So as not to hijack someone else’s barrel stove thread I thought it best to start my own and let it take its course. This stove was intended to heat a poorly insulated 3200 square foot barn and make it possible to do repair work etc in these cold NW IA winters. I started with a 300 gallon fuel barrel that was no longer usable due to rust holes. I cut 18” out of the length for a total length of 43”. Wood door is 10” x 12”. Ash clean out door about 3” x 5” and doubles as the air inlet control. There is a sort of fire grate above the ash door level to keep the majority of the burning material off the belly of the stove. In the top of the stove are 11 3” tubes of 16 gauge thickness to serve as heat exchangers. There is a plenum on the back of the stove with an old squirrel cage furnace fan to force air through the exchanger tubes. Chimney is single wall up to the roof, then changes to double wall.
Wow. That looks like a 500 gallon drum. I have some of those, along with 275 gallon fuel barrels. How warm does it keep the barn?
It started as a 300 gallon drum; it is now 18” shorter. 39” diameter x 43” long. In very cold weather I have to fire it pretty hard and keep it at peak heat to keep the building at 50F which is a workable temperature. At peak heat I will see a flue pipe exterior temp ( with infrared gun) of 4-500F and the sides of the barrel which have no fire brick or heat exchanger to cool them will sometimes flirt with 700F. The top of the stove has the exchanger tubes in it and the exterior of the top is rarely over 2-300F. The air coming out of the exchanger tubes is hot at full fire in spite of the all the air the blower shoves through them. I realize that is not crazy hot as some barrel stoves will get hot enough to start coloring but the temps my barrel runs are enough to heat well but also promote long stove life. One weird quirk of having a wood stove in a round roof building is that certain wind directions create a significant low pressure area at the chimney top which leads to excessive draft if the air control is not kept pretty restricted.
Cool. I have been planning a build with a 275 gal oil barrel. Lots of hot air tubes. I have been flirting with the idea of putting a baffle below the tubes and adding secondary air.
That is one big honking wood stove! Definitely a smoke dragon right there! Ever think about placing hundreds of pounds on concrete blocks all around and on top of it?
Here are two pictures of the first wood stove heater I built back in 2001. The barrel was in the junk on a farmstead my dad bought in the early 90s. I think it is 80 or 100 gallon capacity, maybe it is 120. Not sure. Anyway there was somewhat of a learning curve with it, being my first attempt at building a barrel stove. The first wood door was much too large leading to bad smoke back when it was open. Then I added 3 - 3” tubes in the top of the barrel to improve efficiency. They have 90* elbow on the front to induce a draft and pull air through the tubes. There is no blower on this stove. The chimney flange came from a 55 gallon barrel stove kit that my dad bought and never used. It heated a 25x30 shop nicely.
