Step by step instructions how to make your own rocket stove.
Rocket stoves, or wood gas stoves, are nothing new. But there are many ideas and plans out there. It can be confusing when trying to decide which version to make. We decided to make a simple rocket stove using common materials - soup cans.
A wood gas stove has an insulated burning chamber that is meant to super heat the burning wood, which releases flammable wood gas. Then the wood gas is burned as well. This double burn gives us much more heat from our fuel. Most common fireplaces in homes today just allow the wood gas to go out the chimney, unburnt. There are newer, more efficient models being manufactured that make use of the wood gas concept and give off a lot more heat while using less fuel than a common fireplace.
A rocket stove is made in such a way that there is a flow of air under the burning wood. This allows the wood to burn hotter and better. By insulating the burning chamber, we are raising the internal temperatures, and combustion of the wood gas follows.
Our project uses a coffee can and some soup cans to make the stove. For insulation, we used cat litter. The normal, cheap clay version with no additives. This makes a good insulator and can be found at a low price.
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Your rocket stove should look like the first photo above. Fill the coffee can up to the top with cat litter. Do this slowly and shake the can gently as you go to make sure all spaces are filled with cat litter. You can use other non flammable insulating material as well, if cat litter is not available.
The last two photos show the homemade wood gas stove burning.
When you first fire up your new homemade rocket stove, do so outside. The tin cans normally have some kind of coating on them which will burn off and emit poisonous fumes. Make sure you burn this off well and keep your face away to avoid breathing any fumes.
To light your new rocket stove, put some fine kindling such as leaves and small twigs into the burning chamber from the top. You can use a piece of paper or a twig to ignite the stove. Light the twig on fire and insert it into the burning chamger through the side ledge. The fuel should ignite rapidly due to the air flow underneath it.
This stove will smoke at first, until the burning chamber heats up and the wood gas is burning. After a couple minutes you will see that the fire changes in appearance. It will burn hotter and be nearly smoke free. After about 5 minutes the side of the can will get warm. After about 15 minutes, the can will be hot to touch. Make sure that your rocket stove is placed on a non flammable surface that can take the heat.
We made our stove as a heat source. It emits heat as long as an hour after the fuel has been consumed and the fire is out. You can cook or boil water on it as well. These stoves are very efficient and only need a small handful of sticks to boil a quart of water in about 15 minutes.
Below is a video showing our first rocket stove burn
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