Intro

[Wrad]

Howdy, folks. I'm glad to have found this site. I have just installed a Liberator Rocket Heater, which is a specially designed wood burning stove. For details, see https://www.rocketheater.com/.

I have a couple of issues and questions, which I will post in separate threads to keep things simple. Although the "rocket" design is unusual, my issues have more to do with wood heating in general.

 

[edyit]

well that's interesting

 

[Mark8]

Why don't you make it really simple and just post your questions in this thread. Since it's already been started

I don't think the looks are going to be appealing to the wife.

 

[sutphenj]

Using 1/4 the wood of a traditional stove is a bold claim (from the website). Will be interesting to hear your feedback.

 

[peakbagger]

There have been debates over outlandish claims for rocket mass heaters in the past. Its usually with respect to home brew units. I think the best use of this thread is for the OP to report how well his specific unit works. At least with this one does have a UL listing.

If you look at the old Dumont Tempests and Jetstreams, they used many of the same principles of rapid intense combustion (except they used ID fans) and used external storage to heat homes. This unit looks like a nice space heater and the if owner has access to kiln dried wood scraps probably a nice fit. Probably not as viable to cut up firewood into small enough sizes but I am curious if envroblocks might work as fuel? The owner of American Solartechnics has similar pellet design with external storage but I don't think he plans to market it as the required testing and certifications makes it a bad business decision.

 

[Wrad]

Using 1/4 the wood of a traditional stove is a bold claim (from the website). Will be interesting to hear your feedback.

It would be difficult for me to quantify wood usage rate, other than to give subjective comments as time goes on. I will be running this irregularly with varying wood quality and have no history to compare with. Also still hoping to improve the draft, which will be one of my questions.

 

[Wrad]

There have been debates over outlandish claims for rocket mass heaters in the past. Its usually with respect to home brew units. I think the best use of this thread is for the OP to report how well his specific unit works. At least with this one does have a UL listing.

For those interested in pursuing the issue, there is a long discussion here: https://permies.com/t/6199/RMH-wood-efficient-wood-stove

It's important to distinguish between a rocket stove, such as mine, and rocket mass heaters, which incorporate thermal mass. One of the economies of the latter is that it needs to be fired for a little while only once or twice per day.

 

[begreen]

There is another thread on the Liberator here:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/liberator-rocket-heater.163878/

And just so that this thread doesn't wander in the weeds like another thread on this topic. Here is a past discussion, rebuttal, pros and cons etc. about RMH:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/why-dont-we-all-want-rocket-mass-heaters.160043/

 

[bholler]

For those interested in pursuing the issue, there is a long discussion here: https://permies.com/t/6199/RMH-wood-efficient-wood-stove

It's important to distinguish between a rocket stove, such as mine, and rocket mass heaters, which incorporate thermal mass. One of the economies of the latter is that it needs to be fired for a little while only once or twice per day.

Yes and that site is chick full of disinformation put out by a con man named paul wheaton. He makes tons of claims but when pushed for actual numbers he gets defensive and verbally attacks others.

The concept is a good one but dont listen to guys like him. He really has no clue what he is talking about and some of his designs have serious safety issues.

 

[jetsam]

We actually did some digging into that stove last time this came up. It looks like a cool way to get rid of branches and brush, but advertised burn time is 90 minutes max. Unless you use it as an unlisted pellet stove that only burns on high. :/

Be careful with it, and tell us how it works out in real life!

I actually built a temporary rocket stove outside this summer, and was really impressed by how good it was for cooking. It worked better than it looked like it would, cost about $6 to make, and ran on whatever sticks and twigs were nearby.