Okay smoke

[matt walker]

Oh, wait a minute, are you saying it's smoking at the exhaust of the system? I thought you meant out the front, which is a problem.

[tt10_99]

trying again could not sleep













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[matt walker]

Wow, what a great build. It looks really good man. So, is it smoking out the front or are you worried about smoke from the exhaust?

They will smoke like crazy out the exhaust when newly built. Whatever is on the ground, and the wet parts of the riser and barrel surround, all are drying and steaming/smoking like crazy. Still, you should never exhaust a RMH into an enclosed space, so I'm glad you got it vented outside. If it's smoking out the front, we can fix it.

[tt10_99]

Yes it still smokes out the front when you start it and If you close the door the fire goes out... or do you need to leave the door open... I thought there was something really wrong with all the smoke. Or the wrong time of year to be building I guess... It was going down to about minus 20 when trying to heat it up..Only could run the fires about ten hours per day then however long it stayed burning into the night. I dont think I have a good enough seal around the batch door but it sure produces the heat... Can boil water on top of the barrel... Venting is there a different way to vent.. I noticed you cut a hole in the top of the barrel will that help draw the fire sideways more.
Thanks for the comments...
Also thinking of running a thin layer of cob cement over the top to make it smoother and I thought I could start seedlings on it. Also thought i might make a smaller one at the end of the green house so i have heat from both ends. Also was thinking of running a cage around the barrel in case the greenhouse fell down we get really high winds and snow in the winter..........

[matt walker]

Good ideas you have Terrill, I like the idea of a cage to keep your greenhouse film off. I also wanted to make a bench for starting seedlings, I think it would work great. If I did that I would build up quite a bit on top of the bench to create a wide, flat surface that had a lot of mass to carry the warmth through the night. Maybe 8" or so of material on top of the bench barrels.

As for the smoke out the door, well, I don't have a top feed in mine, and that might be part of your problem. This kind of front loader does have a tendency to allow a little smoke out the front unless you have just the right amount of air at the right spots. You might try creating a small opening in the door down low so you get air coming in there when the door is closed. That, combined with blocking off that top feed should allow you to run it with the door closed.

While you are at it, I will tell you now that the firebox barrel won't last long. I use mine as a mold and build up a large body of cob/perlite around it, so that when the barrel starts to lose strength from burning out, the cob becomes the firebox. I pack inside the fire box with clay/perlite as well, to form a burn tunnel. This helps the burn and can support the heat riser as the barrel burns out.

It's really cool to see your project, thanks for sharing it here.

[tt10_99]

thanks for the input yu put my mind at rest with the smoking will try some of those things and keep yu posted... Not bad for two women for a first time project with cob.. but the half barrels made it much easier I think and the cost was great. I already had the barrels my mechanic cut the barrels for me... I got the bricks for 50 cents each and the clay was free and the hay was off my hay field... so my major cost was rock wool...

[matt walker]

Well, you gals did great. I LOVE the way you stacked up the bricks to carry the main barrel. You could do that over the whole firebox, then cob over them. It wouldn't matter at all when the barrel burned out that way. Especially if they were on edge, like an arch, as they followed the curve of the barrel. Neat idea.

It's also really neat to see that you understood the way to build up to the main barrel from the mass barrel with cob. I wasn't sure that would be easy to grasp from the video, but yours looks really awesome.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Very nice project tt10-99. Sounds like Matt has given you some ideas to help the puff back smoke from the front door. I have a question though. I don't understand the reason for the front door if you have a top feed for the stove? Is it mainly for clean out, or do you stock to stove from the front at 1st and them just add wood from the top feed as needed? Why have them both?

[tt10_99]

I can do both... Matt built one with the batch door... So I tried that but find starting the fire it works better from the top load then once the fire is going I close that off and batch feed it I can get bigger pieces of wood in it.

[tt10_99]

Matt we were going to carry the bricks all the way around but when your working in minus 20 without proper lighting you sorta get in a rush but think I will carry the bricks over the burn part...Now that i know I dont have to tear it apart to fix it....I Have a bunch of clay thawing so should be good to go to finish it.