This whole video is a good starting point for how not to run a barrel stove. We used these in scout cabins for years and never had an issue with constantly minding it. I’d place a bet that you’re not using good seasoned hard woods and are either over stacking the fire or splitting your wood too small. It’s a fickle process but the system is tried and true if you take the time to insulate and learn the process.
@@bobjohnson7699 I’ve seen that before and also where someone with welding skills converted the top barrel into an oven. Necessity is the parent of invention and sometimes you get pure genius.
@@bvf1420My brother used an Energy King, it had a draft diverter in the top you could slide forward when lighting it and then slide to the back once it was going. He got the idea of wrapping some chicken in aluminum foil and sticking it up on top of the slide. He went on and on about how great it worked. BUT the next time he did it all he had when he opened the foil was ASHES 😂 Needless to say he never tried that again LOL
If you think your barrel stove sucks because of how much attention it requires, you'll hate a rocket stove a lot more. Depending on the size of the rocket stove, it will use wood at 5 times (or more) the amount that a normal wood stove uses. I built a rocket stove out of 7" stove pipe, and I went through about 200 pounds of wood in around 3 hours or less. Rocket stoves burn really hot, they'll start glowing red sometimes, depending on how much wood they're fed, and the quality of wood they burn.
Your problem isn’t the design. That design is a proven one that’s been around over 100 years. I’m not an expert, but I can attest to the ability to keep a fire burning in one of these stoves’ overnight in this exact setup. However, understand that the word “exact” in the case of barrel stoves, is not exactly exact! Lol! You’re either drawing too much air , not enough, or your chimney height is too low, and it’s not allowing the system to draw correctly....Understand ANY system that burns wood is basically a metal container that holds a fire that one removes its heat from by radiant and forced air means. That’s it....You can make them more efficient and technology enables one to do so, but at the end of the day it’s Boy Scouts 101 M’man.....Learn how fire works because it’s a simple lack of understanding that’s impeded you this far. Good Luck! I encourage you not to give up so easily on this design-especially for your application....It’s perfect
This is the best worded and most respectful comment, so you deserve a response. Here goes: probably my main problem was a short stack. With a longer height, it would have drawn better and I could have turned it down and it would have stayed lit. However...I replaced it with an old Vestal stove. It has the same length of chimney, and I burns just fine. Love it. No issues with it whatsoever. Puts out good heat, holds the heat longer, is less affected by draft problems...simply a better stove. All the problems that everyone is mentioning were fixed...by upgrading to a real stove.
Obviously you really have no idea what you are talking about!! I had 1 of these stoves for 15 years and it was as efficient as any other firebricked so called airtight stove. you did not build it airtight. You can look at your stove and see the evidence!!
We have had both the single and double barrel stoves. The single barrel stove was about 10 years old when we stopped burning wood in the house. Traded in the stove for in floor radiant heat. Sweet! My stoves had the draft built into the door. I could fill them full with wood and come back 12 hours later to an awesome bed of coals. I think if you had a different draft, as I described, you may have better success. Keep up the great work!
We've had a Sotz dbl barrel stove in a cabin in S Ohio for over 20 yrs,still working fine,no issues like you describe. In fact a few years ago got new barrels just in case,but its not burning thru & working great!
Been one in my shop also for 20+ years. Threw it together because it was cheap and planned on building a better one once everything was said and done. Well it has worked fine for this long.....
hmmm......i load my double barrel....get her roaring.......close the vents half way and shes good to go. Only have to re load it 1 time for an 8 to 10 hrs. Trick with those is the taller the exhaust, the better they work
You need to close your damper more to allow combustible gas to build up in second barrel. Also weld in a vent pipe to bottom of second barrel to get fresh oxygen. When that gas ignites you will get secondary heat instead of that gas escaping out the flue pipe. I don't give a damn about scrap iron in the back of your truck. Wtf.
For a couple years I heated a 1800 sq ft house with 28 ft vaulted ceilings with a single barrel stove. I ran 24 ft of single wall pipe straight up to the vaulted ceiling. I had no trouble heating and i'd easily run it all night with coals in the morning. I'd never have replaced it except my wife preferred a jotul 600 oddly enough
Just in from my shop, I’m on my second double barrel stove, first one lasted nine years. A couple of things….use the large bung as additional air below the door. Fill bottom stove with a couple inches of sand. Burn seasoned wood, once a fire gets going, full log rounds that are seasoned will keep coals overnight. I love my double stove.
Do you have a damper? I don't see one. That is how you control the burn. You have good scrap. I have nothing like that scrap around here. Wish there was a scrap yard
I saw a project that I'm considering trying. It was a 55 gallon drum, inline in the stove pipe, above the stove. The gentleman made some pretty outrageous claims about increased efficiency and decreased wood consumption but I guess I'll find out if I ever get around to doing it.
Hello sir there's a lot of very good comments and ideas on how to use your stove properly I think the problem is you don't understand the stove they've been around for years they've been in all sorts of buildings insulated and uninsulated they work very well personally a chimney problem a cold air problem in the dampener would help your problem and if you want more heat you could always put a coil system run water to a separate rad with a fan and you would get more heat off your stove as well as a heat exchanger in the pipe could give you more heat as well as drilling holes running pipes in the second barrel and running a fan box blowing air through the pipes will give you more heat there's lots of ways to do it lots of suggestions what is very important dry wood not garbage that you found off the side of the road you have to understand wood and Air and I would say your stove which should heat your garage so hot it will be unbelievable if it's insulated have a good day I hope these tips will help your Canadian neighbor peace
Three words: no closed flue. If you are taking air from inside your building, it is going to be crap. Air intake must be from outside. Fire box must have no open vents.
Looks like a chimney problem there , is your pipe from the top barrel running horizontal if so it needs to run up at and angle as hot gases rise , them stoves are around a long time and have proven themselves .
I hate to say anything; but, I have a double barrel stove in my 30x40x10 pole barn and it works great. The bottom of my fire box is lined with solid red concrete pavers and they hold a lot of heat and fire burns very even. Also, I have the 2" bung under the door. That helps a lot with modulation of air.
I've been heating with a double barrel stove for 40 plus years. Best stove I've ever used. Well that's not totally true, I've been using a 4 barrel stove the last 8 or 10 years. I also used an Energy King wood furnace a few years too because I thought an ash pan would be nice. The worst part about the barrel stoves was cleaning out the ash.No ash pan. I have an ash pan setup I made for the barrel stove that holds a good 5 gallon bucket of ash.Great setup.
I thought those cast iron stove kits were junk. I built and sold several dbl barrel stoves back in the 70s and I always bought the SOTZ stove kits. The doors were more air tight. Now I build my own with 12 3/4"w x 15 1/4" h door opening 8" connector pipe and 8" flue pipe the door is 18 1/2" from the floor. Easy to tend to and easy to load. I've been using barrel stoves for over 40yrs. Very hard to beat.
@@johnmulder4121 I think his problem is 1 he doesn't know what he's doing and 2 is using a junk cast iron door kit. I don't know if you are aware or not but SOTZ doesn't seem to be in business any longer. I don't know if you are familiar with the kit they made for 15 and 30 gallon barrels or not but back in the day I was hoping they would make one like it for the 55 gallon kit. It was a round door and fit nice when shut and would have been a bigger opening to put your wood in. I also noticed he was burning lumber in it. No wonder he had to baby sit it. Novice He should stick to cooking.
This video is a JOKE! Double barrel stoves are AWESOME! If you had any skills at fabrication, you would have realized that you could have turned this into a gravity fed pellet stove that also uses logs.
I made a gravity feed pellet adapter on a single barrel could get the barrel temps up to about 450 degrees. Used 3 inch square tubing was a little small will proly go with 5 inch next time,they will go thru pellets very fast, also going with a baffle the next time.
Good info Boedy. I was thinking about a double barrel stove a year or so back. I don't really know anything about them, just thought the idea was cool. I think I'll look into other ideas now.
Subbed! Forgot to mention in my comment on your other channel, when I built mine, I put the large bung on the bottom. Later found out that 2" exhaust pipe fits snugly in the bung-hole. So Later on I used a 2" exhaust turn down and made it a flap for airflow control.
You will be constantly minding your version of rocket stove just like you did with the barrel stove. Heat retainer is what's missing. Without it, heat will disappear into the air, regardless of how hot it was initially or whatever the stove type. If you put a good amount of sand, bricks, or rocks close to the heat to absorb and radiate it out slowly overtime, then you will be good to go. The metal drum of a rocket stove gives out quick heat, the masonry bench of a rocket stove keep the rest of the heat and radiate it out over time. If you want to take a break for 8 to 12 hours after starting a fire, then also build the masonry bench with metal pipes in it to keep the heat. Without it, rocket stove is even worse than drum stove, because you cannot shovel big chunks of wood into its small inlet, you would have to put in small sticks. You know how long they last in fire. If I were you, I won't bother with rocket heater. I am super lazy on things like this, I would build a good masonry heater with insulated stove pipe and fresh air intake to the firebox.
… you forgot , they smoke, there is not enough vents for combustion and they suck.. I have been battling mine for 2 weeks and I am getting rid of it. I have been considering a “ Rocket mass heater. I have space, time and they use a fraction of the wood and light it once in the morning and once at night and heat all day…
You can have the same problems with any stove if the flu, the draw, or the intake are not right. It also helps to have firebrick, sand or mortar in the bottom of the fire pit. It helps by releasing heat that facilitates the draw. Downdrafts have to be dealt with too. With all that said, the issue is/was not that the barrel stove design is bad. It's much better than a fireplace or an old leaky cast iron stove. The problem is in his regulating the fire at a constant temperature once it got going. It simply required figuring out what issue was with the system or why the problem existed. As in downdrafts or lack of draw. All he had to do was watch the smoke on a real cold day and it would have given him clues. Is it puffing, chugging, rolling, intermittently stopping, until it got very hot.
great video on how you built something wrong and then say it sucks lol,glad you sold it and fixed your issue.sounds like you got a new stove,,not sure how long you plan on burning in it but I would definitely address your short stack soon,you might be good for a while but that stack will bite you in the ass one day
Increase the air flow by plumbing in a 2-1/2 inch air inlet on the front under the door and you should get temps above 800 on the top and around 400-600 on the bottom
Good day Sir, if you're ever interested in selling the, "piece of junk," do let me know. In addition dbl barrell, or rocket stove. It really concerns me how close you keep explosive items, chemicals and such so close to that heat source. I'm really hoping, that what I saw was an optic illusion caused by the manner in which you held that camera. If you are keeping these items within 15' or less of the stove. Please stop. That is a very dangerous practice. Thank you so much for the video. I wish you the best.
A suggestion because your Temps honestly seem low. I noticed your bottom barrel has no bung showing on the load side. Mine has a piece of pipe screwed in with a flap to allow more airflow. Your Temps honestly seem low, I run about 950 on the bottom and 650-750 on my top barrel. I also have pipe welded in mine (5" old truck stack, and a 6" piece of old stove pipe). You may want to reingineer yours. Not saying I'm right but I can keep my 32x24 poorly insulated garage anywhere from 100 (24ft from the stove) or 60. And I don't babysit mine aside from loading it. I like mine personally for the cost, but I will say they will never beat a propane, radiant etc heating system with a thermostat. Good video though and good luck with the new project
I've run double barrel stoves for years and NEVER had the problems that you did ! Twelve hour burn times unattended were the norm. I see ALL the paint burned off your bottom barrel which indicates that youve run it way T00 HOT ! AND I see creosote leaking from the flue joints which indicate you have real problems somewhere 0R you're doing something wrong. I highly doubt its THE barrel stoves fault unless you built it in properly!
I have way too big of investment in labor, sweat, time and cash for the 2 1/2 cords I burn every winter to use such an inefficient stove design. I can see a barrel stove having a place in a hunting or fishing camp, but not much else. Certainly not in a home. I like how you spoke your mind.
Everyone seems to love them daaable barrels I was wondering if it’s just price that keeps people from installing a high efficiency one? Like you say it’s nice to have a proper one? Looking to heat large shop think I’ll just go high efficient with multiple heat exchangers with fans on a solar panel t stat switch
Well if you're using scrap like this guy is doing, it should still be cheap. I think a lot of people have a hard time thinking for themselves and problem solving on their own. People prefer to buy these kits for their barrel stoves with ikea-like instructions
Mine works badass, I put a blower on it with a thermastat that pipes in fresh air from outside. I also cemented some rocks under it and behind it going up the wall for some thermal mass. This guys stove is suffocating and could be fixed in like 5 minutes.
This is a good idea for when a real stove isn't an option but yes you are correct. They are inefficient and suck. People are in love with the idea though and there are lots of arm chair morons on RU-vid so you probably stirred the nest lol
Looks like he is burning shit wood by the creasote dripping off that pipe, wet wood, crap wood or the chimney doesent have good draw. I have an old sotz door that i still use on a stove and it works great. sounds like he should stick to a thermostat furnace!! never had a problem and have been burning multiple stoves for 38 yrs
I never use fire places or wood heaters because they pull cold air in from outside and it's only warm next to the fire, everywhere else is cold..... They should have cold air intake tube lol
I have a barrel stove with 2 45° making a 90° with another 90° going up with a 10 ft riser to a chimney cap. Two other risers in between a 6-footer inside the shop and a 3-footer going through the shop to the outside 90° elbow. Your problem is you don't have any fresh air on your barrel stove. Use the 2-in bung put a 2-in ball valve and use 2-in black pipe piping it to outside fresh air intake.. I load my stove up with about 28 regular size logs. Cut down the airflow with the ball valve and it does just fine. Yeah I have to load it a lot but my shop is always warm. I also burn hedgewood which is as we all know the best. I've had my stove up to 1100 degrees no problem. Heating my shop. You're just not utilizing it 100%
I never had a problem with my barrel stoves over the years. They didn't need constant attention like this guy claims. I didn't burn any more wood in mine than any standard woodstove either. Must be a draft or damper problem?
You’d love this stove if it was operated correctly. I talked with a guy up in Alaska heating a 2000 sf house with exactly that, and he kept it 75° all winter at well below zero quite easily. He filled it once every 8 hours, so 3 times a day. The design has proven itself over many decades. If they were junk people wouldn’t keep building and using them.
