In-the-ground Rocket stove experiment

I've been experimenting to see how a Rocket stove could be made simply and inexpensively by building most of it underground.This version is somewhat like a Dakota fire hole with a chimney to develop more natural draft and direct the heat onto a pot better, but it's also like a Rocket stove in that you feed the wood into the air hole. The piece of stovepipe has some flared tabs at the bottom to keep it from dropping into the hole. The sheet metal came from an old hot water heater.

In this trial I was also attempting to develop a vortex swirl in the bottom by positioning the inlet hole offset to one side. Hopefully this will give cleaner, more complete combustion and less smoke.

As in the Dakota fire hole, if it's used just temporarily the fire is easily put out and left behind safely by pushing the dirt back into the holes.

Note the rocks holding down the sheet metal - they all came from those two little holes I dug! Yup, this is Arkansas...

This experiment got cut a bit short as it started to rain pretty hard. Stay tuned for further updates. [Update: the performance of this stove hasn't been very good, and ash and char accumulate pretty quickly down in the hole, blocking the flow. Not sure I could recommend this design, at least without further experimentation and modifications.]

Видео In-the-ground Rocket stove experiment канала Approtechie