Pictures of your Vogelzang barrel kits installed

Lucky Phil said:

Mine wasn't an accident waiting to happen....it burned fine for years...IN THE HOUSE, TOO. You must be thinking of a different stove, as mine didn't eat wood like there was no tomorrow....

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I guess your Lucky ....Phil. (couldn't resist)

The one my buddy had would eat wood like crazy.....maybe something was wrong with his?

Honestly they just scare me.....nothing personal guys!

Hiram Maxim said:

Lucky Phil said:

Mine wasn't an accident waiting to happen....it burned fine for years...IN THE HOUSE, TOO. You must be thinking of a different stove, as mine didn't eat wood like there was no tomorrow....

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I guess your Lucky ....Phil. (couldn't resist)

The one my buddy had would eat wood like crazy.....maybe something was wrong with his?

Honestly they just scare me.....nothing personal guys!

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So you are saying it sucked ash.

In all fairness to the thing my neighbor has one in his basement for the last l5+ years. It has the same barrel the whole time and he uses it to heat or rather preheat his hot water via an old hot water tank hung over it and a tin surround to help keep the heat in the area for a while. I swear it works and he had an old plumber friend hook it into the boiler system. It also partially heats his house. What the barrel is I don't know but it must be something like one of those nuclear storage barrels to last any time at all. He loves his and certainly is no dummy. BTW he had it inspected by his ins company and signed off on by them at the time. That's why I mentioned the sewer pipe. If you have a cutting torch and welder, heck you could even do without the cutting torch and gouge cut with an arc welder you could make one of them. That would surely last at least one lifetime I kid you not. There are a lot of things like that out there if you go junk yarding. I still get a grin out of the guy getting stuck in that stove. Sounds to me like a reality tv series in the making..............................

I have 1 in my 24x32 detached garage. Its a single barrel and works well to heat that space. I also added a homebrewed used oil-burner to supplement the wood supply. And that way I don't have to tote the used oil to a recycling location. I got the barrel for free and bought the kit from Northerntool.com. I spent a lot more $$$ on the pipe to go through the roof but that way if I find a newer epa stove for cheap I can swap it out.

If I remember right there were plans on how to make one out of an old water heater in Mother Earth News at one time, and I saw an article on one made from car rims welded together.

BeGreen said:

Barrel stoves have been around for a while. Take a look at this 1891 cutey.

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That's pretty neat. Love the old stoves.

BrotherBart said:

The things are a pretty much out of control blast furnace. You put sand in the bottom to hold off burning through the bottom of the barrel. Not unusual for the sides of the barrel to be glowing red hot.

The suckers are dangerous. A guy I used to work with ended up at the emergency room because he got his arms trapped pushing wood through the door and the cast iron door frame cooked both of his arms.

Get a real stove.

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Listen to Bro Bart. I just saw an Avalon Rainier on Craigslist for $75. Unless it was beat to hell, it would be 10x better than that Vogelzang barrel stove. I know a stove shop that would rebuild the Rainier for cheap, as well. If I weren't so lazy, I would have bought it myself and resold it. I get the impression that you were serious about putting that barrel stove in your house. If so, their are much better and safer options out there. Go to some stove shops, tell them your budget and also check out Craigslist. You will come away with something that will work safely for your needs.

BeGreen said:

Barrel stoves have been around for a while. Take a look at this 1891 cutey.

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i don't think that was a barrel, but it's a good looking little stove.

You asked for pictures, so I had to find the hard drive with the files. My own personal way-back machine. The barrel stove was heating my shop, when I was there, and the firebox seemed too big. Fresh air wasn't getting to the rear of the stove, so I cut the barrel around the ribs.

Removed the center section.

Strapped the pieces together, hauled it to a friends body shop, and I MIG welded it together.

Then, decided to add a dip-tube to the flue with coaxial preheated secondary air.

In all it's glory, fire in the hole.

Not shown (pic files are on some other hard drive), there is sand in the bottom of the barrel, with two rows of firebrick up the sidewalls. When a fire is ripping, the steel on the bottom and side is cool enough to touch. The bricks stay white with no carbon build-up. It was fun, but I only consider it a learning experiment.

john

Sorry, I tried to embed images, but it didn't work.

hi john

just curious, was the secondary working? did the stove smoke?

frank

As far as pictures here is a video. I have this one bookmarked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHty-Fo8opc&feature=related

Here is a photo of my Vogelzang barrel strove installed in my Off-The-Grid cabin in Upstate New York.

For years I used Sotz stoves and still have two in storage. The double barrel ones worked GREAT! Heated a lot of space. I wrapped one with copper tubing and plumbed it into my old hot water furnace. I also used one to heat my hot tub (an old cistern from a lighthouse on the Hudson river that someone had dissassembled and discarded) -- in this case I actually soldered copper pipe together and put them inside the heater. And I used two to heat large shops.

I bought the Vogelzang from Harbor Freight. Don’t see them there any more. Some things about the installation: note large sheet of aluminum to reflect heat and protect the hall -- it has spacers that move it away from the wall. Note fire extinguisher – I also have a simple bucket of water within reach. I added sand to the bottom, but not sure it makes any difference. Wet wood stays close to the stove to dry – it never gets too hot on the floor. I also raised the stove above the floor on cement blocks and installed a flagstone hearth in front (also on blocks).

Last comment: I liked the Sotz better and the splitting maul is still the best; if you can get one, do it.

I had a friend who built a cottage with a mostly open first floor, then a loft over half of it. In the center of the lower floor, he put one of these kit barrel stoves. He built a "sandbox" sort of hearth for it [raised edges and filled with sand]. The stove had legs and stood in the center of that. He had it painted up to match the walls, etc. It really roared and heated the entire house just fine. I don't know why he chose to build the sandbox rather than a regular hearth. But it all worked and cost very little.

Personally, I was uncomfortable with it and wouldn't want one, unless in a big garage/shop/whatever. But those stoves crank out a lot of heat, very effectively.

We had one to heat a sauna. It was mounted so that the stove door was accessible through a cinder block surround on the outside of the sauna. On the inside of the sauna it was gated off on the sides with re-bar and the top had an iron grate with rocks on it. That thing got HOT. We used to see if we could get it white hot by stuffing a full load in and lighting it off ... I was a pyro ... err ... stupid kid.

Here is a second picture that shows a couple of other “featuresâ€â€¦

There is a tin sheet under the stove to protect the floor; you can just see a bit of it. Also, the stove pipe – which exits the building through the side wall – passes through a heavy stainless steel thimble that was salvaged from a boat. The thimble is secured to a sheet of 1/4 aluminum that is bolted to the wall on the outside – bottom line: the wall never gets hot and the chance of a chimney fire is reduced.

Also, we remove the chimney whenever we leave so vandals can’t use the place without significant trouble – good neighbors help too!

Our cabin has lofts at each end so the second story, sleeping area is open to the first floor.

I have never been afraid of this setup, perhaps because I built it and try to use common sense when running it. Also it simply doesn’t get enough air to really glow.

I also included one shot of the solar shower still under construction.

Heres' ours at the cabin

The barrel isn't going to burn out in a year. We burned a double barrel stove at a shop for years. It's been 20 years since I first saw it, and 25 years since the bottom barrel was replaced. The top barrel is 50+ years old. We probably burned 5-6 cords of slab oak/ash in it per year. It was the primary heat for a 2 stall masonry repair garage.

I stood beside one all day today in a pole barn.. A local off road park uses one for the guest to keep warm.. They took is one step further and used a piece of 4" pipe (maybe tubing) and welded it in to the barrel on a 45 so the barrel could be farther under the pole barn without cutting through the roof.. Worked well, i wouldn't hesitate to use one this way but I don't think i would use one in the home..

Jason

We heated 9 greenhouses with these barrel stoves when I was growing up. Also had the biggest piles of green wood that never were seasoned.