By John A. Heatherly, Author of The Survival Template and The Cave and The Sea
Last weekend I had the urge to try a new project and wanted it to be one that was inexpensive and simple. Having seen Leon’s Brick Rocket Stove over at SurvivalCommonsense a while back, I decided that my back yard needed one. One trip to the hardware store and about $20 later, here is what happened:
Using Leon’s instructions, the 16-brick stove was easily constructed. I chose to add a Dutch Oven lid stand so that I could cook breakfast for my little boy. The stove surprised me by producing a large amount of heat using tiny pieces of fuel!
Mom’s small, seasoned cast iron skillet was a perfect fit for the amount of food I had in mind, and it quickly heated up.
With only a few handfulls of twigs and small branches, we had enough heat for bacon AND eggs!
We had so much fun with this little stove that we are now making a list of other simple things to try: coffee, hot chocolate, chili, etc… My son loves this, and we strongly recommend it for a family weekend project that is easy on the wallet and will last for a long time!
Rocket stoves are wonderful. My grandson wants us to cook on ours each time he visits because he gets to gather the wood and help with the fire. There is nothing so simple for how worthwhile it is in the prepper arena!
Alexis – I am thinking of making this Rocket Stove bigger. What do you think?
This is a perfect project build! I love the fact that will fit anyone’s budget and is so easy to build! I want to make a larger one!
Craig – I agree and my little boy has a blast with this kind of thing. The quality time is awesome – we use the stove over and over without spending tons of $$.
Your rocket stove will work more efficiently if your skillet is closer to the top of your stove and the horizontal part of the stove (where you feed the wood in) is a longer chamber. This creates the draft effect that causes the wood to burn completely. When it is burning correctly you should have a near smoke free fire.
Thanks, Sean. I have a cast iron dutch oven trivet that will help move the skillet closer, and I plan to follow your advice and try to tweak the design. More info to come!
A word of caution with brick rocket stoves. Make sure the bricks stay dry. If they absorb moisture, the heat can cause a build up of steam inside and cause the bricks to explode. I talked to a store that sold fire brick and they said they would not recommend using regular brick. However, if the precaution of keeping the bricks dry is taken, this would greatly enhance the safety of the home made method.