I make the videos to show results not try to create a bias. If the pellets are something that people want I like to show the options so that people can make educated decisions. If I made a video showing pellets and then just said that it can burn cordwood too without showing how much work it is I would be doing a disservice to those who might want to buy the stove. I don't make any money showing this stove. This is review only. I also have an Elmira stove upstairs that we do most of our heating with. It can take full logs.
You have done a very thorough job of the stove review and all aspects most would be considering. Glad both options were highlighted. Appreciate your time and effort.
GOOD VIDEO, add caps or plugs to each air intake to see if you can get a longer burn.. First one, then both.. nothing like keeping the house warm in the winter no matter how you do it. it is a wonderful thing to have the knowledge and ability.
Use this same stove. Cabinet shops often give away the pieces of hard wood that can not be made into molding. A chop saw makes quick work into stove lengths. We get almost an hour per load. If the make up air tubes are ducted to the outside the stove combustion air is not taken from the heated air of the house. Love the kindling cracker. Smart teenage girl that came up with this safety tool.
I heard about her! She is in New Zealand right? Thanks for the tips on the air intake. We are still trying to figure out how to vent it out of the house without running a pipe through the middle of the living room.
Yep you are just sucking cold air in from somewhere else to feed the fire thus making your house colder. Get semi rigid 3 inch dryer vent to that window temporarily. Put it through a board sitting at the bottom of the window. Make a lock stick to place above the window to lock it down on the board.
It’s not just using heated air. You create a negative air pressure by not drawing to the outside, basically, you are actually sucking cold air into your home through any cracks or crevices.
Liberator rocket stove has some shortcomings, thank you for pointing them out. I don’t want to be a slave to my fire I want to be warm and have clean convenient heating. I had friends with wood heating and saw it wasn’t too bad but they had to work long hours to cut the wood to fit into the stoves they used. It’s a choice to be self sufficient and burn wood even if you harvest locally it’s still a chore to maximize the amount of money time energy you put in to stay warm.
Thank you for the in depth review of this stove. Outstanding that there is no smoke even more amazing no smell. Those are great upside features, which would be very helpful inthe town and in an emergency. Down side is the constant physical attention to making splinters andthe feeding the stove. Works great for your setting or as a distraction in a power outage. I can see creating a grid type kindle cracker with some type log spliter and proir preparation of wood stock. It was alarming that the small chunk would put it out. Jon's splitting meditation reminded me of old timers whittling! :-) Appreciate the Wheaton lab link and the rocket stove a thon!
Great and informative video. Very tempted by the liberator stoves European cousin - the Gamera. The tool for splitting the wood is a game changer for me. Thank You!
Research and buy a CHIPPER SHREDDER to make WOOD CHIPS. Each of these types of units make different size of Chunks vs Shreds in the form of chips. To make soil you want the smaller size output, for your Liberator you need larger size chunkyer output for the hopper.
We just installed our new liberator yesterday, burns wood great, tried pellet hopper today, burns about 10 minutes then goes out. Same with house door open. Any ideas? Is there a brand of pellets you like? Or any other ideas? I have learned so much from your videos, thankyou for making them👍
Question what if you install thick elbow pipe on your side intakes where the openings are more to the bottom sucking up the cold floor air instead of the warm air in the room because warm air flow upwards cold air flow downward the openings could be about just level with the base plate of the rocket burner it's just a thought please tell me what you think also maybe the openings could be beveled a little for better airflow 🤔
Hey! Thanks for watching! Still wishing I could make it to some of your meetings. I would set up a hammock and just bask in being surrounded by good people doing amazing things.
Maybe showing the effects using a flir snap on attachment for your phone would be evidence of a working stove and area heating when compared with your video side by side.
No smell with the cordwood. I do get a little smell with the pellets? A really good draw up the chimney and using the side fresh air intakes instead of the air inside the house would make a huge difference with that. You should contact the manufacturers and see if they have a customer local to you so you can let her be in the room when they light the stove and try it out.
I bought a different version of the kindling cracker. I didn't realize there were different sizes. Mine would hold a LG piece of wood. What diameter is yours?
"Hot" video! I love those stoves and the Kindling Kracker is a great tool that's been around for a while now. It's nice that rocket stoves burn so hot you can even use soft woods without worrying so much about creosote build-up. One thing I will mention is the Kindling Kracker will work better if you place the base on something solid instead of a soft, cushy carpeted area where there is too much "give" when you strike the wood. I imagine you typically do that outside?
Jon has it anchored to a this piece of hardwood at the base. We do our wood splitting with an axe and a motorized splitter outside during the summer but for the kindling we need to run this stove it is easier to use the Kindling Kracker inside since it is an all-day activity.
7:00 -- A lot of rocket heater people like to show their "smokeless" chimney. But I have a 10 year old "modern" traditional stove, and when using well seasoned cord wood it also has no "visible" smoke (I even made a blog post about that 10 years ago -- so very old news -- see "The Smokeout" at my blog, link at my "about" page). In fact, many newer wood stoves are required to not have visible smoke after a fixed startup time (often less than 30 minutes). So the no smoke view really does not mean much. What is more important is what you can not see. Which is the particulate matter emissions. Rocket mass heaters, often with venting into the living space, may emit such emissions into that living space. Many rocket mass heater fans may say I am full of BS, because of course they will... I will not debate it, because that is pointless. Rather than debate, I simply suggest everyone with any type of biomass heater, of any type, measure their indoor pollution, so to mature beyond debate and find out for yourself, if your heating method is causing air quality issues for you, your spouse and your children. Or not. You can buy inexpensive measurement tools online. Either separate devices or as phone add-ons. Hope this helps.
Just an idea.. years ago (maybe 8?) I saw videos showing how to make these fire bricks out of paper and yardscraps mainly. I'd be willing to bet a smaller version of this "homemade fire brick" would be great for your particular stove. Especially adding sawdust to the recipe!! Won't help you today but next winter it could be a game changer. Im sure these DIY videos still exist. The kids could spend spring, summer and fall safely making them. Instead of brick size I imagine ice trays or muffin pans for molds...🤔 I believe you can make your "pellets" not only 100% for FREE, but most likely better all the way around. And it IS EASY...I mean literally the kids can do it. I did make some of these bricks myself so I KNOW they burn very well! I still had 2 in public school at the time so paper trash was abundant! Also junk mail! 😄 Anyhow... As always thank you for sharing. 🙏🏻
Your in town where you all live and you have pigs hard believe the people next aren't all ready itching ?? No smoke showing up in your video ty for share of your wood stove
It is a nice gadget, that splitter. I think I will get one. But, I would go crazy trying to run one of these on cord wood. Why doesn't someone make a rocket stove with a fire brick combustion chamber, so that it gets hot enough to support combustion of large pieces of wood?
Question? Do you think the cracker xl would work for splitting firewood and for splitting kindling in our woodshed? I definitly don't want anyone doing this in house! The boys make a huge mess and end up breaking stuff. Not sure if i need both options on this product or if xl would do all.
Yes, if you have normal sized cordwood the xl is way better. That is the size we went with so we don't have to pre-split into quarters first. Also, Jon bought the 2.5 pound mallet/hammer instead the the 3.5. I think the 3.5 makes it easier for smaller people like me.
I have a video coming up showing that. It was 81 degrees in the same room. 71 degrees in the basement down the hall. 68 degrees upstairs in the kitchen. That is with running fans to move the air but not other heat source going, not the Elmira and no baseboards. All just the Liberator. Pretty cool right?
I don't have time to load every 15 min or the desire to buy pellets. Glad it works for you but I think I will stick with my Jotul as I get a good balance of heat and fuel consumption with an acceptable level of labor.
I make the videos to show results not try to create a bias. If the pellets are something that people want I like to show the options so that people can make educated decisions. If I made a video showing pellets and then just said that it can burn cordwood too without showing how much work it is I would be doing a disservice to those who might want to buy the stove. I don't make any money showing this stove. This is review only. I also have an Elmira stove upstairs that we do most of our heating with. It can take full logs.
Burning wood ian't such a great idea. It burns so fast you need to be there to babysit the stove to add wood constantly. Pellets would be much better idea.
I am not impressed with this stove by this review. I get a better performance, and use way bigger pieces in my homemade version which i would normaly reload every hour running hot, and 2 hours on a slow burn but does make a little smoke. plus made a window to watch the vortex.
@@dirtpatcheaven This was made out of a old propane tank and scrap metal. to achieve the burning of larger sticks is I have 2 draft control, one feeds to the base of the fire and the second to the top. If air is only added to top then the heat needed continue the burn rate does not climb. when both adjust as needed, I can get the top of the tank to 750 degrees. I did not use any fire brick or insulation. just 3/16 and 1/4 inch steel. once up to temp, minimal to zero smoke.
I make the videos to show results not try to create a bias. If the pellets are something that people want I like to show the options so that people can make educated decisions. If I made a video showing pellets and then just said that it can burn cordwood too without showing how much work it is I would be doing a disservice to those who might want to buy the stove. I don't make any money showing this stove. This is review only. I also have an Elmira stove upstairs that we do most of our heating with. It can take full logs.
You have done a very thorough job of the stove review and all aspects most would be considering. Glad both options were highlighted. Appreciate your time and effort.
I appreciate how much u have experimented and shared all ur results with us ty ;-)
GOOD VIDEO, add caps or plugs to each air intake to see if you can get a longer burn.. First one, then both.. nothing like keeping the house warm in the winter no matter how you do it. it is a wonderful thing to have the knowledge and ability.
"Gives you something to beat on to regain your serenity".... GOLD!
Use this same stove. Cabinet shops often give away the pieces of hard wood that can not be made into molding. A chop saw makes quick work into stove lengths. We get almost an hour per load. If the make up air tubes are ducted to the outside the stove combustion air is not taken from the heated air of the house. Love the kindling cracker. Smart teenage girl that came up with this safety tool.
I heard about her! She is in New Zealand right? Thanks for the tips on the air intake. We are still trying to figure out how to vent it out of the house without running a pipe through the middle of the living room.
Yep you are just sucking cold air in from somewhere else to feed the fire thus making your house colder. Get semi rigid 3 inch dryer vent to that window temporarily. Put it through a board sitting at the bottom of the window. Make a lock stick to place above the window to lock it down on the board.
It’s not just using heated air. You create a negative air pressure by not drawing to the outside, basically, you are actually sucking cold air into your home through any cracks or crevices.
laughed at the "serenity now" in the background. Really cool video, this is so inspiring to become more self sufficient. Keep it up!
Liberator rocket stove has some shortcomings, thank you for pointing them out. I don’t want to be a slave to my fire I want to be warm and have clean convenient heating. I had friends with wood heating and saw it wasn’t too bad but they had to work long hours to cut the wood to fit into the stoves they used.
It’s a choice to be self sufficient and burn wood even if you harvest locally it’s still a chore to maximize the amount of money time energy you put in to stay warm.
I have a similar wood splitter, no platform, and at 72 have no problem splitting wood.
I LOVE THAT!
Thank you for the in depth review of this stove. Outstanding that there is no smoke even more amazing no smell. Those are great upside features, which would be very helpful inthe town and in an emergency. Down side is the constant physical attention to making splinters andthe feeding the stove. Works great for your setting or as a distraction in a power outage. I can see creating a grid type kindle cracker with some type log spliter and proir preparation of wood stock. It was alarming that the small chunk would put it out.
Jon's splitting meditation reminded me of old timers whittling! :-)
Appreciate the Wheaton lab link and the rocket stove a thon!
Thanks Charles! I always appreciate your detailed analysis. Makes me happy someone is paying attention to all the words I don't edit out in post!
Great and informative video. Very tempted by the liberator stoves European cousin - the Gamera. The tool for splitting the wood is a game changer for me. Thank You!
Good! I love being able to split wood in the house now without having to go out in the weather if I don't feel like it.
Research and buy a CHIPPER SHREDDER to make WOOD CHIPS. Each of these types of units make different size of Chunks vs Shreds in the form of chips. To make soil you want the smaller size output, for your Liberator you need larger size chunkyer output for the hopper.
Wow! How like you guys for figuring it out! Love this!
Thanks so much!
@@dirtpatcheaven I admire your honest integrity in your videos
I would add a small grate made of half inch round say three bars to hold the big pieces up off the bottom to let air get under it
Looks very useful and tidy!
Thanks!
Hi there what a great stove I will email them to see if they will ship to UK 👍👍👍
Lovely! I really like the stove but make sure to be sure...it isn't pennies for sure.
Have yall tried saw dust and wood chips size about what a chainsaw kicks out and maybe a little bigger?
I haven't tried that yet. It would need to be really dry wood to not create a smother.
We just installed our new liberator yesterday, burns wood great, tried pellet hopper today, burns about 10 minutes then goes out. Same with house door open. Any ideas? Is there a brand of pellets you like? Or any other ideas? I have learned so much from your videos, thankyou for making them👍
Question what if you install thick elbow pipe on your side intakes where the openings are more to the bottom sucking up the cold floor air instead of the warm air in the room because warm air flow upwards cold air flow downward the openings could be about just level with the base plate of the rocket burner it's just a thought please tell me what you think also maybe the openings could be beveled a little for better airflow 🤔
I wonder how these would work with soapstone around them to make a mass heater?
The back of the stove has a rock hearth and the whole basemen is concrete. It hold the heat very well for a couple of days after we burn.
That is useful device. Thanks for sharing.
Hey! Thanks for watching! Still wishing I could make it to some of your meetings. I would set up a hammock and just bask in being surrounded by good people doing amazing things.
@@dirtpatcheaven The meetings are fun. The work to get ready is worth it.
I’ve seen people put stove pipe caps in the intake tubes to moderate the air flow and fire… have you tried that?
Maybe showing the effects using a flir snap on attachment for your phone would be evidence of a working stove and area heating when compared with your video side by side.
This rocket stove has became sooo esthetically attractive too I gotta say! ❤️
It's a cute little stove for sure. We like it more the longer we have it.
So that is a hobby store,splitting wood everyday is work
Any smoke smell inside the house? My wife is super sensitive to the smoke. I assume the rocket stove air draw prevents any smell inside.
No smell with the cordwood. I do get a little smell with the pellets? A really good draw up the chimney and using the side fresh air intakes instead of the air inside the house would make a huge difference with that. You should contact the manufacturers and see if they have a customer local to you so you can let her be in the room when they light the stove and try it out.
I bought a different version of the kindling cracker. I didn't realize there were different sizes. Mine would hold a LG piece of wood. What diameter is yours?
I am not sure. I didn't get the xl one and wish I had. About 8 inches on this one I think?
"Hot" video! I love those stoves and the Kindling Kracker is a great tool that's been around for a while now. It's nice that rocket stoves burn so hot you can even use soft woods without worrying so much about creosote build-up. One thing I will mention is the Kindling Kracker will work better if you place the base on something solid instead of a soft, cushy carpeted area where there is too much "give" when you strike the wood. I imagine you typically do that outside?
Jon has it anchored to a this piece of hardwood at the base. We do our wood splitting with an axe and a motorized splitter outside during the summer but for the kindling we need to run this stove it is easier to use the Kindling Kracker inside since it is an all-day activity.
7:00 -- A lot of rocket heater people like to show their "smokeless" chimney. But I have a 10 year old "modern" traditional stove, and when using well seasoned cord wood it also has no "visible" smoke (I even made a blog post about that 10 years ago -- so very old news -- see "The Smokeout" at my blog, link at my "about" page). In fact, many newer wood stoves are required to not have visible smoke after a fixed startup time (often less than 30 minutes). So the no smoke view really does not mean much.
What is more important is what you can not see. Which is the particulate matter emissions. Rocket mass heaters, often with venting into the living space, may emit such emissions into that living space. Many rocket mass heater fans may say I am full of BS, because of course they will... I will not debate it, because that is pointless.
Rather than debate, I simply suggest everyone with any type of biomass heater, of any type, measure their indoor pollution, so to mature beyond debate and find out for yourself, if your heating method is causing air quality issues for you, your spouse and your children. Or not. You can buy inexpensive measurement tools online. Either separate devices or as phone add-ons.
Hope this helps.
Just an idea.. years ago (maybe 8?) I saw videos showing how to make these fire bricks out of paper and yardscraps mainly. I'd be willing to bet a smaller version of this "homemade fire brick" would be great for your particular stove. Especially adding sawdust to the recipe!! Won't help you today but next winter it could be a game changer.
Im sure these DIY videos still exist. The kids could spend spring, summer and fall safely making them. Instead of brick size I imagine ice trays or muffin pans for molds...🤔 I believe you can make your "pellets" not only 100% for FREE, but most likely better all the way around. And it IS EASY...I mean literally the kids can do it. I did make some of these bricks myself so I KNOW they burn very well! I still had 2 in public school at the time so paper trash was abundant! Also junk mail! 😄 Anyhow... As always thank you for sharing. 🙏🏻
I will look it up! Thanks for the suggestion!
how much kindling does it take to run for eight hours? how many times do you have to load it?
Your in town where you all live and you have pigs hard believe the people next aren't all ready itching ??
No smoke showing up in your video ty for share of your wood stove
Nope, no smell from the pigs. I use a lot of fresh bedding.
I DIY :
with a hatchet blade, eclators welded on it,
blade welded to an L-bar
L-bar screws on a log
very practical
What a great idea! Do you have a video so we can see it?!
@@dirtpatcheaven
I'll do one for you.
Will tell you when its done.
It is a nice gadget, that splitter. I think I will get one. But, I would go crazy trying to run one of these on cord wood. Why doesn't someone make a rocket stove with a fire brick combustion chamber, so that it gets hot enough to support combustion of large pieces of wood?
They do. I have one, it is made by the Honey Do Carpenter. It is an aircrete rocket heater stove. I have a whole playlist about it.
Have you tried charcoal . It's cheap in the winter.
Question? Do you think the cracker xl would work for splitting firewood and for splitting kindling in our woodshed? I definitly don't want anyone doing this in house! The boys make a huge mess and end up breaking stuff. Not sure if i need both options on this product or if xl would do all.
Yes, if you have normal sized cordwood the xl is way better. That is the size we went with so we don't have to pre-split into quarters first. Also, Jon bought the 2.5 pound mallet/hammer instead the the 3.5. I think the 3.5 makes it easier for smaller people like me.
@@dirtpatcheaven thanks!!
How does it do with rest of the house with it not connected directly to the house duct work.
I have a video coming up showing that. It was 81 degrees in the same room. 71 degrees in the basement down the hall. 68 degrees upstairs in the kitchen. That is with running fans to move the air but not other heat source going, not the Elmira and no baseboards. All just the Liberator. Pretty cool right?
Hi there l would love one going to email them to see if they ship to UK 👍👍👍
It is amazing how non existent it is outdoors
I know right? No smoke, no smell.
Every fifteen minutes. FOREVER!
Yep. It is for emergency heat only if you burn with cordwood. Good to have but time consuming.
I don't have time to load every 15 min or the desire to buy pellets. Glad it works for you but I think I will stick with my Jotul as I get a good balance of heat and fuel consumption with an acceptable level of labor.
If she used hardwood it would go farther but she's using what's available. Depending on the stove, you could also supplement with coal.
I make the videos to show results not try to create a bias. If the pellets are something that people want I like to show the options so that people can make educated decisions. If I made a video showing pellets and then just said that it can burn cordwood too without showing how much work it is I would be doing a disservice to those who might want to buy the stove. I don't make any money showing this stove. This is review only. I also have an Elmira stove upstairs that we do most of our heating with. It can take full logs.
How long does it burn using hard woods like hickory or oak?
We don't have any hardwood in our area, only softwood. We have burned it on pellets and that is an eight hour burn on one bag.
Something else you may look into is the Woodstock Soapstone Hybrid steel, 16 hour burn time😊
You don’t look very warm in your videos. Doesn’t bode well for the stove's performance.
I’d rather use pellets than any tool with such an insensitive, racial slur of a name. I’m offended.
So do you avoid the cracker aisle in the store too 😂
Burning wood ian't such a great idea. It burns so fast you need to be there to babysit the stove to add wood constantly. Pellets would be much better idea.
I am not impressed with this stove by this review. I get a better performance, and use way bigger pieces in my homemade version which i would normaly reload every hour running hot, and 2 hours on a slow burn but does make a little smoke. plus made a window to watch the vortex.
Sounds like you have an amazing stove! I would love to see pictures. Do you have a video up of the build?
@@dirtpatcheaven This was made out of a old propane tank and scrap metal. to achieve the burning of larger sticks is I have 2 draft control, one feeds to the base of the fire and the second to the top. If air is only added to top then the heat needed continue the burn rate does not climb. when both adjust as needed, I can get the top of the tank to 750 degrees. I did not use any fire brick or insulation. just 3/16 and 1/4 inch steel. once up to temp, minimal to zero smoke.
I love mine, but it didn't come with a blade cover lol.
Yep. It makes splitting wood a lot warmer!