Building a Rocket Stove: Part 1: Stove Materials

A few days ago, I finally began building my rocket stove. A rocket stove is a high efficiency, low cost type of homemade mass heater. The advantage with rocket stoves is being able to run the stove pipe through cob furniture such as benches or beds. Instead of sending the stove pipe straight through the roof (along with the heat) as is typical in conventional wood stoves, most of the heat can be captured in the cob thermal mass. Rocket stoves typically burn way less wood than typical wood stoves, and you can make them out of recycled and salvaged materials that are pretty widely available.

The rocket stove I am building will have a flue pipe that runs through a cob bed and bench, where heat will be stored over long periods of time, and make for very comfortable sleeping and sitting surfaces. (Direct heat feels way better than just warm air.)

Here is a list of my rocket stove building materials:

• 69 firebricks
• 55 gallon steel drum
• corrugated steel
• perlite and wood ash (for insulation)
• cob (sand, clay, straw)
• 6″ galvanized stove pipe (various lengths)

Essentially, the guts of a rocket stove is a J-shaped brick assembly, all carefully proportioned so that the stove can actually draw properly. The heat riser, which acts as a chimney, is probably the most important part, and in the case of my stove, is constructed with firebrick, some recycled corrugated steel, and a 55 gallon drum. I insulated it with a mix of perlite and wood ash.

The most expensive part of a rocket stove is the flue pipe, especially in the case of my design, which has almost 30 feet of run. I spent about $200 on 6″ galvanized pipe.

I traded for the perlite and found a barrel and corrugated steel for free, and purchased used firebricks for $1 a piece from friends at Sandhill Farm. I estimate the cost of the stove to be less than $300.

Firebrick is the top choice for building the guts of a rocket stove due to the extreme temperatures it can resist without wear. Eventually all bricks fall apart, but firebrick is built to withstand a lot of high heat.

The 55 gallon drum I am using is pretty run of the mill. Before using any steel drum, you must burn the paint off of it. I built a fire inside the barrel that I kept going for at least an hour, and then I rolled it in a fire pit. I think you could get by with just burning the inside. Afterwards, I used a wet towel and steel wool to wash the paint off, and then I used sandpaper to smooth it out.

In my next rocket stoves write-up, I’ll begin to detail the construction of the brickwork with plenty of pictures.

Here’s a video describing how a rocket stock works: