Thank you for your helpful knowledge. I’m just getting started in modifying an old wood burning stove so that it will function as a substantially more efficient burning stove.
Keep experimenting. What you are learning, and teaching, is valuable to the safety, and survival of many. Efficiency, and safety. Society is collapsing, and people need this knowledge to survive.
What if the secondary air inlets were "sandwiched" between TWO restriction rings? (Injecting the secondary air at a forced low pressure point Like Bernoulli) I see many designs with a single restriction ring above the secondary air holes, but I think the "sandwiched" layout would work even better.
Love to see you back in the stove science series. Please try making the bigger version of the wood gas stove which is good for camping or cooking, and please also give it a try in making a rocket stove or even hybrid of rocket and wood gas stoves as this type of hybrids are rarely made by anyone.
I'm just about to make one of these, out of some stock pots, to use on our camper van trips in UK. I thought it would simply be a case of drilling a few holes, cut out a lid and away we go. I came across this video on my trawl for hints & tips. I didnt realise there was so much science involved, but its absolutely fascinating. I guess I'll now be watching all your videos on this subject! 😂 What a great video. Thank you so much
Many people build a stove by random hole drilling, but I wanted the most efficient stove that would even burn the charcoal. I do have a lot of videos on my channel. As you can see I was obsessed with this for a while. Good luck on your build! Thanks for watching!
Thanks a lot for your reach on wood gas. Please continue your design improvements. That will be a great blessing for many families. May God Almighty give you wisdom & guidance & bless you & your family.
I think it is your call whether to continue. As a novice new to this, I hope you never stop looking at ways to perfect this amazing science. My vision is a fire tornado version big enough for a backyard firepit that requires no fan and produces minimum smoke, Life and work prevent me from playing that much right now.
Everyone seems to want a bigger version with the same efficiency and same vortex flame. I originally stayed away from this. I am think about going in that direction now. We will see! Thanks for watching and commenting!
If you're looking for new areas to explore, how about making larger (non-portable) stoves out of materials that could last longer and/or be easily replaced in underdeveloped countries? I assume that the typical tin can stoves are good for a hundred meals or so, but I'm talking about cooking for an extended family day after day for years. Fired clay, modular design for easy ash removal and parts replacement, more heat control options for boiling vs simmering situations, something along those lines. In any case, I'm really glad I found your channel and look forward to catching up on what you have already done.
Heath, I appreciate your taking the time (again) to go through the biogas stoves. Having built plenty of them, I also was bit with the science bug in determining an optimal design. I had not seen your channel prior to today, but I am now wanting to get my stoves (and fresh cans for making new stoves) out to revisit these designs. I think you are doing a good service and inspiring plenty of people to learn about pyrolysis based stoves with your videos. One more vote in favor of your continued work in this matter. Thank you again...
Scott, I haven’t done a video on wood gas since October but your enthusiasm is giving my the big also! Now that I’m back in Arizona I need to be very careful, things burn so easy out here! Thanks for the comment!
It's wonderful. Please just carry on with the experiments. Kindly also let us know the science behind those wood gas stoves. Finally give us the optimal design. Thanks.
Just found this channel, love these experiments. Wanting to make my own wood gas stove like this, at least as a smokeless fire pit, to burn things off in the yard without upsetting the neighbors
Very funny. I had to live in an apartment in NC for six months for work. My series about paint can stoves happened on a tiny patio outside that apartment! Thanks for watching! My neighbors hated me! Hahaha!
hey man! this is the first time I listen about this topic but it's quite interesting, in fact I Love it, I'm also familiar with the pyrolysis phenomenon so it let me get in the matter easily. so there is a lot to understand in terms of fluid dynamics and indeed this may be the key factor of this working process. In this era of consumption and need for fuels to impulse our own industries and business this subject become fundamental so we need more investigation and deep learning about this. please don't stop to learn and keep experimenting and creating. by my part I'll gonna learn more about and do my own research. if at a any moment I got satisfactory results I let you know. thanks for sharing.
As an old engineer, I am greatly impressed over the seriosity in your studies. Interresting, that you have optimized the relationship primary/seccondary air inlet areas as1/5. I once tried to throttle the seccondary by a turnable ring to choke-trim the flow, and it made great difference in combustion. However it lost some of the simplicity. Have you ever considered a way to make the output variable for simmering and such? With liquid fuel, it is easy, but solid fuel is another task. For backpackers the simple stove is easy, lightweight and robust as it is, but for "preppers" that are stationary, it could have some benefits, by controlling the primary air for power output, and seccondary for quality of the combustion, and minimizing the soot deposits at the cooking gears. Me, myself am too stiff, and clumsy for hikes and such, but the issue of wood-gas-burning is very interresting, and may have large potentials for the world, though every saved calory is a win for the Planet Earth. Making such from garbage-tins, is a great win. A pity, is that more and more food-containers are either made of aluminium or plastic, instead of tinned steel. I think primary of poor people with very limited vegetation, where women have to walk several miles per day, for catching twigs, that they fire up in a badly-efficient campfire every day, to cook. By using woodgas stoves, the fuel would stay twenty-fault longer. What a win? Please excuse my swedish english. :) I love your efforts.
@@heathputnam9524 Hey, if you decide to go in that direction , I made a rocket stove that you could improve on. I used concrete, busted bag at Lowe's, half price or more off. I learned that you must add wire in the concrete to prevent busting when it gets hot. I used salvage wire, at no cost. I cast it it upside down in a 5 gallon bucket, I learned to cut the bucket, and then duct tape it back together or you can't get it out. Use 4" plastic pipe, 12" long for draw, fire chamber can be a brick wrapped with plastic, easy to remove, when you cut the duct tape, you can bump it all apart. Best cooking top suggestion is a salvage grate from a kitchen gas stove. I made a couple, I like to burn it, it smokes a lot, but you could fix that. Thanks for the nice video. DC. I'm Clint's Dad, Thanks, DC. 4-21-22
I love your videos so much... so far they've been showing experiments with wood pellets. I think another video using branches actually found when camping out will be a great idea 🤠
Me too! I did so many versions ahaha Finding right cans was a headache. What worked best for me were these metal coin bank cans that i found in a china store - they had no opening tab, just a solid lid, no ridges on the sides which might help airflow, and they came in many sizes. I also made a bigger one out of a double walled ice bucket. Looks great tbh, like a solo stove. It's heavier so i keep it at home, but it would do in a camping setup. The problem i have is making a nice looking tornado lid/pot holder, but that's up to our good sir Heath :p I also used high temp stove spray paint on my can stoves, to preserve the metal and make them look all nice. Hope this helps
You & these are amazing. I never thought about combining jet-engine technology with wood stoves. That clip of you drilling holes and talking about their size & location, reminded me of videos about homemade jet-engines out of turbochargers.
You're awesome man! I have been trying to figure all this out on my own with no success. Since I am a visual learner it would be terrific if you could make an animated video with labels and explanations of the more technical terms you use. At any rate your videos are outstanding and thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experiments.
I live in europe, and because of the energy crisis I won't use my home gas heater, cuz gas price has gone up 3 times compared to a couple months ago. So I'm planning on creating one of these pyrolytic stoves to use indoor. Personally I'd really take advantage of any video you make on this subject. Thanks for the experiments you've done so far.
I would like to see some testing of different volume and shaped outer "cans", and measure the changes in pressure and temperature of the secondary air as changes are made to the secondary air chamber. Is there an optimal temperature the secondary air should reach? Also, would cutting directional slots (louvers) instead of holes significantly help generate a vortex? I haven't watched all of your experiment videos, maybe there is one that deals with not just the air ratios, but the actual hole sizes... you can have the same ratios with much larger or smaller holes in the same size can. Perhaps this is discussed as a ratio in relation to the stove top diameter vs primary air hole size (sum of primary air hole diameters).
There is a lot to unpack here! Thanks for watching but please watch the other videos there is a lot of information in them. Then if you have questions ask away!
Fascinating! I would be interested in seeing if this design work scaled-down (a tiny lantern would be cool). It would also be good if you made a quike down and dirty version, using only a multi tool or Swiss-Army-Knives. Thanks
There is a flurry of bigger wood gas stoves, but they are rarely useful for grilling. Could one imagine turning down the primary air after proper secondary burn is established, leaving a larger portion of charcoal, and switching to a grill mode?
Hi I've just found this series, and I'm fascinated. As others have requested, experiments with a larger size stove would be great. I'd also like to see experiments with different types of fuel. Thanks for all the great info!
I have moved back to Arizona and I have to be more careful experimenting with fire out here! But I will get started again soon! Thanks for the comment!
@@heathputnam9524 Great; I'll look forward to it. I'm trying to learn as much as possible about efficient wood stoves for a possible project, and your videos have been a huge help
Exactly the question answered. It is air that is added to create the secondary burn. I would suggest what can be done to get the best blue flames. Perhaps it has been achieved by you. Also.... reiewing something is a way to discovery.... especially when you think you reviewed it all you can, or learned all you can. Wow.... the heat adds air with some extra flow and that makes the smoke able to burn.
I strive for blue flame and can get it to burn blue after the conversion phase to burning the char. It is not easy to get a stove to continue smokeless through into that phase but keep watching the series and you will see it! Thanks for watching!
Subcribed! I'm glad I found another enthusiast on gas stove science and technology. It's really cool to make and learn how they work. Too much air or too little air in can create incomplete burn and cause a lot of smoke from what I've seen in my experiments.
I love your stuff over the years I am looking to make a mid sized gassifyer for adventure camping. Looking for a video with the most accurate details and measurement. Please recommend a video for me
oh boy, here we go again! 🤩 and this time even with better audio. 😅 i really would like you to dig a bit deeper into the dependencies of all the dimensions to each other (like you did with the primary-vs-secondary air inlets). The background in this plea is, that i'm trying to build a huge gasifier stove (think of the solo stove yukon or similar) out of two old metal barrels. And im having a hard time´scaling everything up as best as possible...
Thanks for the idea! I will set the secondary air hole size and number and do a video where I vary the primary/secondary ratio are record the burn results. What do you think?
@@heathputnam9524 since i have also played around with an stove in the meantime, i had to realize that a particularly intense burn also has a disadvantage: it burns so hot that it is difficult to cook/fry on it and is then burnt out so quickly that the food is not completely cooked. a longer but somewhat cooler combustion would be cool. maybe with a higher but narrower combustion chamber? you might just wanna film yourself trying to cook on a stove :)
Thanks for the recap. I have been experimenting for three or four years. My objects are no smoke, minimal soot & tar, high efficiency, use DRY wood, make with simple hand tools from low cost or scrap materials, preferably no fan. Intended users are in Uganda. Full load of fuel needs to be 500 to 1,000 gram to boil 5 litres. Sometimes users save the charcoal produced, but mostly continue to simmer their cooking on the charcoal. Most of my stoves can do that. I have mainly used scrap paint cans, e.g. 1 & 2.5 litre. In UK paint cans are usually about equal width & height which is not really high enough. My best designs allow control of primary air. Therefore I can control the mix of primary / secondary air. My main problem is how to reduce soot & tar. Pellets seem to burn cleaner but pellets are rarely available in 3rd world, and even when they are the cooks would be unwilling to buy them. Incomes are often only $2 /day even in cities. As understand the science I need to get the pyrolysis up to 800 C to break down the tars. It seems to help a bit if I line the outer can with crumpled kitchen foil. But I still fail to burn clean enough with natural draft. So the challenge is to get rid of soot & tar when burning wood.
If I neck the airflow down I create a ton of charcoal but I produce soot and tar. You may want to add more primary air and not worry about creating charcoal... just heat and ash.
Hello! Thanks for the many tests and videos! I’m building my own stove now, I started some tests too, but luckily I found your channel and the videos save me a lot of time! :)
By the way I've made a test to heat the secondary air more. I've added a helix made from thin aluminium sheet between the two cans. Unfortunatelly the test was failed, I guess the helix worked wrong, not guided the air on a longer way but blocked. Once I would like to test this method again from a copper tube. If you have any experiment about it that would be good.
I have tried both copper tubes and coiled metal but did not have god results. My hypothesis is they restrict the flow and the path of least resistance is through the primary air ports. Good luck with the experiments and keep me posted. thanks for watching!
@@heathputnam9524 I have two more question if you don't mind :) You've mentioned that the good ratio is 5:1 for primary vs secondary air area. ➤ What occurs if primary air area is much more then 5:1 compare to the secondary (for example if the bottom of inner can is wire grid)? ➤Is that necessarry to drill holes to the bottom of outer can? I have 16× diameter 8mm = ~800mm^2 secondary air hole area on the top of inner can. The cross section area between the two can is ~1276mm^2. Because my stove is lifted off the ground with a small stand, based on the values above it seems enough air can flow up between the walls from the bottom to top for the secondary air. I have that idea if I drill more holes to the side of the outer can, it can cool back a bit the upgoing air. What do you think about it? What do you think about it?
As I proceed with more wood gas stoves it appears that ratio is only a starting point. Other factors seem to weigh in on the end ratio. I have found that the difference between the cans, height of the primary, pot stand design, etc can make a big difference. If you have too much primary air you will consume the fuel quickly and may not use the secondary air efficiently thus may not develop a good pyrolysis zone. Too little primary air and the stove may smoke at the end of the burn and not convert over to gasifying the char. Your ratios seem reasonable so just give it a try! Let me know your results! Thanks again for watching!
im just catching on to the smokeless burners. please PLEASE save me some time on trial/error and continue with the science. in this vid you describe 5:1 ratio of primary to secondary holes. sorry if i missed it, does it vary with volume? and what is the spread of hole placement?
I have a lot of videos on this subject. Watch the old ones and the new ones and then ask questions! I like the open source type of development! Thanks for watching!
great and very inspiring videos Heath! The internet at its best, sharing basic info everyone should know. Survive and thrive!. My questions: Is a blueish flame an indicator of good quality burn? Can we design to control air input to slow down the fire? say, or slow cooking..general heating?
Blue or yellow flame is really produced by the stage of the burn or chemicals being oxidized. I do have a less watched video that talks about slowing the air flow to help with cooking… I cannot remember the name but if you look at the series for paint can stove and look for the shrimp cooking video it may help! Sorry I hav a lot of different videos. Thanks for watching!
Thinking of combining cooking and heating external to house but using heat somehow to send into house into house and be able to cook 4 saucepans at once . The unit would need to be a lot larger is there a drawing design anywhere you could publish
I still think there's a downdraft aspect to it. I've watched the smoke being sucked out the bottom of my Bonfire when the fire's low. That doesn't mean the O2 at the top isn't the main reason there's flame at the top. By separating the two, you are making all the smoke go up, instead of down and back up, but I think there's a definite negative pressure created by convection in the outer air cylinder. I still think you demonstrate that the secondary air burns all the smoke. What'd be next level for me would be batch pellet stoves that have the longest possible burn time.
I think the ideal "balanced air flow" set-up is what influences if smoke is cycling out the bottom of the combustion chamber or not, more so than "if it does or doesn't". Perhaps one set-up is more efficient than another, it's just the way it works based on balancing the total primary and secondary airflow capacities.
I will attempt some larger containers. The toughest part about large containers is isolating the pyrolysis zone and covering it up with flame. If the flame doesn't stop the intrusion of oxygen it will burn like a regular fire and will not be very efficient or clean burning.
@@heathputnam9524 i made it by memory regarding the holes number and sizes,so i ended up with too few secondary air outlets that made the stove hard to keep lit. Also my outer can was far to big compared to the inner one. I rewatched the 5.4 stove video this morning and i'm gonna find some better cans to make a better stove
So much research done there to fine tune the burn. Have you thought of patents? I'm interested in finding or making the most efficient and smallest wood burning stove for camping. Ideally for use inside a well vented tent for the sole purpose of boiling water. I am your newest student. 👍
Thanks Heath. I have now watched about a thousand wood gas stove videos and built several with not great success. Your methods are convincing. Would you provide a detailed design for a stove of the progresso soup can size? I am a backpacker. Thanks! Scott
@@heathputnam9524 Thanks Heath. Will do and will report. May I ask 2 particulars? Some videos urge a wide mesh at the bottom to prevent ash clogging, and many show adding fuel during the burn. What do you think about mesh and about adding fuel? Thanks! Scott
Use the 5.4 vortex… you will not have any ash left at the end of the burn if done correctly. The mesh also lets in too much primary air. Adding fuel during the burn can be done but it disrupts the pyrolysis zone thus effecting efficiency. You will also get a little smoke… probably.
@@heathputnam9524 Heath I gotta tell ya, mine is working great now. I pelletized my stick fuel like you did and lit it from the top (I learned what "TL" meant from you) and it went to full secondary burn in 2.5 minutes, with no smoke. Wow. This is great. It's probably only 85% as efficient as the 5.4 so I'll be making the 5.4 soon. Thanks! Scott
I would like to see a bigger wider version and a top piece that works with it. It's an idea for using this efficient wood stove inside a normal sized wood stove in a say livingroom to get more heat from a lott less wood. How big, wide and with the lowest height can this wood stove be built to get the same efficiency and burn?
Still a bit confused as to how the gas gets between the inner/outer walls of the stove, if it doesn't downdraft and then go up between the walls. Could it be that we're seeing oxygenation jets helping to ignite the gasses near the holes, then?
Heath - I'm a Stanford University student who's working on TLUD stoves that can produce char for developing regions so they can filter their drinking water. I'd love to talk to you about how these kilns produce char, and hear your insights on how to improve some of the larger, 5-gallon designs we've been working on. Please let me know if you'd be interested, and where I can reach you. Thanks!
I'm new to this excellent and informative series, but I've been studying Rocket Mass Heaters, preparing to build my own. RMH building and testing usually involves some testing of exhaust gases to determine the actual efficiency of the burn. Are unburnt gases present in the flue (vapors)? Have you applied any such tests to your stove burns?
Incredible. I just spent a weekend in the woods with one of these only to notice this video right after. I find that the downsides of these stoves is that they cannot really do less than full throttle so to speak. There is concepts around the web, but I just lack the skills to try them out. Google "Methods of Substantial Turn-down TLUD" if you are interested. Oh, another thing I came across while researching those stoves myself: Why do the commercial TLUD gasifiers run so little primary/secondary? For example the Champion stove, runs 1:2.5 primary:secondary while you found 5:1 the best. I wonder why.
They are actually trying to make charcoal. My design burns everything down to a tiny amount of ash. I have choked the airflow and can force charcoal production. Thanks for watching.
Hey there! I saw your videos long ago and got inspired to make my own for backpacking. I made about 5 until I found the best one. But I always noticed when testing them with a more prepared controlled fuel source (pellets or slices of wood same size) it doesn't compare to real world situation. In a controlled test I can get 750ml of water boiling in around 6 min. In the field that time is about doubled. That being said.. I'd love to see you do some tests with types of fuel, more importantly sticks from trees. Prepared in different sizes and such.
I found the same. Sticks gathered in the woods, even carefully selected, never seemed to perform as well, and I wonder if the stove can be optimized for the difference, or if the most efficient stove with pellets is also the most efficient with less "ideal" fuels
As you mentioned the natural sticks do not perform as well I believe it is because the fuel has so many more air holes and can not be optimally stacked as not to allow too much air flow through the chamber. That high flow will hinder the development of a good sealed pyrolysis zone. I have however taken small dry twigs and broken/cut them up to pellet size and shape and had much better luck. The burn was not as consistent as pellets, but worth playing around with! Thanks for the comment!
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So, the less optimized the fuel (ie sticks etc), the less primary air needed? And the more optimized (ie densely packed, ie pellets) the more primary air it needs (up to 5:1)?
Very interesting! I've tried some designs online that don't work well at all. So your experiments are fascinating! It looks like a combination of science, engineering, and empirical design. Are you a mechanical engineer?
I would be interested to see if you could make a design for a stove like this that produces charcoal continuously. The idea would be that you could continuously feed fuel into the stove, presumably at the top, and extract charcoal from the bottom.
I saw some Indians who took a 55-gallon drum, cut a hole for a 6-inch perforated pipe down the middle. Perforations near the bottom. Fill the barrel around the pipe with biomass (wood stock). Then seal the lid of the drum, with a 6-inch hole for the pipe. Put the barrel over a shallow fire pit and fire it up. As the wood heats up, gas escapes into the pipe. That gas is ignited by the fire and you get quite a rocket going. It looked like a method that wouldn't make a ton of smoke. Good hot fire down below, and the outgases burn cleanly in that long, 6-inch chimney in the middle. Of course, it'd be nice to capture that gas, which you could, by piping it out instead of in, but very easy and clean way to make a lot of charcoal.
I remember your vids. I used to be obsessed with ideal wood stoves and even others like tekobas alcohol stoves. And also campfires so one day I gave in and started making secret trips to a local bush to build small campfires in a sense jungle type environment. I'd come back stinking of smoke, with a raging headache and paining eyes from the smoke. And and no fire. And I did this a few times until I made my fire with a lighter and some twigs and sticks. I just wanted to see it grow and burn in the real and watch it and feel it and smell it. I still have that craving to this day. Then I ran away from home for unrelated reasons and now all of a sudden making a fire became an everyday affair, several times a day. Due to the jungle type beach environment I was living amoungst. Where to take a shit you need to light a small fire first or risk having your balls sapped by giant mosquitoes. A long time vagrant one day visited, scoping my den out and also being friendly and he was amazed that I was cooking my pot of food on such a small fire. He wasn't acting. I don't think he had ever seen any body make such a small little efficient fire as I did, and I could do it in seconds. You see firewood in a high humidity green environment is actually surprisingly hard to find. It has to be dry and dead. And it runs out too. Infact the guy I'm talking about had a stock pile of wood, half of which was drift wood from the beach in front of his den. I had experimented with every possible tinder and found that the absolute worst for small fires is paper and the best is by far free condoms. And you only need one. And a few seconds flame from a lighter to light it. And ofcourse a small box lighter lasts several months even with everyday use. I proved this several times. Just a small ditch you could dig with your hands to sit the fire in. And a proper selection of wood, broken by hand. Never used a tool to collect fire wood. If you need a tool, choose another branch. I could literally make a fire in seconds while holding In a good shit. And a minute or two after I'm done it'd have burned itself out.
Can you convert these stoves to make smoke free like there should be exit pip and we can use these within room? it that possible ? Do you already have any video?
Blue flame can be made with the use of a fan, but it is hard without the forced air flow. I can and do produce blue flame at the end of the burn once the stove converts over to burning the char. Thanks for watching.
@@heathputnam9524 sir u have done so much work . Out of curiosity i am asking . Can we assume , the wood becomes a charcoal , then it gives a blue flame ? Or if we use a charcoal , how will it work ? Kudos to your work .
Hi. Do you have the plans with the diameter of the upper air holes according to the size of the can? And, according to what I read, Pyrolysis is when you burn the wood with little oxygen, so wouldn't it be more efficient if the holes in the base are few?
If you watch more of my wood gas science videos you will see several with descriptions of hole sizes. My original goal is to create a smokeless very efficient burn. I achieved that by getting the correct fuel air mixture in the initial phase of burning most of the air moves up between the cans and exits at the top were it burns the wood gas being converted below the flames in the pyrolysis zone. Later as the fuel has all been converted to char it converts over to burning the char where a lot more air enters the burn chamber through the primary holes at the bottom of the can. Hope this helps! Thanks for the comment!
@@heathputnam9524 Thank you. I'm going to check that. I have a newbie question: in your video you said pyrolysis produce gases (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and hydrogen). Doesn't a conventional bonfire produce these gases as well? Or maybe I'm wrong. I've been reading from different pages, and some say pyrolysis is combustion of wood and then gas (double combustion), while others say that pyrolysis is burning wood with almost no oxygen.
Yes, a bon fire does produce the same gasses but they are almost immediately mixed with the surrounding air. There are areas in the bon fire that pyrolysis’s! A can stove starts out burning wood just like a standard fire but as the temperature rises the flame quickly rises above the fuel to either the top of the can or the secondary air inlets creating the oxygen free zone below! I am not an expert, only communicating what I have learned through experimentation. Thanks for watching!
Hi! I'm new here, so I apologize if this is something you've already covered in a previous video, but does this stove design also make charcoal, or does "complete burn" mean it takes it down to ash? I'm trying to find a good template for one of these (but bigger) that I can use for cooking and to make biochar -- and maybe even charcoal for grilling -- but any information I can find on making char isn't really geared towards cooking, and vice versa. And thank you for the video! It's a very helpful look at how these types of stoves work.
how did you do or get the stove on the right side to burn so much better at the end of video, i will watch again, i must have missed something, so far all the other stoves just seem to be burning like the old cub scout stoves we made from just a simple can, a twig stove, to much flame coming out of the top
The two stoves at the end of the video have the inner can designed exactly the same but the primary and secondary ports each have their own fresh air supply. I call it the “hybrid vortex” it is premiered my video “Dualing Woodgas Stoves”. I never did a video on the build, but it is explained in that video. Thanks for watching.
I just stumbled on this today. I found it very enlightening. Thank you! For me it would be nice if we could find somewhere the results in written form i.e. a plan of sort. You could then experiment with size? Bigger stove? And forms would it work as a foldable cube in order to carry it flat in a bag? Would it be safe to use in a tent is the Co2/Co really burned? Would we need a cheminey?
I think you really need to contnue. This will help to reduce garbage and it will make reusable products like biochar and activated carbon which is very useful nowadays.
Ultimately you do not add wood while cooking with this style stove. You can but it interrupts the pyrolysis zone and it will lose efficiency and smoke a few seconds. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for your helpful knowledge. I’m just getting started in modifying an old wood burning stove so that it will function as a substantially more efficient burning stove.
Good luck! Hope my videos help!
You are, by far, the best. Period. Anything you say, i listen. I learn. I thank you for your past sharing, and for anything you post in the future.
Thanks! Happy you enjoyed the series!
Keep experimenting. What you are learning, and teaching, is valuable to the safety, and survival of many. Efficiency, and safety. Society is collapsing, and people need this knowledge to survive.
But how will they know how to make this? No society means no UA-cam! OH THE HORROR! Seriously, thanks for watching!
Please do more. You've helped me soooo much and ur very good at this. Literally helped me not freeze to death quite a few times.
Happy you didn’t freeze to death!
@@heathputnam9524 thank you!
What if the secondary air inlets were "sandwiched" between TWO restriction rings? (Injecting the secondary air at a forced low pressure point Like Bernoulli) I see many designs with a single restriction ring above the secondary air holes, but I think the "sandwiched" layout would work even better.
Keep doing the wood gas stove videos!! Very informative!!
Heath, thank goodness you came back! Thank you too,
Lol! Thanks! Glad you enjoy the videos!
The best test on UA-cam!
Thank you!
Love to see you back in the stove science series. Please try making the bigger version of the wood gas stove which is good for camping or cooking, and please also give it a try in making a rocket stove or even hybrid of rocket and wood gas stoves as this type of hybrids are rarely made by anyone.
Thanks for watching!
very much sir. Your s is more scientific than many , Pl continues for the sake of environment . Pl continue.
I'm just about to make one of these, out of some stock pots, to use on our camper van trips in UK.
I thought it would simply be a case of drilling a few holes, cut out a lid and away we go.
I came across this video on my trawl for hints & tips.
I didnt realise there was so much science involved, but its absolutely fascinating.
I guess I'll now be watching all your videos on this subject! 😂
What a great video.
Thank you so much
Many people build a stove by random hole drilling, but I wanted the most efficient stove that would even burn the charcoal. I do have a lot of videos on my channel. As you can see I was obsessed with this for a while. Good luck on your build! Thanks for watching!
Please continue with this series. Thank you
I did continue it with many additional videos. Please look up my playlist to see them. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks a lot for your reach on wood gas. Please continue your design improvements. That will be a great blessing for many families. May God Almighty give you wisdom & guidance & bless you & your family.
Hopefully someone gets something from these videos! Thanks for the comment!
I think it is your call whether to continue. As a novice new to this, I hope you never stop looking at ways to perfect this amazing science. My vision is a fire tornado version big enough for a backyard firepit that requires no fan and produces minimum smoke, Life and work prevent me from playing that much right now.
Everyone seems to want a bigger version with the same efficiency and same vortex flame. I originally stayed away from this. I am think about going in that direction now. We will see! Thanks for watching and commenting!
I would be most interested to watch you continue with your stove optimization. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching!
I like the thermodynamics of stove you have explained
Thanks!
Plse continue! I was looking for this! I wanted to build one and understand the science to make it most efficient!
Thanks for the comment!
If you're looking for new areas to explore, how about making larger (non-portable) stoves out of materials that could last longer and/or be easily replaced in underdeveloped countries? I assume that the typical tin can stoves are good for a hundred meals or so, but I'm talking about cooking for an extended family day after day for years. Fired clay, modular design for easy ash removal and parts replacement, more heat control options for boiling vs simmering situations, something along those lines.
In any case, I'm really glad I found your channel and look forward to catching up on what you have already done.
Saving the world!?! That may be above my pay grade! Thanks for watching!
tnx for your tests and experiments, in that way i could build my gasifier stove using those experiments as my guide
Definitely love this series
Thanks for watching!
Heath, I appreciate your taking the time (again) to go through the biogas stoves. Having built plenty of them, I also was bit with the science bug in determining an optimal design. I had not seen your channel prior to today, but I am now wanting to get my stoves (and fresh cans for making new stoves) out to revisit these designs. I think you are doing a good service and inspiring plenty of people to learn about pyrolysis based stoves with your videos. One more vote in favor of your continued work in this matter. Thank you again...
Scott, I haven’t done a video on wood gas since October but your enthusiasm is giving my the big also! Now that I’m back in Arizona I need to be very careful, things burn so easy out here! Thanks for the comment!
Yes sir, You should continue and please, I Am following you for that reason, Thank you so much
Thank you, I will
In gas outage of our country, you are the helping hand,
Love from Pakistan
Thanks for watching!
@@heathputnam9524 welcome sir
It's wonderful. Please just carry on with the experiments.
Kindly also let us know the science behind those wood gas stoves.
Finally give us the optimal design.
Thanks.
Check out my channel for the playlists! There are quite a few videos on there and some answer your requests! Thanks for watching!
This was one of my favorite series thanks so much for doing it
Thank you!
Just found this channel, love these experiments.
Wanting to make my own wood gas stove like this, at least as a smokeless fire pit, to burn things off in the yard without upsetting the neighbors
Very funny. I had to live in an apartment in NC for six months for work. My series about paint can stoves happened on a tiny patio outside that apartment! Thanks for watching! My neighbors hated me! Hahaha!
Been waiting for a revival!!!
Thanks for the watch and comment!
hey man! this is the first time I listen about this topic but it's quite interesting, in fact I Love it, I'm also familiar with the pyrolysis phenomenon so it let me get in the matter easily. so there is a lot to understand in terms of fluid dynamics and indeed this may be the key factor of this working process. In this era of consumption and need for fuels to impulse our own industries and business this subject become fundamental so we need more investigation and deep learning about this. please don't stop to learn and keep experimenting and creating. by my part I'll gonna learn more about and do my own research. if at a any moment I got satisfactory results I let you know. thanks for sharing.
As an old engineer, I am greatly impressed over the seriosity in your studies. Interresting, that you have optimized the relationship primary/seccondary air inlet areas as1/5.
I once tried to throttle the seccondary by a turnable ring to choke-trim the flow, and it made great difference in combustion. However it lost some of the simplicity.
Have you ever considered a way to make the output variable for simmering and such? With liquid fuel, it is easy, but solid fuel is another task.
For backpackers the simple stove is easy, lightweight and robust as it is, but for "preppers" that are stationary, it could have some benefits, by controlling the primary air for power output, and seccondary for quality of the combustion, and minimizing the soot deposits at the cooking gears.
Me, myself am too stiff, and clumsy for hikes and such, but the issue of wood-gas-burning is very interresting, and may have large potentials for the world, though every saved calory is a win for the Planet Earth. Making such from garbage-tins, is a great win. A pity, is that more and more food-containers are either made of aluminium or plastic, instead of tinned steel.
I think primary of poor people with very limited vegetation, where women have to walk several miles per day, for catching twigs, that they fire up in a badly-efficient campfire every day, to cook.
By using woodgas stoves, the fuel would stay twenty-fault longer. What a win? Please excuse my swedish english. :) I love your efforts.
Thanks for the comment! I will take your thoughts into consideration. It is a different direction, but worthy of investigation.
@@heathputnam9524 Hey, if you decide to go in that direction , I made a rocket stove that you could improve on. I used concrete, busted bag at Lowe's, half price or more off. I learned that you must add wire in the concrete to prevent busting when it gets hot. I used salvage wire, at no cost. I cast it it upside down in a 5 gallon bucket, I learned to cut the bucket, and then duct tape it back together or you can't get it out. Use 4" plastic pipe, 12" long for draw, fire chamber can be a brick wrapped with plastic, easy to remove, when you cut the duct tape, you can bump it all apart. Best cooking top suggestion is a salvage grate from a kitchen gas stove.
I made a couple, I like to burn it, it smokes a lot, but you could fix that. Thanks for the nice video. DC. I'm Clint's Dad, Thanks, DC. 4-21-22
I love your videos so much... so far they've been showing experiments with wood pellets. I think another video using branches actually found when camping out will be a great idea 🤠
Thanks for the comment! I’ll see what I can do!
Yes, I know I am late to the game, but your first tlud/woodgas videos led me to many can stove builds! Would love to see larger can builds
A lot have asked the same… maybe about time I tried! Thanks for commenting!
Me too! I did so many versions ahaha
Finding right cans was a headache. What worked best for me were these metal coin bank cans that i found in a china store - they had no opening tab, just a solid lid, no ridges on the sides which might help airflow, and they came in many sizes.
I also made a bigger one out of a double walled ice bucket. Looks great tbh, like a solo stove. It's heavier so i keep it at home, but it would do in a camping setup. The problem i have is making a nice looking tornado lid/pot holder, but that's up to our good sir Heath :p
I also used high temp stove spray paint on my can stoves, to preserve the metal and make them look all nice.
Hope this helps
You & these are amazing. I never thought about combining jet-engine technology with wood stoves. That clip of you drilling holes and talking about their size & location, reminded me of videos about homemade jet-engines out of turbochargers.
Haha! Thanks! Hope you enjoyed it!
Continue the series! Scale it waaaay up! :)
Thanks for the comment!
You're awesome man! I have been trying to figure all this out on my own with no success. Since I am a visual learner it would be terrific if you could make an animated video with labels and explanations of the more technical terms you use. At any rate your videos are outstanding and thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experiments.
This is awesome stuff! I have been working on one myself. Great insight to great information
Great to see a fellow builder! Thanks for the comment!
Keep on going!! Make a huge one out of concrete!
I’ll work on that! Thanks for watching!
I live in europe, and because of the energy crisis I won't use my home gas heater, cuz gas price has gone up 3 times compared to a couple months ago. So I'm planning on creating one of these pyrolytic stoves to use indoor.
Personally I'd really take advantage of any video you make on this subject.
Thanks for the experiments you've done so far.
Hope for a warm winter and thanks for watching!
I would like to see some testing of different volume and shaped outer "cans", and measure the changes in pressure and temperature of the secondary air as changes are made to the secondary air chamber. Is there an optimal temperature the secondary air should reach? Also, would cutting directional slots (louvers) instead of holes significantly help generate a vortex? I haven't watched all of your experiment videos, maybe there is one that deals with not just the air ratios, but the actual hole sizes... you can have the same ratios with much larger or smaller holes in the same size can. Perhaps this is discussed as a ratio in relation to the stove top diameter vs primary air hole size (sum of primary air hole diameters).
There is a lot to unpack here! Thanks for watching but please watch the other videos there is a lot of information in them. Then if you have questions ask away!
Fascinating!
I would be interested in seeing if this design work scaled-down (a tiny lantern would be cool).
It would also be good if you made a quike down and dirty version, using only a multi tool or Swiss-Army-Knives.
Thanks
Maybe I’ll work on the quick emergency stove! Thanks for the comment!
Absolutely keep going and try to make them better like have a automatic feed off to the side for feeding the stove if possible
Feeding is difficult due to the pyrolysis zone but plenty have asked for this so I may attempt it! Thanks for the comment!
There is a flurry of bigger wood gas stoves, but they are rarely useful for grilling. Could one imagine turning down the primary air after proper secondary burn is established, leaving a larger portion of charcoal, and switching to a grill mode?
I just found out about your channel... I would like to see more content like this !!! Keep it coming brother !
Thanks for watching!
Hi I've just found this series, and I'm fascinated. As others have requested, experiments with a larger size stove would be great. I'd also like to see experiments with different types of fuel. Thanks for all the great info!
I have moved back to Arizona and I have to be more careful experimenting with fire out here! But I will get started again soon! Thanks for the comment!
@@heathputnam9524 Great; I'll look forward to it. I'm trying to learn as much as possible about efficient wood stoves for a possible project, and your videos have been a huge help
I know this is over a year old...but this was super interesting.
Thanks for the comment! The information is still correct even though it has aged a little!
Welcome back! :D (HUGS) Please do more videos! You are missed!
Thank you!
woohoo! I found someone that's into gas stoves as much as me
Yessiree!
Exactly the question answered.
It is air that is added to create the secondary burn.
I would suggest what can be done to get the best blue flames. Perhaps it has been achieved by you.
Also.... reiewing something is a way to discovery.... especially when you think you reviewed it all you can, or learned all you can.
Wow.... the heat adds air with some extra flow and that makes the smoke able to burn.
Thanks for watching!
Please give the exact dimensions of can, holes, hole position, thank you very much
Watch the series… it’s all in there! Thanks for watching!
I'd be interested to see if you could make one that gives off blue flame.
I strive for blue flame and can get it to burn blue after the conversion phase to burning the char. It is not easy to get a stove to continue smokeless through into that phase but keep watching the series and you will see it! Thanks for watching!
I was waiting for this and now i"ve found your new videos my chance !
Thanks for the comment!
Immo try the 1 gallon paint can version. I'll calculate hole diameters to achieve a 5 to 1 ratio.
Look out for the video! This is coming up soon! Thanks for the comment!
Subcribed! I'm glad I found another enthusiast on gas stove science and technology. It's really cool to make and learn how they work. Too much air or too little air in can create incomplete burn and cause a lot of smoke from what I've seen in my experiments.
Welcome to my channel! Hope you enjoy my videos! Thanks for watching!
I love your stuff over the years
I am looking to make a mid sized gassifyer for adventure camping. Looking for a video with the most accurate details and measurement. Please recommend a video for me
What are you considering mid sized? Thanks for watching!
would love to see this done with vegetable oil combustion in a similar fashion
oh boy, here we go again! 🤩
and this time even with better audio. 😅
i really would like you to dig a bit deeper into the dependencies of all the dimensions to each other (like you did with the primary-vs-secondary air inlets).
The background in this plea is, that i'm trying to build a huge gasifier stove (think of the solo stove yukon or similar) out of two old metal barrels. And im having a hard time´scaling everything up as best as possible...
Thanks for the idea! I will set the secondary air hole size and number and do a video where I vary the primary/secondary ratio are record the burn results. What do you think?
@@heathputnam9524 since i have also played around with an stove in the meantime, i had to realize that a particularly intense burn also has a disadvantage: it burns so hot that it is difficult to cook/fry on it and is then burnt out so quickly that the food is not completely cooked.
a longer but somewhat cooler combustion would be cool. maybe with a higher but narrower combustion chamber?
you might just wanna film yourself trying to cook on a stove :)
Thanks for the recap.
I have been experimenting for three or four years. My objects are no smoke, minimal soot & tar, high efficiency, use DRY wood, make with simple hand tools from low cost or scrap materials, preferably no fan.
Intended users are in Uganda.
Full load of fuel needs to be 500 to 1,000 gram to boil 5 litres.
Sometimes users save the charcoal produced, but mostly continue to simmer their cooking on the charcoal. Most of my stoves can do that.
I have mainly used scrap paint cans, e.g. 1 & 2.5 litre. In UK paint cans are usually about equal width & height which is not really high enough.
My best designs allow control of primary air. Therefore I can control the mix of primary / secondary air.
My main problem is how to reduce soot & tar. Pellets seem to burn cleaner but pellets are rarely available in 3rd world, and even when they are the cooks would be unwilling to buy them. Incomes are often only $2 /day even in cities.
As understand the science I need to get the pyrolysis up to 800 C to break down the tars. It seems to help a bit if I line the outer can with crumpled kitchen foil. But I still fail to burn clean enough with natural draft.
So the challenge is to get rid of soot & tar when burning wood.
If I neck the airflow down I create a ton of charcoal but I produce soot and tar. You may want to add more primary air and not worry about creating charcoal... just heat and ash.
@@heathputnam9524 Last year I made four videos showing how my ideas have developed.
This is the first: ua-cam.com/video/CcTpUfH0xDg/v-deo.html
For high efficiency, this should provide some ideas: www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1425656
or this res.mdpi.com/d_attachment/cleantechnol/cleantechnol-02-00017/article_deploy/cleantechnol-02-00017.pdf
Thanks! This paper is great!
Hello! Thanks for the many tests and videos! I’m building my own stove now, I started some tests too, but luckily I found your channel and the videos save me a lot of time! :)
By the way I've made a test to heat the secondary air more. I've added a helix made from thin aluminium sheet between the two cans. Unfortunatelly the test was failed, I guess the helix worked wrong, not guided the air on a longer way but blocked. Once I would like to test this method again from a copper tube. If you have any experiment about it that would be good.
I have tried both copper tubes and coiled metal but did not have god results. My hypothesis is they restrict the flow and the path of least resistance is through the primary air ports. Good luck with the experiments and keep me posted. thanks for watching!
@@heathputnam9524 I have two more question if you don't mind :) You've mentioned that the good ratio is 5:1 for primary vs secondary air area.
➤ What occurs if primary air area is much more then 5:1 compare to the secondary (for example if the bottom of inner can is wire grid)?
➤Is that necessarry to drill holes to the bottom of outer can? I have 16× diameter 8mm = ~800mm^2 secondary air hole area on the top of inner can. The cross section area between the two can is ~1276mm^2. Because my stove is lifted off the ground with a small stand, based on the values above it seems enough air can flow up between the walls from the bottom to top for the secondary air. I have that idea if I drill more holes to the side of the outer can, it can cool back a bit the upgoing air. What do you think about it? What do you think about it?
As I proceed with more wood gas stoves it appears that ratio is only a starting point. Other factors seem to weigh in on the end ratio. I have found that the difference between the cans, height of the primary, pot stand design, etc can make a big difference. If you have too much primary air you will consume the fuel quickly and may not use the secondary air efficiently thus may not develop a good pyrolysis zone. Too little primary air and the stove may smoke at the end of the burn and not convert over to gasifying the char. Your ratios seem reasonable so just give it a try! Let me know your results! Thanks again for watching!
@@heathputnam9524 Thank you, I will make some tests and share the results :)
im just catching on to the smokeless burners. please PLEASE save me some time on trial/error and continue with the science. in this vid you describe 5:1 ratio of primary to secondary holes. sorry if i missed it, does it vary with volume? and what is the spread of hole placement?
I have a lot of videos on this subject. Watch the old ones and the new ones and then ask questions! I like the open source type of development! Thanks for watching!
Please continue with variety of can size, or even with natural wood, or recycle garbages...
Thanks for the ideas, and thanks for watching!
This is perfect. giving close to blue flame. that mean fully oxidation occur.
Thanks for the comment!
great and very inspiring videos Heath! The internet at its best, sharing basic info everyone should know. Survive and thrive!. My questions: Is a blueish flame an indicator of good quality burn? Can we design to control air input to slow down the fire? say, or slow cooking..general heating?
Blue or yellow flame is really produced by the stage of the burn or chemicals being oxidized. I do have a less watched video that talks about slowing the air flow to help with cooking… I cannot remember the name but if you look at the series for paint can stove and look for the shrimp cooking video it may help! Sorry I hav a lot of different videos. Thanks for watching!
Thinking of combining cooking and heating external to house but using heat somehow to send into house into house and be able to cook 4 saucepans at once . The unit would need to be a lot larger is there a drawing design anywhere you could publish
I do now have a published design. Sorry, but the build videos give you most/all the dimensions! Thanks for the comment!
I still think there's a downdraft aspect to it. I've watched the smoke being sucked out the bottom of my Bonfire when the fire's low. That doesn't mean the O2 at the top isn't the main reason there's flame at the top. By separating the two, you are making all the smoke go up, instead of down and back up, but I think there's a definite negative pressure created by convection in the outer air cylinder. I still think you demonstrate that the secondary air burns all the smoke.
What'd be next level for me would be batch pellet stoves that have the longest possible burn time.
I think the ideal "balanced air flow" set-up is what influences if smoke is cycling out the bottom of the combustion chamber or not, more so than "if it does or doesn't". Perhaps one set-up is more efficient than another, it's just the way it works based on balancing the total primary and secondary airflow capacities.
Could you try this with some larger containers? Example: 30 and 55 gallon drums?
I will attempt some larger containers. The toughest part about large containers is isolating the pyrolysis zone and covering it up with flame. If the flame doesn't stop the intrusion of oxygen it will burn like a regular fire and will not be very efficient or clean burning.
I'd love another series about this! I just built one stove yesterday but it didn't turn out so great
Thanks for watching! What is wrong with your stove? What are the symptoms?
@@heathputnam9524 i made it by memory regarding the holes number and sizes,so i ended up with too few secondary air outlets that made the stove hard to keep lit.
Also my outer can was far to big compared to the inner one.
I rewatched the 5.4 stove video this morning and i'm gonna find some better cans to make a better stove
Yeah the Primary/secondary ration is very important! So is accuracy! Good Luck!
So much research done there to fine tune the burn. Have you thought of patents?
I'm interested in finding or making the most efficient and smallest wood burning stove for camping. Ideally for use inside a well vented tent for the sole purpose of boiling water.
I am your newest student. 👍
Haha! Most people are asking for bigger stoves! How small are we talking? Thanks for the comment!
Have you experimented with the ideal size of flame concentrater at the top and how it effects performance?
I have done a little, but nothing extensive. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Heath. I have now watched about a thousand wood gas stove videos and built several with not great success. Your methods are convincing. Would you provide a detailed design for a stove of the progresso soup can size? I am a backpacker. Thanks! Scott
Scott, look up the vortex 5.4 build video, it has everything you need to build a kick ass wood gas can stove! Thanks for watching!
@@heathputnam9524 Thanks Heath. Will do and will report. May I ask 2 particulars? Some videos urge a wide mesh at the bottom to prevent ash clogging, and many show adding fuel during the burn. What do you think about mesh and about adding fuel? Thanks! Scott
Use the 5.4 vortex… you will not have any ash left at the end of the burn if done correctly. The mesh also lets in too much primary air. Adding fuel during the burn can be done but it disrupts the pyrolysis zone thus effecting efficiency. You will also get a little smoke… probably.
@@heathputnam9524 Heath I gotta tell ya, mine is working great now. I pelletized my stick fuel like you did and lit it from the top (I learned what "TL" meant from you) and it went to full secondary burn in 2.5 minutes, with no smoke. Wow. This is great. It's probably only 85% as efficient as the 5.4 so I'll be making the 5.4 soon. Thanks! Scott
Awesome job Scott! Keep me posted!
I would like to see a bigger wider version and a top piece that works with it. It's an idea for using this efficient wood stove inside a normal sized wood stove in a say livingroom to get more heat from a lott less wood.
How big, wide and with the lowest height can this wood stove be built to get the same efficiency and burn?
That is a great question! I may experiment with that in the future! Thanks for the comment!
Still a bit confused as to how the gas gets between the inner/outer walls of the stove, if it doesn't downdraft and then go up between the walls. Could it be that we're seeing oxygenation jets helping to ignite the gasses near the holes, then?
Heath - I'm a Stanford University student who's working on TLUD stoves that can produce char for developing regions so they can filter their drinking water.
I'd love to talk to you about how these kilns produce char, and hear your insights on how to improve some of the larger, 5-gallon designs we've been working on.
Please let me know if you'd be interested, and where I can reach you. Thanks!
I'm new to this excellent and informative series, but I've been studying Rocket Mass Heaters, preparing to build my own. RMH building and testing usually involves some testing of exhaust gases to determine the actual efficiency of the burn. Are unburnt gases present in the flue (vapors)? Have you applied any such tests to your stove burns?
No I do not have that type of equipment. Thanks for watching!
Thank you
You're welcome
Incredible. I just spent a weekend in the woods with one of these only to notice this video right after. I find that the downsides of these stoves is that they cannot really do less than full throttle so to speak. There is concepts around the web, but I just lack the skills to try them out. Google "Methods of Substantial Turn-down TLUD" if you are interested. Oh, another thing I came across while researching those stoves myself: Why do the commercial TLUD gasifiers run so little primary/secondary? For example the Champion stove, runs 1:2.5 primary:secondary while you found 5:1 the best. I wonder why.
They are actually trying to make charcoal. My design burns everything down to a tiny amount of ash. I have choked the airflow and can force charcoal production. Thanks for watching.
@@heathputnam9524 wow that super makes sense. Ty
I’m glad you agree! :) thanks again for watching!
Ótimo vídeo Parabéns boa diga 👍👍🇧🇷
Thanks for watching!
intresting ,, continueted please
Thanks for watching
Have you optimized a version of the quart paint can/progresso soup can build (since they snap together so easily)?
I have not... I will take a look at the design and maybe make an optimization video on that type. Thanks for the comment
I decided to make a series on your idea! I posted the first video this evening! Thanks for watching!
Hey there! I saw your videos long ago and got inspired to make my own for backpacking. I made about 5 until I found the best one. But I always noticed when testing them with a more prepared controlled fuel source (pellets or slices of wood same size) it doesn't compare to real world situation. In a controlled test I can get 750ml of water boiling in around 6 min. In the field that time is about doubled. That being said.. I'd love to see you do some tests with types of fuel, more importantly sticks from trees. Prepared in different sizes and such.
I will see what I can do! Glad my videos( as bad as they were) inspired you to build wood gas can stoves! Thanks for the comment!
I found the same. Sticks gathered in the woods, even carefully selected, never seemed to perform as well, and I wonder if the stove can be optimized for the difference, or if the most efficient stove with pellets is also the most efficient with less "ideal" fuels
As you mentioned the natural sticks do not perform as well I believe it is because the fuel has so many more air holes and can not be optimally stacked as not to allow too much air flow through the chamber. That high flow will hinder the development of a good sealed pyrolysis zone. I have however taken small dry twigs and broken/cut them up to pellet size and shape and had much better luck. The burn was not as consistent as pellets, but worth playing around with! Thanks for the comment!
So, the less optimized the fuel (ie sticks etc), the less primary air needed? And the more optimized (ie densely packed, ie pellets) the more primary air it needs (up to 5:1)?
Very interesting! I've tried some designs online that don't work well at all. So your experiments are fascinating! It looks like a combination of science, engineering, and empirical design. Are you a mechanical engineer?
Yes I am, and thanks for the comment!
Is it possible to put another set of gasifier on top for more complete burn?
Sure, that would help as long as the temperature was still hot enough. Thanks for watching!
I would be interested to see if you could make a design for a stove like this that produces charcoal continuously. The idea would be that you could continuously feed fuel into the stove, presumably at the top, and extract charcoal from the bottom.
I saw some Indians who took a 55-gallon drum, cut a hole for a 6-inch perforated pipe down the middle. Perforations near the bottom. Fill the barrel around the pipe with biomass (wood stock). Then seal the lid of the drum, with a 6-inch hole for the pipe.
Put the barrel over a shallow fire pit and fire it up. As the wood heats up, gas escapes into the pipe. That gas is ignited by the fire and you get quite a rocket going. It looked like a method that wouldn't make a ton of smoke. Good hot fire down below, and the outgases burn cleanly in that long, 6-inch chimney in the middle. Of course, it'd be nice to capture that gas, which you could, by piping it out instead of in, but very easy and clean way to make a lot of charcoal.
Just found your Stove Videos. Great, thank you for the work! Will you also go for bigger ones, for making more charcoal?
I am taking all recommendations for videos or series'. Thanks for watching!
I remember your vids. I used to be obsessed with ideal wood stoves and even others like tekobas alcohol stoves. And also campfires so one day I gave in and started making secret trips to a local bush to build small campfires in a sense jungle type environment. I'd come back stinking of smoke, with a raging headache and paining eyes from the smoke. And and no fire. And I did this a few times until I made my fire with a lighter and some twigs and sticks. I just wanted to see it grow and burn in the real and watch it and feel it and smell it. I still have that craving to this day.
Then I ran away from home for unrelated reasons and now all of a sudden making a fire became an everyday affair, several times a day. Due to the jungle type beach environment I was living amoungst. Where to take a shit you need to light a small fire first or risk having your balls sapped by giant mosquitoes.
A long time vagrant one day visited, scoping my den out and also being friendly and he was amazed that I was cooking my pot of food on such a small fire. He wasn't acting. I don't think he had ever seen any body make such a small little efficient fire as I did, and I could do it in seconds. You see firewood in a high humidity green environment is actually surprisingly hard to find. It has to be dry and dead. And it runs out too. Infact the guy I'm talking about had a stock pile of wood, half of which was drift wood from the beach in front of his den. I had experimented with every possible tinder and found that the absolute worst for small fires is paper and the best is by far free condoms. And you only need one. And a few seconds flame from a lighter to light it. And ofcourse a small box lighter lasts several months even with everyday use. I proved this several times. Just a small ditch you could dig with your hands to sit the fire in. And a proper selection of wood, broken by hand. Never used a tool to collect fire wood. If you need a tool, choose another branch. I could literally make a fire in seconds while holding In a good shit. And a minute or two after I'm done it'd have burned itself out.
tekobas and putnam - the internets two crazy but lovely "scientific firemaking gurus"...
Let's do this! Thanks for the comment!
I'm late to the situation, thinking you should keep it up till all the orange flame is gone, mix more air.
That is easier said than done without using a fan! Thanks for the comment!
Great job but didn't show the procedure please share it.
Watch the rest of the series for more content! Thanks for watching!
Can you convert these stoves to make smoke free like there should be exit pip and we can use these within room? it that possible ? Do you already have any video?
For developing a proto type - tin cans are ideal. We should continue till we get a blue flame. P continue for the sake of envoirment.
Blue flame can be made with the use of a fan, but it is hard without the forced air flow. I can and do produce blue flame at the end of the burn once the stove converts over to burning the char. Thanks for watching.
@@heathputnam9524 sir u have done so much work . Out of curiosity i am asking . Can we assume , the wood becomes a charcoal , then it gives a blue flame ? Or if we use a charcoal , how will it work ? Kudos to your work .
I have not tried starting with charcoal. That would be a good experiment! Thanks for the comment!
Is it possible to make a flat pack wood gas stove?🤔
Probably, but I have never tried. Tell me more of what you are looking for and thanks for watching!
Hi. Do you have the plans with the diameter of the upper air holes according to the size of the can? And, according to what I read, Pyrolysis is when you burn the wood with little oxygen, so wouldn't it be more efficient if the holes in the base are few?
If you watch more of my wood gas science videos you will see several with descriptions of hole sizes. My original goal is to create a smokeless very efficient burn. I achieved that by getting the correct fuel air mixture in the initial phase of burning most of the air moves up between the cans and exits at the top were it burns the wood gas being converted below the flames in the pyrolysis zone. Later as the fuel has all been converted to char it converts over to burning the char where a lot more air enters the burn chamber through the primary holes at the bottom of the can. Hope this helps! Thanks for the comment!
@@heathputnam9524 Thank you. I'm going to check that. I have a newbie question: in your video you said pyrolysis produce gases (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and hydrogen). Doesn't a conventional bonfire produce these gases as well? Or maybe I'm wrong. I've been reading from different pages, and some say pyrolysis is combustion of wood and then gas (double combustion), while others say that pyrolysis is burning wood with almost no oxygen.
Yes, a bon fire does produce the same gasses but they are almost immediately mixed with the surrounding air. There are areas in the bon fire that pyrolysis’s! A can stove starts out burning wood just like a standard fire but as the temperature rises the flame quickly rises above the fuel to either the top of the can or the secondary air inlets creating the oxygen free zone below! I am not an expert, only communicating what I have learned through experimentation. Thanks for watching!
Hi! I'm new here, so I apologize if this is something you've already covered in a previous video, but does this stove design also make charcoal, or does "complete burn" mean it takes it down to ash? I'm trying to find a good template for one of these (but bigger) that I can use for cooking and to make biochar -- and maybe even charcoal for grilling -- but any information I can find on making char isn't really geared towards cooking, and vice versa.
And thank you for the video! It's a very helpful look at how these types of stoves work.
Waiting for Blue Fire come out from the stove.
That is where we are trying to get, hopefully we can get there! Thanks for the comment!
Which video shows us how to make the latest most efficient burning wood gas stove?
can you make one of these using paraffin as a fuel?
I doubt it. The design would be very different.
how did you do or get the stove on the right side to burn so much better at the end of video, i will watch again, i must have missed something, so far all the other stoves just seem to be burning like the old cub scout stoves we made from just a simple can, a twig stove, to much flame coming out of the top
The two stoves at the end of the video have the inner can designed exactly the same but the primary and secondary ports each have their own fresh air supply. I call it the “hybrid vortex” it is premiered my video “Dualing Woodgas Stoves”. I never did a video on the build, but it is explained in that video. Thanks for watching.
@@heathputnam9524 thanks for getting back to me
No problem!
Can you make a drawing about how it made?
Please watch the series, everything I have learned so far is in them! Thanks for the comment!
I just stumbled on this today. I found it very enlightening. Thank you! For me it would be nice if we could find somewhere the results in written form i.e. a plan of sort.
You could then experiment with size? Bigger stove? And forms would it work as a foldable cube in order to carry it flat in a bag?
Would it be safe to use in a tent is the Co2/Co really burned? Would we need a cheminey?
Thanks for watching!
Could you please explain how did you get blue flame 6:41
Watch vortex 5.4 build video... it’s explained there
Thank you for your lesson 👍 we need more from you
I think you really need to contnue. This will help to reduce garbage and it will make reusable products like biochar and activated carbon which is very useful nowadays.
If you build it, they will come.
I wish! Thanks for watching!
How to add wood without lifting the cookware
Ultimately you do not add wood while cooking with this style stove. You can but it interrupts the pyrolysis zone and it will lose efficiency and smoke a few seconds. Thanks for watching!
Keep going please
Thanks for the comment!