Liberator ROCKET Heater -Pellets w/ NO ELECTRICITY !!!
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- Опубліковано 17 лют 2024
- Here using the Liberator burning pellets... works well with split cord wood also.
Did I mention NO Electricity???
I have no affiliation with Liberator, but here is their website if you are interested:
rocketheater.com
As mentioned, you really want to add a fresh air duct to feed the fire with outside air. All wood fired stoves consume a large amount of air. If that air is drawn from the house, besides pumping warm room air up the chimney, it places the house under a vacuum and all that air is replaced by cold outside air thru every crack in the envelope. A sealed combustion air supply will stop this and make the house more comfortable. If you really want to enhance the comfort this heater provides, add a second separate air duct. Run this one to a small computer fan so it blows air against the heat exchanger to heat the fresh outside air. That supply with the fan will add a slight positive pressure to the house and force air out thru the cracks in the envelope, instead of sucking cold air in. I have done this with the last 2 wood stoves I have had and will do it with any other I ever use. The difference in room/house comfort is literally night and day…
This is why it's important to put in a fresh air heat exchanger in any tightly sealed house.
No electricity he says but two blowers the whole day blowing the air around!? That's a lot of energy
And when your fire pumps a ton of air up the chimney, thats what is required to make the space comfortable, fans trying to move the heat back out away from the fire, as the suction from the fire pulls cold air in thru the gaps in walls and floor and pulls it toward the fire. If you eliminate the fire suction with an outside air duct hard plumbed into the fire air supply you stop the air draw from the room and make it a lot nicer heat source. If you further add a positive pressure source AT the stove, you reverse the process as that positive pressure spreads out thru the room flowing toward all the air leaks in the envelope, it carries the heat with it warming the room evenly. Same as he is doing with fans, but a tiny amount of energy and almost no noise to run a 4” computer fan…
You say there is a lot of air going up the chimney, what is that based on? Did you measure it?
@@Richardj410 based on years of practical experience. Do you have a wood stove? Close/block any air vents, so the only way air can get in is thru the door. Start a fire and control the air with door position and you will understand what I am getting at. I shifted from a woodstove to a pellet stove years ago. That was terrible as it has a blower that forces a ton of combustion air into the stove. The house was terrible as it sucked in cold air thru every leak, until I got it setup to use outside air for the combustion feed. Then I added a second air supply to feed the heat exchanger with fresh outside air, and things got quite nice with positive pressure to the stove area. Went back to a woodstove after a few years on the pellet, but kept the outside air feed. Wish I had done the forced outside air feed a decade earlier…
So you are sold on the idea of burning wood pellets now it's time to upgrade to a more efficient and less time consuming heater. May I also add perhaps a little more pleasing on the eye but certainly safer so no burning when touching the exposed metal surfaces.
We live in the UK on the Welsh boarders at the top of a hill 452m above sea level and exposed to strong winds coming from the SW.
I have a biomass boiler that heats my entire house (780sqm), plus all the hot water we need. It runs from 6am to 10pm seven days a week with a winter outside temperature of around 0°C and an internal temperature of 22°C. Occasionally we may see temperatures dip to -5°C but that's only for a few days. Current outside temperatures during the daytime are about 10°C.
We use 15kg of 6mm softwood pellets per day. The feed hopper in the winter is filled just once a week and in the summer filled less than once per month.
I empty the ash pan three times a year with each empty having about the same amount of ash you can put on a dinner plate.
Apart from filling the feed hopper, this is totally automatic with absolutely no input from me.
The boiler was installed 10 years ago in what used to be the tack room of the stables and hot water is pumped underground to the house.
We pay typically about £360 per 975kg of pellets (single pallet load) and get through 4x975kg pallets per annum. The only other cost is an annual service (£350) plus a minimal amount of electricity to operate and manage the boilers computer system.
The boiler is a German made Windhager, has never missed a beat, nothing has been repaired or replaced. It's exactly as it was installed 10 years ago. The entire boiler is covered with an attractive cover, cherry red and light grey, so no hot surfaces to get burnt on.
An added bonus is the computer controller and water manifolds that direct the hot water to the various room radiators etc is installed in a small under stairs cupboard used for coats etc. This room is always warm which is excellent for drying wet coats and muddy boots.
Invest in a Stirling Engine fan. You just place them on the top if your fireplace, and when they get warm they turn on all by themselves. Requires no power, just heat.
Good video, and we also used a pellet stove for years because propane was so expensive, and a wood stove in the basement also. I enjoyed the many years of country living.
Less work than a traditional wood stove, not that I ever minded the extra work. It just became part of the daily routine that was sort of fun.
I haven't seen many, but I've seen one or two houses built for wood heat with a stove in the basement, and great big grates lined up above it, and other sets of grates all around the perimeter of the house that brought air back down from upstairs.. Convection brought warm air into all 3 floors above it.
Great video
Been planning on building one of these for awhile now hopefully by next winter I will be using one I built
If u make a video drop me a link. I've always fabbed my own stuff also but I just dont have time to build one. I would like to see what u came up with with if u can 👍
Nice. Looks like a good setup for burning free woodchips if you have a dry place to store them. Spread about 1 inch thick on a driveway for 8 hours on a sunny day. You won't get as much burn time, of course, but they are free. Also, I use outside air for combustion. Much more comfortable at lower temperatures.
So did I understand you correctly, you burn wood chips in a rocket heater? Did you happen to make a video of your outside air combustion setup? I need to do that next
Actually, I heat my house with homemade, modified 5-gallon TLUD camp stoves with a heat exchanger. Outside air is vented thru my basement, from my attached garage, and stays plugged when the stove is idle. The air is fed from the bottom. Wood chips are my kindling, as the stove burns from the top down to my feed stock, which is short firewood standing upright. Your setup is better because it feeds constantly. Mine is cheaper, cuz I get my fuel for free. That is why I suggested wood chips. If they will feed without bridging, you could have free fuel.
You will just have to load the hopper more often and avoid big sticks. Edit. After replying to you, I watched your video again. It looks like wood chips would definitely bridge.
@@anesthesiadreamin
@@tonysteinke7234 I live in the UK and am considering off gridding at some point. I understand the benefits of direct air outdoor air system, but could you explain to me "bridging" is thag the fuel setting fire to itself in the hopper? :)
Bridging is the wood chips hanging up somewhere between the hopper and the grate where they are burned. I think the air feed design on this stove prevents any back burning provided a strong draft is maintained.@@smvsspould
@@tonysteinke7234 ah cool good to know, thanks!
Always wanted to try one, Now I am looking at ways to adapt one to my house.
I can say with all confidence now, I wish we had done this a long time ago. I don't get anything from liberator, We just really like this heater, My wife and I are sort of in competition to who can get up the earliest in the morning to start it 😂
You should use a dasy wheel from a Weber grill for air control.
That is a great idea my friend
I did this on a small wood heater and it worked really well. Took about 10 mins to make.
Thanks for the review! If there is anything else we can help you with please feel free to let us know!
When I say we love this heater, I mean both my wife and I, it's a competition in the morning to see who can get up the earliest first to get to light it. Burning pellets has decreased our workload significantly compared to bringing in tons of firewood and feeding a woodstove frequently. It has just changed our lives for the better. Great job guys!!!
Ce distanta este intre capatul tevii cu peleti si cosul de ardere (din poza facută in interiorul sobei nu pot observa)
Love this!! Eric, do you think it would work well in my shop for continuous heat?
Idk how it would work for a building with very tall ceilings. Our house has 10 and 1/2 ft ceilings, and it keeps it very warm. IIRC, your building is super well insulated, so it may do very well
I hope these rocket stoves keep evolving so everyone can share ideas on development. The Russians use a brick stove with a very long horizontal chimney but I think it has slow gas travel to the end of the chimney stack. Greater heat transfer and larger thermal mass of brick work should stay warmer even after fuel goes out.
I think I've seen what you're talking about, the last video I saw of that was in Yakutsk. Also there is a company in the US called "temp cast", they make big masonry heater kits, which allow for a baking oven, but I believe are a smaller scale compared to the Russians style. Indigenous South Americans also make a similar much smaller heater that allows them to bake and cook on top as well. Multipurpose, as they all SHOULD be. Good stuff 👍
17:54 I'm going to buy one for my garage
Thank you
Question, instead of the blowtorch, why not lit a tiny bonfire into the firebox to light the pellets?
Thank you for sharing. Is the reason for placing the heater on bricks simply so you don’t have to bend down so low to ignite the pellets and for more space on the clean out on the backside? Also, have you ever considered adding an outdoor air intake on the opposite 4” opening where you have the damper cap?
Absolutely, when spring comes I will be adding a cold air intake.
When the heater was on the tile hearth, it was getting the hearth very hot. So I raised it up on 2 bricks, which I have seen others on youtube do as well. Check the playlist "Liberator" on my channel, there are several more "short" videos that explain a few more things. Thanks for watching, and for the questions! 😁
Interesting video but why do you shut it down at night
Good video, thanks.
Always wondered how welding on some radiator fins made of 3/16" mild steel and a little shrouidng around with expanded metal as a gaurd would do, bet it will heat up the place even faster.... still, thanks for showing us. and even in a pinch, can take out basket, put in a shelf and use scrap twigs and offcuts.
I've been wondering the same thing, also wondering about attaching a fan to some radiator fins like you're describing. Now I just might have to build it 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin maybe just use a couple of those heat powered wood stove fans to blow maybe off a reflector... Might be worth two or maybe three mounted along somewhere... in case of power outage, or to eliminate electric fan altogether. Cheers from Alberta.
Putting on fins might make the burn barrel too cool for complete combustion, and could increase particulates and coke up the exhaust. I'd talk to the liberator guys to make sure.
@@timothyblazer1749 You are exactly right, I spoke with them about a week ago and they said optimal burn temp at the "bullseye" of the top should be 450-650, higher wears out the liner/burn tube faster, below 450 is suboptimal burn with potential for creosote buildup. I will definitely check with them, they are super nice and very helpful. Hey thanks for watching and for the good suggestion 👍
Where did you get the glass for your stove mine is steel .On Amazon I bought a 4 inch damper used a can that fit in their works good .I also put a fan at the side of my stove puts nice even air out .I have the older model and have the newer where you can clean it 😊
this pyroceramic glass is from Wood stove fireplace glass out of Illinois. It measures 5 13/16 in square, and is 3/16 thick. I ordered it online at woodstove-fireplaceglass.com and it took about a week for it to arrive. On their home page click glass, pyroceram, shop by custom size, rectangle/square, then you can put in the dimensions you want, and the thickness. I don't get anything from this company, I just like their product. Have you made any videos? I would like to see your setup and how it works! Thx for watching and for your feedback!
You could totally make an adjustable baffle on the air intake
I think from a process control pov, it would be best to have a PID controller adjust the baffle according to the exhaust chimney temperature
And then you could tune it by adjusting the setpoint of the chimney exhaust
Sounds to me like you need to buy one and make some videos for the rest of us 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin Except I'm planning on quitting my job in a couple months and throwing away all my stuff except for what i can carry on my bike. I'm going to become a litter picking bike tourist called Johnny Litter Bags
I just gotta write my story in a succinct way to the judge so that he will cut me loose
But SOME DAY I would like to find a home, and when I do that place is going to be rocking and tuned
I wounder if a car throttle body would work for air intake control.
I have a few questions- (I currently operate a woodstove during the heating season in Vermont) How many pellets come in a bag and what is their price per bag?- what portion of a bag fills the hopper? Is there creosote like with a woodstove, in the chimney pipe? I sweep my own chimney and pipes- this is a twice a year chore. Where do you store the pellets? I assume they can't be stored where they can absorb moisture.
Good questions, prior to this we used the wood stove to supplement our heat in Colorado. So pellets come in 40 lb bags, they're about 6 to 8 bucks a bag, one bag fills the hopper up to about 1 in below the top edge, absolutely no creosote because the burn is so complete in the vertical burn chamber, it even Burns the secondary gases, so there's very little Ash burning pellets. We've cleaned out the stove after one month of burning pellets, and got about a cup of Ash out of the stove itself, there was nothing in the chimney pipe but a little bit of pellets come in a waterproof plastic bag, We still store them in a garage to make sure they stay dry in case there's a leaky bag, and also to keep them warmer. Murdochs sells them and stores them outside in the snow 😂
thanks I'm looking at getting one of these, for pellets and maybe modified to burn waste oil.
I've been wondering about waste oil, the only thing is I think we'd have to be careful about how much, because liberator says running temps over 700° can cause the internals to wear out faster. So you need to control how much heat the oil burning is making. Typical oil burners have A lot of heat go right out the chimney, and the rocket heater like this one traps all the heat in the top, so it can get pretty dang hot. If you do this, I'd love to see a video on it!
But also, I just remembered, their instructions say to not use any kind of accelerants. So I'm sure it would void the warranty 🙂
looks good
If you get one of those fans that converts electricity from heat you can blow the heat off the top pushing the heat downwards instead of rising
They don't work. Good for looking at, educational for children but that's it. The amount of electricity produced is only sufficient to turn a fan whose blades are not designed for air flow.
I have a Harman Pellet stove and burn 1.5 bags (60#) on a cold day in 24 hrs. How many pounds do you burn in a 24hr day? Thanks
So if we throttle the intake down, where it burns about 400° on top of the heater, we can get 24 hours out of a 40 lb bag of pellets.
I have found it better to use the fans to blow cold air towards the warm room. Moves tie heat much better
You are not the first person to mention this in the comments! This is why I love youtube, I learn (and others learn also) soooo much from the commenters who have different/more/better experiences than I do. BTW I found your channel and subscribed👍
How are they to clean and maintain????I have a Comfort Built and on low it will run a bag a day but i have it set up with a portable 3.6Kw solar generator that will power it if the grid goes down!! It only uses about 45W to run it and 450w to start it so no electricity no problem this generator will run it no problem 24/7.also can run other things off this solar generator when grid goes down. I do like this unit you have can run on split wood when SHTF 🙂
You and I think exactly alike here. We were planning on getting a regular pellet stove, just for the low maintenance, set and forget it, and we figured we'd be running a generator anyway for power for other things If the power went out. But this seems to do the business without electricity, we're getting 20 plus hours out of a 40 lb bag, depending on how we throttle the intake. What my wife likes about it though is she can cook on it, she just made the most amazing lentil soup, cooked it in an hour on top of the rocket heater. And yes, the fuel versatility is nice, sticks from the yard, leftover carpentry scraps, cord wood, scrap wood from the dump , pellets.
so the hopper and feed channel holds exactly 1 40 lb bad of pellets? Need to know some reference
Sorry I didn't make that clear, the hopper and feed tube can hold a little bit more than 1 40 lb bag, in other words one 40 lb bag fills up the hopper to about 1 in below the top edge. So you could squeeze a bit more in
Great video, great heater! Going to look into this, my main issue with pellets has been requiring power, and this handily solves that.
Have you tried burning other alternative fuels? Cherry pits, corn, etc?
I have not, but a couple other commenters have asked about that. And I have to admit I didn't know you could burn those
@@anesthesiadreamin The alternates might be lower cost than pellets. Corn that isn't fit for food or feed, etc. I only know that some pellets stoves are multi fuel, definitely check with the manufacturer on yours.
I was really excited to find your video. The only other non-powered pellet stove I know of had pretty bad reviews and spotty reliability. Thank you for filming+ posting.
@@om617yota7 IDK where you are located, but the "gamera" is made in Europe, not sure if they ship it to the US. I think it has a pellet option as well. U might check some videos out on that brand, I have never used it, and don't know much about it, but I definitely know I love this liberator 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin Thank you! I'm in the USA, and will check!
Have you considered that it might not be the MAP gas that's lighting the pellets faster, but instead the torch head you're using? I have both of those torch heads, and the one you have on the MAP gas is a much more efficient design.
Thats funny, I just realized that when lighting the heater about 20 minutes ago when I switched the torch heads and got about the same bigger flame out of the propane bottle. That will save me some money! This is why I love youtube, I (and others) learn so much from the comments, so thanks for watching and for posting 👍
Oh, and if you don't mind me asking, my understanding is MAPP is no longer available, so what do you use MAP Pro gas for, if it really doesn't burn that much hotter than propane?
But there is a small trade off for adding an external air supply you will have a higher delta T on the exchanger so a higher stress load possibly leading to areas of condensation & premature wear and you will burn more pellets to maintain the same heat due to colder intake air just be aware I am not in disagreement to what you said just adding to i have been a commercial heating tech in every field for 20 years
If its a rocket stove...and really so efficient...does it need a chimney clean?
Time will tell! We inspected the chimney after one month of burning, it had a fine layer of dust accumulated on the inside, barely noticeable. I have heard people that use home made rocket mass heaters clean theirs but just out of abundance of caution and usually get very little buildup out... Liberator recommends having the chimney cleaned twice during the burning season. Great question, I am going to make a "youtuber questions answered" video soon, and I will include this one in it. Thanks for watching, and for your question!
How did your homeowners insurance respond to the Liberator stove?
It's UL approved and EPA certified. So it should be the same as any other wood stove with respect to insurance.
ty for sharing. Whats the cost of pellets in that area? Per bag and per ton? for the quality you like to use.
Cost in SW Montana: Lignetics is about $6 per bag, labeled "soft wood" but seems a bit dustier IMHO. The only other brand I've used is Rocky Canyon, labeled " premium fir pellets"about $8 a bag, but burns noticeably longer, somewhat less Ash, and definitely not dusty when filling up the hopper. So lately we've been buying the Rocky Canyon. Another UA-camr you may have seen by the name of "firelight" who also makes videos on the Liberator Rocket heater, uses Purcell brand premium fir pellets.
So during the very coldest months, like late December, January, early February, we are burning about a bag a day. Now that it's March, we're burning about one half a bag a day.
You could use a ecofan on top for quieter air movement and no plugs needed
I've seen those, do they move air very far? Maybe it depends on the model. We're trying to move hot air down the hall and into the bedrooms. But an Eco fan would be sweet if we ever lost power. Thanks for the recommendation, and for watching 👍
Love my Ecofans. They work great as long as you are realistic and consider the basics of thermal currents.
I have one and love it but it is only circulating a small fraction of the big fan you have.
By code, 2 - 90 degree ells Max.
Regarding the amount of ash you removed from the ash compartment. That does not look like the correct volume of ash for 12 hours of burning. It may be possible that some ash is floating with the exhaust and ending up inside the inner barrel.
Is there a way to open the outer barrel once a year to access the inner barrel for a full clean out and inspection?
Yes, i have taken the chimney pipe off the back, got about a cup out of the heater and bottom of pipe, and thats with one month of burning. Keep in mind this burns very completely, part of the rocket design is constant secondary burn so very little ash with pellets, but somewhat more with burning wood/paper with this same heater.
And yes, the newest design allows you to take the top off to access the vertical burn chamber, which for me is a waste of time because it is always perfectly clean. But like i mentioned above, some ash does fall into the main chamber (outside the vertical burn tube) but i just clean that out from the back when i take the bottom of the chimney pipe out to check it
@@anesthesiadreaminThank you for a clear informative explanation.
Its the toech not the gass. As you point out the gas temp is not much hotter, but the torch you have on the blue bittle is much lower btu than the pro torch you habe on the map bottle.
Swap torches on the bottles and youll see the blue out oerform the yellow.
thanks, I discovered that last week! And you are exactly right, the propane flame burns just as big. Thanks for your comment! Cheers
u need to design a twist system for air flow
"where you are in the pay week" lol
I am confused-why do you put the heater out at night? do you not like waking up to a warm house first thing in the morning?!
LOL yes! But in our case the bathrooms are at the very back of the house, kind of far away from the heater, and my wife likes the forced air propane heat to come on overnight to warm the bathrooms up nice and warm for the morning.
@@anesthesiadreamin If the wife isn't happy. No one is happy. I keep mine happy too.
That is a fantastic system. . . My only concern is a earthquake when the stove is burning and you are away from your home and the stove falls off the bricks. Potential leaving the stove laying on its side or uneven while a burn is underway !! Could it ignite the hopper reservoir or spill hot pellets on the surrounding areas ? Other than that, I think pellet stoves are great.
Yes you are right, I hadn't thought of that. When we lived for a couple years in SoCal, I used to think that way, but haven't for a long time! I'll have to come up with another solution, if you have any ideas pls send them my way. And this is why I love UA-cam, because it's like having neighbors pop over to check out what I'm doing, and people always think of things that I didn't. So thank you for your comments and for watching! 👍
I lived in huntington bch for 26 yrs. . Experienced many many quakes. One of which literally knocked me out of bed. . . SW Montana is the most seismically active area of Montana. 50 plus quakes ranging 4.0 -5.6 magnitude since the early 70's. . Those aren't large, but they are enough to topple top heavy objects. . I would remove the bricks and anchor the stove legs (where the holes are ) down with a couple bolts to the tile floor. and add a short section of vent pipe to the vertical single wall pipe or just add a longer section so you don't need to have a short piece. . Good luck ! . . I love Montana, I may be moving there within a yr. 😊
@@gfkusaka What great feedback! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. While I was reading your second comment here, it gave me a couple of ideas of how I can do that. We want to keep it elevated above the floor, for two reasons, mainly because it gets the hearth too hot (IMHO). The other reason will be a forthcoming video soon 🙂 it's getting almost too warm to use this heater, except for a few hours of the morning, daytime temps are hitting the '40s, So these projects might have to happen over the summer. It needs a cold air intake as well. And a damper in the chimney pipe. Fun stuff! Hey thanks for watching and for your feedback 👍
Any idea how many KGs of pellets per hour does the stove use?
it all depends on how you modulate the air intake, or the damper. So you can really throttle the burn down, or speed it up and make more heat. So with high quality pellets (premium red fir), keeping it at 650F, one 40lb bag lasts about 16 hours. If we throttle it back, a 40lb bag can last up to 24 hours. So thats exaclty 0.75kg/hr to 1.25kg/hr, or 1kg/hr average
Run you box fan blowing the colder air into the room with the stove. The colder air will be low to the floor, then that air will be heated, rising, Circulating back towards the other rooms.
OK! Smart!
Because right now I'm just shoving cold air down the hall into the bedrooms
i think this stove would work great with used cooking oil. A small fire pan on down in the draft pipe, a tank on top to gavity feed a dripper.....good to go
Any plans to add some thermal mass to the exhaust?
Yes! Only issue is this is in a manufactured home, so we have to be careful with weight. I have a couple ideas, so we do plan on building a mass bench. Thanks for watching, and for the obvious question that I should have addressed in the video!
@@anesthesiadreamin Uncle Mud has some nice ideas with that, check some of his videos out.
@@bli3366 actually it's a couple of his ideas that I will be doing, he's a smart guy, and put a lot of thought into what he's done with his liberator and other rocket mass heaters 👍 thanks for watching, and for your comments 🙂
how many lb/hr?
in avg.
12h. looks like 1/2 pouch.
soft wood or hard wood?
only to gauge how much i need for one time a day refill.
So about 2 lb of pellets per hour. 40 lb bag lasts 20 plus hours. I'm using fir, So it's a soft wood pellet.
@@anesthesiadreamin thx, useful info.
Also it depends on how you throttle the intake, ie more airflow burns more pellets but also makes a lot more heat. When it was -20F and -30f we ran it wide open and a bag only lasted about 16 hours, and was 700F on top of the heater. But when it's +20f or + 30f we throttle The intake way down, restrict it, and a bag lasts 24 hrs, and the top of the heater is making 375-425 deg F, which is plenty of heat, sometimes we have to shut it off during the day because it's too hot LOL, like when it hits 80 plus degrees in the living room 🙂
@@anesthesiadreamin did you tried with chipped wood to see how it feed to combustion chamber?
@@user-nd5co8lq4t Yes, the first two days we use it we used 1 to 1 and 1/2 in wide cord wood about 16 in Long. It burned a lot hotter, but we had to feed it every 30 minutes with three or four sticks. Check out my other videos on my channel under the playlist "liberator"
How many lbs does the hopper hold
Just over 40 lbs, so one bag
I'm a little worried about back burn.. could catch the hopper on FIRE. just a concern. other than that , it looks Great. I have a Harmon pellet stove, That I have been heating My Whole house, with Just pellets. I have been heating it with NO OTHER HEAT SOURCE for 15 years.. yes the Issue is, 1= it does use Electricity, 2= buying the Pellets Is Now More Expensive per bag (40 lbs). that and The BIDEN prices of Fuel, and Major Increase of Electric bills. your Idea with this stove is sounding Better, and Better... just wish I could make my own Pellets????? GREAT VIDEO THUMBS UP, And THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!!!!
I've thought a lot about back burn also, But I never hear about it with the properly designed sizes of feed tubes and burn tubes. As long as the air supply is coming from above the burning pellets, the flame Burns upside down, and the draft keeps it pulling that way. When you burn cord wood on this (pellet Hopper off), you're burning 18 to 24-in long sticks , and they just burn at the bottom , they never burn back up the burn tube, and the burn tube is open at the top. But yeah, I get it, I still worry about it. Cool to hear about your pellet heater, we've thought about putting one in another part of the house. A commenter from Europe mentioned this morning how expensive energy cost is over there, IDK how it compares, but it is frustrating. The two things we really like about this are fuel versatility (pellets sticks scrap wood, cord wood) and the fact that we can cook on top of it. Hey thanks for your comments and your feedback 👍
Low probability of back burn as long as the feed tune pressure differential is negative...ie it wants to draw air through the feed tube. Rocket stoves are designed to make that happen with the feed air blowing across the burn basket. It would take quite a while to get up the tube into the hopper.
What is your grate made of? Thanks if you have the time.
If I recall correctly, The pellet grate is made out of stainless steel
@@anesthesiadreaminThanks
Maybe I missed it but do you use this 24/7 or only while you are awake?
Almost always while we're awake. But it can run 24/7, we did run it overnight one time, no probs. We shut it down about 9:00 or 10:00 at night, the only reason is then overnight the central propane heat comes on, and warms the bathrooms, which are at the very back of the house, and this heater just doesn't reach them because they are so far away. That way the bathrooms are nice and warm in the morning when we get up 🙂
Well that's nice I will be looking into these just because no power is needed. Thanks Keith. @@anesthesiadreamin
Anyone else see that glitch in the Matrix at the start, I wonder what the agents changed?
Where can u buy one ov these stoves ?
Rocketheater.com
A homemade rocket stove or bought?
This one is UL listed, you can buy it from rocketheater.com. I always wanted to make my own, but getting the proportions correct is challenging, and I just don't have the time to do it. I thought this Heater was expensive, but buying a new wood stove can cost the same, or even more dependent on the brand
Why do you not burn during the night or though the night?
The bathrooms are in the back of the house and even with circulating the heat from the stove. And my wife wants the bathroom warm in the morning, so we use the forced air heat overnight
@@anesthesiadreamin that makes sense!
personally i prefer using heat gun for igniting pellets over blow torch. it is fast and doesn't require buying gas to burn. also main risk you have with a cool chimney is it will increase the risk of creosote buildup and potential for chimney fire. so might require a more frequent cleaning.
I'm gonna try that! What gun do u use? And at what temp?
@@anesthesiadreamin i use just a cheap Wagner Furno 300 on its high setting which is a 1.2kw heat output (1100F). i use it for pellets and to start charcoal in a chimney starter for bbqing :D
saw that trick on some other pellet smokers for starting the pellets on fire and its been great been doing it for years now.
@@JoshMillikangreat info! this is why I love youtube, its like having a neighbor pop over and look over what I am doing and make suggestions - i learn so much from the comments. Thanks for watching and for your feedback👍
the yellow bottle has a better torch jet that the blue one thats why ot gets hotter. wider flame.
Yes! Shortly after I made this video I switched bottles, and the blue propane bottle seem to burn just as hot as the yellow with the bigger torch. So that will save some money for sure. Many people do read the comments, so thanks for watching, and for your contribution to the knowledge base 👍
How much does the hopper hold?
just over one 40 lb bag. So when it's empty, I dump one full 40# bag in it, and it fills it up to about 1 inch below the top edge
What brand pellets do you use?
Currently we are using Rocky Canyon premium red fir pellets. They are about $8 a bag around here. We have tried lignetics brant of soft wood pellets, they were about six something a bag, but they don't seem to burn as long and produce a bit more Ash. If you have seen youtuber 'firelight' (who has made a bunch of videos on this same liberator heater), he uses Purcell brand of premium fir pellets, and seems to be very happy with that brand. Hey thanks for watching and for your question 😁
@@anesthesiadreamin Of all the videos I have seen on pellet stoves it seems most of them are problematic where the Liberator seems to work fine. But if you are using a bag of pellets per day that is $200-$240/month. Not a cheap source of heat.
What keeps the fire from burning up the feed tube? Burning all the pellets in the hopper?
Great observation! It's the principle of the rocket heater. Even when we burn sticks in it (pellet hopper off) the open vertical feed tube (4x4 inches square) that you drop the sticks down inside, light the bottom of them, and the air supply comes down the feed tube along the sticks and keeps only the very ends on fire, and it doesn't burn back up the sticks (or feed tube) because of the constant rush of air. No smoke in the house. Of course, as the tips of the sticks burn up, they constantly get shorter and automatically feed the fire in the perfect spot.
Sort of like a match held horizontally in the wind, if the airflow is along the match stick, the flame at the tip will burn very slowly. Reverse it, and it burns quickly along the shaft.
Same with the pellets, notice the flame is actually upside down. That's from the air rushing down (actually around) the feed tube. So the design is the primary reason there is no back burn, and once a good draft gets going, no chance. But the sizing of the feed tube, burn chamber, heat riser, heat exchanger etc all have to work together for safety, and the guys at Liberator nailed it. Thanks for watching, hope this helped.
Why wouldn’t you run it at night? Just wondering
We could run it all night, and have done so, but the only issue is even with fans circulating the air around our 2800 sq ft home it doesn't get to the very back of the house where the bathrooms are, and my wife wants a warm bathroom in the morning. So we let the Liberator burn out about 10pm, as the temp drops in the house overnight the forced air heat (propane) comes on and warms all the rooms, most importantly the bathroom 😁
Put some paper in befor the pellets so you dont waste so much propane.
For my coal stove i start with propane i use it for maybe 1 to 2 seconds on a good day
Wow! I'm going to have to play with some options for sure. Thanks for the tip 👍
I don't know how to put anything on UA-cam at all .I do have one of my vents flex line going to the floor my damper on stove pipe is about 3 ft up .I bought some stuff for pellet stove on Amazon for creasole . Had the pipes everything smoked bad .Took the top off clean it out it back on started smoking everytime I start it up for about 2 minutes not bad
Well you are using electricity, 2 fans to move the heat. A pellet stove uses 2 fans, one for combustion and one to move the heat plus the auger motor but you use a lot less pellets than I do. I'd still like to know how many pound in a 24 hour day. I would burn it 24 hrs that what I do with my Harman pellet stove.
Yes! Technically we are using electricity to move the hot air around. But if the power goes out, the stove doesn't stop, and that's why we wanted this one. A regular pellet stove would be a lot less maintenance, a lot easier, and a lot more consistent. This one is not thermostat controlled. Hey, thanks for the good idea, I should do a quick video on what you suggested! Thanks for watching and for your comments 👍
@@anesthesiadreaminhat you need is a sterling engine powered fan. As long as the stove is hot the fan blows.
Volume or weight of pellets, unless you are going to count them individually ;)
Thankyou! Yes. That will be part of the next video. I like the way u said that 🙂
Your dog or cat has learned teleportation....
You noticed that too! I'm not sure how I did that during the video editing LOL
So there is just a stack of pellets sitting on top of the burn chamber and rising all the way up to the pellet feeder? I would worry about CO2 leaking upwards into the house. Most pellet stoves have a pellet feeder that dispenses pellets down a tube every minute or two. While not dispensing the feeder tube is sealed shut. This requires a timing mechanism and an electric lever to open and shut. It adds cost and more things that can go wrong. But you do not want CO2 in your house.
It's a rocket stove... it's physically impossible for CO2 to back draft while it's burning, FYI.
So it heats a small room? How big a space is it heating?
It keeps our 2800 sq foot home warm throughout the day, the thermostat controlled forced air heater in the house never comes on while we have this rocket heater running. It keeps the living area, kitchen, den and hallways very warm, and we run a couple fans to circulate the warm air back to the bedrooms. Be sure to check out the playlist on my channel called "liberator", there are a few more videos that you might like. Hey thanks for watching and for your question 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin I've followed the liberator for several years. I ask those who are showing their heater how big the area is that is being heated.
You are the only one that has actually told me the square footage and in the video you mentioned the temperature outside.
Thank you. Now I know it can be purchased and used. Are you planning on putting in a heat sink type absorber to radiate heat into the room when the burner is out?
Where can I buy one of these stoves?
Go to rocketheater.com
Wouldn't it be more efficient to have a heat activated fan for wood stoves on the top. They make them friend.
Absolutely. But I don't think they move the air all the way down the hall into the bedrooms. But that's a guess, cuz I've never used one 🙂 But I could use them in conjunction also if needed 👍 thanks for watching, and for your comments
@@anesthesiadreamin well as a person that lived off grid I learned of them and being on top that stove you maybe able to rig up a double fan. I even learned to cook on my wood stove. A good Dutch oven on that top would make great eats. Lol
@@anesthesiadreamin Just money saving things that is after the initial purchases that is.
@@phillipErskine-jk1jt we just started cooking and baking on top! Fun stuff! But you're right, I should have a couple of those fans in case we lose power
Wood pellet fabrication is energy-intensive and therefore expensive!
I am not sure you really want to run your stove at 700F.... metal tends to warp, weaken and deform at those temps.
you are exactly right! Liberator staff told me a couple weeks ago that optimal 450-650F, higher wears things out faster, and lower than 450 is suboptimal burn and creosote formation. Thanks for watching and for your input 👍
It must really be cold out there those deer look like they were frozen solid
😂😂😂 I know! They almost look fake. But it really wasn't super cold that day. Before I shot this video, we had minus 41 here (the day after we installed this rocket heater), and the power went out for 3 hours, it was so nice having this heater keeping us warm 👍
To bad we don't get this in europe - this is ecactly what we need with our energy prices. 😞
Yes, I hear you. Makes ZERO smoke because the burn is so complete inside the superhot burn chamber. I have seen several of videos of Europeans making their own rocket heaters, but I get what you are saying... I have the tools to build my own, but 1) don't have the time, and 2) we wanted the "UL approved" rocket heater for insurance purposes. Be sure to check out the GAMERA, it is made in Bulgaria and ships worldwide
Love the idea but dang it's ugly, and no electricity???? what do the 2 fans run off a battery bank? super cool heat no matter
Yes, you're exactly right on both points 🙂 looks versus function, function gets way more points. And yes, we use fans to circulate the heat around the house, but the point of course is a regular pellet heater needs electricity to actually make heat, ie to feed pellets into the fire box. This one does not, it feeds pellets by gravity. Any heater requires electricity to circulate the air throughout a big house, including propane heater/wood stove/rocket/pellet stoves. So yeah, when the electricity went out this winter, and it was minus 41 outside, it was sooooo nice having this keep running and running, and no worry about electricity. We miss a lot of things about our wood stove, one of the things is seeing the big fire inside and kind of makes you warm just looking at it. But this liberator thing is so easy, we just fill it, start it, and we don't touch it for 16-24 hours until it runs out of pellets
needs chimney going up////too bad not a mass heater
Mass is coming! Be sure to subscribe
They make fans that move air without electricity they run off a Peltier diode
That is a lot of gas to set wood on fire. I prefer making a small bonfire like fire under it to light it on fire.
Not quite what the title say ! "No Electricity" ? ? ? What about the big "Electric" fan running all day to disperse the heat ?
LOL Even a wood stove needs a fan to circulate the heat. You can run this pellet heater without electricity, but most pellet heaters require electricity. That's the point
Looks a mess justt get a nice log stove
yes, we miss our wood stove, the huge fire, but we don't miss feeding it every 2 hours. The liberator with pellets is light and forget. All day. Unless you are burning cord wood in it, then it takes some tending throughout the day. But we only use that as backup. This has fuel versatility, can burn pellets, cordwood, scraps from carpentry projects, and even sticks from the yard and makes good heat. No it's not for everybody for sure. But it traps more of the heat in the house than any woodstove can
I would paint the wall behind the stove with ceramic paint that would help reflect the heat. I think if you drop temp 68-70F would use less pellets.
yes, I think you are right. Liberator told me optimal burn temp at the "bullseye" of the top of the heater should be 450-650F, higher "wears things out a bit faster" (i assume they mean the burn chamber liner) and below 450F increases the risk of creosote formation and inefficient running. So if we have to run it at 450F minimum, it would seem that sort of limits how much we can turn down the pellet consumption. I like the idea of ceramic paint, I will have to look into that more. Thanks for watching, and for your comments👍
Another option would be an old solid chunk of something. I use an old slate table top behind the wood stove in my garage. It both reflects heat away from the wall and into the shop, but also acts as a large thermal mass to help keep the shop warm longer at the end of the day when I stop feeding the fire.
@@drizitgaming do you space the table top away from the wall? I mean is there a worry of getting the wall too hot if in full direct contact?
@anesthesiadreamin nope, it acts as a heat shield for the wall. I just lean it against the studs. It's not a finished wall. However drywall being fire proof would be even less worry.
What helps as well is to caulk/seal every crack in your home - light switches, outlet plug covers, doors, under kitchen/bathroom sink, pipes under the crawl space like toilet/shower drain. It add 8F degrees warmer I didn't expect that. Before outside temp 25F-28F and inside temp 58F that with over 40 inch of attic insulation but now 66F inside after I caulk/seal.
I have 2 ideas u might like. 1st mounting a box fan blowing straight down where u have the pipe curved. 2nd build a sand battery on top of ur burner tank, at the very least a large pot of water. I couldn't believe how much warmer I am at 60% humidity verse the 30% if I don't use a pot of water. Im guessing about one 20 pound bag that cost about $12 here a day....ps just use a couple of corks{fish bobbers} to fill the holes.
Ah, OK! So many good ideas and so little time! We will definitely add the water pot to the top. And corks! of course! Hey thanks for watching and for your comments 👍
@@anesthesiadreamin No problem friend. Thanks for taking the time to teach us. Best of luck!