Well, we had a great day yesterday!
That sucker burned just like it was made for it. I had done a small burn earlier in the morning just using some newspaper because, you know, I was sure it was going to make me look bad (ala Manny) and I needed time to gather all my excuses, just in case.
Well, the newspaper burn went off without a hitch. Good draw, nice "rockety" sound. So I added just a couple of sticks and voila! Heat.
It was a nice cool morning, around 60˚ outside, and the sound and heat were a nice reminder of the fall weather coming.
The afternoon came and the 14 folks on the tour were ready to see the beast in action.
Eyes WIDE open, jaws dropping and their minds reeling as they looked at what was sitting in my living room we lit her up.
Perfect. Excellent draw, nice burn, wood crackling, rocket roaring and these folks were impressed.
My son went out to the vent and sure enough: no smoke, just steam and mild heat. Granted it wasn't blasting at full throttle, but, it was enough to make us relax about the fact that this thing really does work.
Matt, Manny, et. al, I don't think this would have ever happened without all of the info, photos, back & forth, videos, etc.
It's intimidating in it's early stages. But, by God we did it!
We'll be adding the final cob over the next few weeks and continuing to do small burns to help it cure, but, our anxiety is put to rest
A couple of things:
there was a small amount of smoke once or twice coming from the 90˚ elbows. Not at the connections, but, at their swivel points. Any concerns? I never thought about taping them for some reason and it would be a real pain to do it now.
The other thing was that later at night we had some sort of residual odor. I'm guessing from this curing or from the galvanized pipe or, now that I think about it, perhaps from the refractory cement curing with the heat.
Just thought folks might want to know.
Great day. Many, many thanks again. When we finish we'll put up more photos. And, were even considering a smaller unit, perhaps just a rocket stove, for our springtime maple syruping. We're on a roll!
Ray