Recent masonry rocket heater build and 55 gallon rocket heater

Hi folks,
I’ve been working in North Carolina this week to help a young gentleman build both an 8” masonry rocket mass heater with blind benches and a 6” rocket heater which is self contained in one barrel (plus a 11” pedestal/manifold.) Rocket Heaters are classed by the size of their flue, more here: Batchrocket.eu - Introduction

We started Monday morning and had the first fires in both units last night. (Fortunately we had two guys from Asheville NC who had previous experience in masonry work. I just designed the fireboxes and layouts and built the old wood stove frame and door we used in this build as well as a 55 gallon barrel rocket stove.)

Here’s the 8” masonry build.

 

Here’s an old USSC wood stove I picked up on Craigslist last year. I cut it apart to use in this build, and modified the cast iron firebox door to have door glass and added huge primary air holes to the door (required by a masonry rocket mass heater this size.)

 

And here’s the 55 gallon barrel rocket heater I built for him. We fired it up last night too.

 

Grizzly Adam , can we start a rocket heater subforum yet? This was my first job designing and helping to build rocket heaters and I’d like to see the subject get its own subforum.

 

I will discuss it with the others.

 

Now that's stinkin impressive! All the masonry heaters I've ever read about seem to take people months or years to build...you must have had some pretty good help there to have done 2 in a couple weeks!
Have a pic of the big boy with fire in his belly?

 

There were four of us. We started Monday morning and had first fires in both last night, four days later.

Fortunately we were building in front of a fireplace, on a hearth with a cement slab foundation, and two of the guys who helped us had prior experience building masonry rocket heaters, one of whom formerly worked as a mason. They did all the masonry with the homeowner’s help according to my drawings while I built the firebox and designed the rocket heater parts, modified the old USSC wood stove parts, and finished the barrel stove, which I started at home last week.

 

BrianK man that looks like a great setup! So glad to see that becoming a reality for you. Keep up the great work!

 

Here are the 3/4” combined primary and secondary air inlets in the firebox door frame. After the first burn, I added those on the left and right to provide more air and created the simple sliding control for those on the bottom as well as widened the secondary air channel from 2”x1” to 4”x1” to provide better air flow.

 

Looks great Brian. Im being a tad lazy but do you by chance have a good diagram of how these work?

 

There's a really good explanation (but not necessarily a simple diagram) here:
Batchrocket.eu - Workings

 

A brief video clip the homeowner in NC sent me yesterday to show the waves of heat radiating from the rocket:

 

The homeowner was heating a HUGE interior space because the house was literally built like a modern barn, and only a third of it was finished and insulated, the third where we built this massive masonry rocket stove. So while this masonry rocket heater was performing exceptionally well, all the heat was flowing out into the main part of the structure and straight up the large third floor cupola, and he was having trouble keeping the temp up in the finished/insulated part of the structure.


When I left, I recommended he build a wall with French doors at the end of the finished/insulated space to separate it from the rest of the barn structure and keep the heat in the finished area from the masonry rocket heater. He has almost completed the wall, and is thrilled with the results, as the first floor is staying really toasty, and the heat from the masonry rocket rises up the stairwell in the finished area and is keeping the second floor of the finished area really warm as well.

 

Any idea what all the strings hanging from the ceiling are about?

 

I asked him and they are ropes on a pulley system to open the eight windows in the cupola. Mainly to vent heat out during the summer.

 

Thanks Scotty! For being a first time effort, I’m really happy with how this one turned out. I’m going back down in the coming months to help him build another one for his kitchen. Lots of space to heat there. This if fun “work”!

 

Man oh man...

I know the thread is about mass/rocket stoves and NOT construction...but talk about putting the cart in front of the horse? even some plastic would help out....