it the best set up? Not likely. Does it have better element protection than an unsheltered fire? Yeah. I don't know where people get off acting like they lost braincells watching this. Pompous
@cobaltlance18 I was thinking this could be a good way to get a fire going in windy conditions, then just keep adding to it as the holes melt outward and once the wind blocking properties are eliminated you've got a significantly large fire not susceptible to gusts
I’m from Canada. You can literally start a fire over snow like you would on grass. The fire will sink into the snow and make a hole and you can just keep feeding it. After that add a grill on top because unless you keep adding wood closer and closer to the edges, the hole will have a limit to how much it expands.
Я из Сибири, и мы разжигали огонь в суровых условиях и низких температурах, огонь горит, он прожигает снег, если достигнет земли, можно даже и спать рядом, холодно, но можно
السلام عليكم انا من مصر 🇪🇬 يا اخى ولكن اريد ان اسالك عن شيء هل ممكن ان تنصهر كميه الثلج على نفسها وتقع مثلا كم سوف تظل صامده امام ذوبان النيران لها مثلا
The interesting thing is that the melting snow from the stove chimney does not put out the fire. This is because of two reasons, one snow has a lot of air spaces in between which is a poor conductor of heat, and second ice is less dense than water. It definitely won't work with ice as efficiently.
It would probably do worse. Snow is a better inulator than wood so you would just be introducing additional heating points. My best guess would be If the snow was packed more or was a bit wider it may last a bit longer since more mass means more time to heat the system up.
@@keen9629 It's called soot, it's tiny particles of carbon carried upwards by the flame, and comes from the wood, not the snow (snow is just water, it contains no carbon). The problem is that soot is not an insulator. In fact, carbon has the highest thermal conductivity of any known substance.
Great experiment man. A lot of people would never think to do that in a survival situation. It would be enough to get some water boiled, and that can make you or break you in a real life situation. Things change dramatically with cold and snow in the equation and this could be a last resort method. Good stuff man
This guy would have no issue whatsoever living in the wild. He adapts and thinks about what he can and can’t do. That’s skill and takes an intelligent mind.
@@theskarletpinkernel5745 idk I like living in civilization. if it crumbled and I had to live in the wild then I guess it would be good to know how to but for now I'm happy living in my house 🤗
If you want it to last longer, you want to use a bundle of sticks with one shorter stick on the ourside and a large stick in the middle. Pull out the middle stick after making the chimney of snow, make your air hole where the short stick is. The ring of wood insulates the heat from the snow and makes it last a while longer.
There’s some stupider ideas in history that worked out phenomenally Like friction welding wood Yeah, I know what that sounds like it’s exactly what it is, look it up
one time I was relaxing in a lawn chair in a creak. the water was about knee deep. my brother showed up and wanted a fire to watch / cook on, but I didn't want to leave the creak. he gathered enough rocks and wood to build a big enough pile that what was sticking up out of the water could be lit and it actually burned for several hours and we cooked a bunch of crawdads on it. somewhere I still have a picture of that fire burning in the middle of a creak
The day I returned home from prison and had to dig my way through a snow drift where my front door used to be... it was a small can of sterno that boiled the water and allowed me to make my first homemade cup of coffee... in 658 days.❤
🔥🔥🔥Когда есть котелок, смоляк и спички, да еще и в лесу, где дров валом... плюс еще и топор... энергетически более целесообразно просто выкопать ямку и вбить колышки в талую под снегом землю.
The basic concept behind this idea is actually how igloos work, dense packed snow is fairly good at insulating an interior. Granted, that's one type of igloo out of like 4, but this is still how at least one kind of igloo works as a shelter.
Igloos are specifically constructed out of specific snow English doesn't have a word for. As I understand, it's very naturally compact stone you can kinda cut like a rock to build with, then pack any cracks with other snow (I think) A very simple survival shelter is a lean-to. You shoveal an area with a radius of maybe 10' and gather it into a pile. If you're wearing weather appropriate clothes, you can literally lean on it to compact it, then use a digging tool to hollow out the inside just enough to squeeze into overnight. The most important part is leaving the walls thick enough, and using a smaller stick on the very top to both tell you when to stop digging and then be removed to act as an air hole. You may pack some snow by the entrance for added insulation. Our drill when making them (as like a 10 y/o) didn't cover everything. I believe you could close the entrance and still breathe all night, but idk exactly
@@Direblade11that’s also a quinzhee. a makeshift lean to would be a stick supported between 2 trees like a beam in a house. then you take as many tree branches/planks/whatever you can and lean it up against the beam like one half of a roof, leaving everything else open. if you were making a permanent structure you would typically close 3 walls, leaving only the front open.
@@mitaskeledzija6269 Nah, it's definitely a type of snow. In Inuktitut (language of the inuit) they have something like 52 different words to describe different snow. Also, you'd know if an igloo was made of ice
It works pretty well. If you made it from a big enough snowball it would work indefinitely... Im not sure of the calculations. But it would have to be pretty big ( maybe bigger than an igloo). Where he is, the ambient temperature isn't that low, otherwise he would not have perfect packing snow
That’s actually a good experiment. Good to show that it can be done. You could even just hold the pot over the hole long enough to reach a boil. Why not.
I wonder if mixing the snow with an insulative material (sawdust?) would slow the melt, or just concentrate more heat and melt at the same rate. Nice concept, very cool. ;-)
i would improve this I'd pack the central stick with other sticks first then pack snow around the bundle of sticks them remove the central stick leaving a wooden walled space WS start your fire in the WS the WS would reduce the melting of snow allowing a longer useful for the stove I can even imagine repairing the stove with.more snow packing outside as inside melts amazing rocket stove in a winter setting
Great idea! It looks pretty mild where you are right now. I wonder if it would work if you tried it when it got a lot colder (not sure if it gets a lot colder where you are) and you cut out a block of harder snow and made your stove that way.
temporary rocket stove or whatever its called lol good idea cause it means all you gotta do to cover your tracks or hide the fireplace is just kick it over and it blends with the rest of the snow
I love the fact u posted something that was not 100% effective, been watching u for a long while, thx for your work and content, God bless u. Keep on bringin it.
That worked pretty well to the point where you can improv as you go. Metal rods that penetrate to the bottom. Or cut the top half(maybe like 2/3 of the total size) to have an exposed firepit and then throw the pot directly onto the coals.
Это можно сделать, когда снег не рыхлый. То есть температура воздуха примерно 0 градусов. Если температура ниже, то снег не будет трамбоваться вокруг палки, такая печка не получится. Пойду, пока зима, проверю.
That's crazy how dry the air is on that place. In Brazil the climate is so wet on the south that makes almost impossible to start a bonfire using only sticks.
Hey all. Greetings from Kentucky. I just subscribed to this channel today. Wow, this guy has many previously unknown, to me anyway, tricks in his short vids. Well done sir! 🥃
pretty cool and actually really smart survival trick for in the millitary. I remember not having much dry wood and we had to heat up our food. we had snow and a few flamable things. but what we did was use a lighter under the can with ... well lets call it cat food for the lack of words to describe the dish nor the not yet warm chunks of whatever!
Bro I was thinking the same thing. He also can use lil wood nuggets as a spacer for 2 pieces of sheet metal. One sheet of metal around the snow,add spacers in between the 2 sheets of metal. One sheet of metal for the fire. Spacer,next sheet of metal for the snow. That might give you much more time. Right?🤔