This is just a heads up for those here following the rocket stove heater manufacturers and their products. A small company appears to have received the first UL listing for a rocker stove heater. Here's a decent article. Rocket Stove Takes Wood Heat To New Level Rocket heater stoves have been around for a long time, but Sky Huddleston and his father, Phillip, have designed and manufactured the first stove that meets UL standards. The Liberator rocket heater installs like a conventional wood stove, but uses less fuel. “We set out to fill a void to make a rocket heater that is UL-rated and uses sticks and small fuel sources to heat houses very inexpensively,” says Sky. While many rocket heaters are mass heaters enclosed in concrete or stone, the Missouri entrepreneurs wanted something simpler for customers to install. With a sideways burn, fuel is fed from the top, and the stove reaches 600 degrees in less than 5 minutes. By using a lot of air, rocket heaters burn fast to efficiently use all the fuel’s volatile compounds resulting in a low exhaust temperature (less than 300 degrees) and very little smoke. The 165-lb., 3-ft. tall steel stove has cooling fins to radiate heat. While the stove requires refueling every hour or so, the Huddlestons are working on a pellet hopper for fuel pellets. One bag of pellets lasts about 8 hrs. They are also working on an outside intake air adapter to further increase the stove’s efficiency. The Huddlestons manufacture the stoves themselves with U.S-made A36 hot-rolled steel. The current price is $1,500, but they hope to reduce the price as production becomes more efficient. Videos on the Liberator website show how the heater works. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Liberator LLC, 350 Farris Spur, Bourbon, Mo. 65441 (ph 573 468-4043; www.rocketheater.com; [email protected])
Kinda cool, but a 1 hour burn time... looks good for when you need fast heat but as far as maintaining it without a good chunk of thermal mass I'm a bit skeptical.
They're working on a wood pellet basket to insert in the feed tube that might burn for about 8 hours. An efficient stove like this, safely burning wood pellets for 8 hours without electricity and at a good price point would probably sell well.
Yeah I could see that being a much better seller, I'm guessing with that you could have the option to burn wood or pellets too.
Yes, I just talked to the guy at the company. They're working on a stainless basket to burn wood pellets or wood chips. It will hold a 40lb bag of pellets. The basket can be removed to burn regular wood. They currently sell for $1200 but the price will go up to $1500 once they get the NFPA label in a couple weeks.
If you could wrap some thermal mass around that steel that 1 hour burn time could turn into a few more hours of usable heat. I suppose they could come up with that option for a local Mason to turn it into a small masonry heater. I wouldn't mind trying out one of these in my basement.
It has enough draw to add thermal mass around the flue but they're not able to officially promote that while keeping their NFPA label because fire codes have not been established for that application. Adding thermal mass downstream would work as long as it wasn't so long it stalled the draft.
I exchanged emails with Sky at Liberator today. Real nice gentleman and seems to know his subject thoroughly. He made a couple clarifications about UL and testing standards that I need to share (since I didn't take notes when posted after I talked to him yesterday): "The only thing I have to add is that UL is a private company that tests and lists to their own standards, However ISO and a myriad of other testing labs do the same thing. We had our stove tested by Guardian Fire Testing Labs Inc. another Private company thats certified by ISO to conduct virtually any fire related testing. http://www.firetesting.com/credentials.htm Our stove is tested to the standards outlines in UL-1482 and the Canadian standard ULC-S627-00 and we have both met and exceeded the standards outlined within those documents. All building and insurance company's require is that it be listed by a NRTL, Nationally Recognized Testing Lab, as having met safety standards that meet or exceed the CPSC standards. UL-1482 and ULC-S627-00 are both way beyond what the CPSC requires and as such there is no local code enforces or insurance companys you will have a problem with. And one of the easiest methods to utilize thermal mass is placing a very large metal pot of water on the top of the heater. Water holds almost a dozen times more heat for a given pound than cob or masonry at the same temperature. Its one of the best thermal masses one could use, short of phase changing materials. I look forward to hearing from you again Brain! I'll try and remember to keep you updated on any news and will make you aware of when they will be listed and labeled. Sincerely, Sky M. Huddleston COO Liberator LLC 350 Farris Spur Bourbon, Mo, 65441 www.rocketheater.com (573) - 468 - 4043 ^Business Phone Number, Office Hours from 0700 to 1300 Hours CST, Mon-Fri, Do NOT Text, Calls Only! [email protected] "
Might be perfect for a shop stove. Sounds like you get a quick heat up using the wood that isn't worth burning in the house. 5 minutes of warm up and and hour of heat would be just about perfect for a lunch break while doing yard work or a little "away from the wife and kids" time after dinner. I like watching the fire too much to use it in the house, but beats throwing sticks and twigs in the burn pile.
Daryl take a look at the fins on the tunnel of the rocket stove that started this thread. The developer said their goal is to heat the room so they're using fins to both transfer heat to the air and prevent the J tube temp from going too far over 800 degrees. That should prevent the breakdown of the burn chamber metal seen in other designs. But I don't know if the burn will achieve the same efficiencies and clean exhaust (secondary burning of all volatiles in the tower) if the burning chamber itself is cooled down?
The Wiseway is not a rocket stove with a riser and chamber. This is a completely different type of burner. This thing can potentially burn twigs, small branches, firewoodwood, scraps, wood pellets and wood chips with the pellet basket. I'm not aware of any other stove that can potentially do that. You can find wood chippers on Craig's list and chip all your yard waste (branches, twigs) and put that in this thing with the basket (which is vaporware at this point, however, as they have not released one yet )
