The Wood Mite Rocket Stove

The ideal solution for camping or survival cooking with an unlimited, free, fuel supply.  The Wood Mite  Rocket Stove allows cooking with scrap wood, twigs, and branches for high temperatures and efficiency.  All our Rocket Stoves are hand made using High Carbon Steel here in my Northeast Oklahoma shop for a lifetime of reliability and peace of mind.
Thick Steel housing for Stability and Safety

- Less Expensive long-term-  Cook with scrap wood or twigs, no Gas canisters to buy, dispose of, or refill!

- No need to carry insulation- our stoves work great with out it.

- Very high temperatures, efficiency:  will boil a quart of water in under 10 minutes when up to operating temperature.

- Stove and housing made of High Carbon Steel here in  the USA

- Hinged cooktop measuring large model (8”x8”) medium model (7”x7”) and small model (5”x5”) with heavy gauge steel mesh for versatility and durability, creating a useful cooking surface for several different styles of cooking. Use a pot, pan or cook directly on the mesh over the flame made by the stove. Also Stove cook top can be folded back for cooking over an open flame if desired.

- Only one main component!  Less to lose on the trail or over time.

Why the Woodmite  Rocket Stove?

            In the past three decades, tens of millions of Americans have found themselves in emergency situations due to hurricanes, power outages, burst water mains, or earthquakes.  Now, any survivalist will tell you that your first concern in a survival situation is water, but most of the Americans in the situations listed above suffered not from a lack of water, but from a lack of clean water. We at Wood Mite Stoves aim to eliminate this basic concern for our customers, so long as they can manage some basic technology.  That is, with scrap wood and a match (or better yet, a lighter in an airtight bag that can last for years and produce thousands of lights for your stove!), your Wood Mite Rocket Stove allows you to boil and sanitize drinking water for your family in an emergency situation. We hope you never need it!

Your Wood Mite Rocket Stove offers numerous advantages over competing stoves.  Many commercially available rocket stoves are supported by welded legs or a tripod.  The wide, square angle iron  base of the Wood Mite Rocket Stove is less likely to tip over and dump embers on an unintended area.

Furthermore, the combustion chamber, Feed-Tube, and Chimney are balanced proportionately to achieve higher operating temperatures and efficiency (Your Wood Mite Rocket Stove has achieved temperatures in excess of 1700˚ Fahrenheit using scrap wood in testing, a temperature well in excess of that necessary to achieve secondary combustion and the ignition of wood gases.).

What is a rocket stove?

The “rocket stove,” so named for the “rocket” sound the user hears when the stove produces a muffled roar at high operating temperature, has been a popular biomass stove with wood stove enthusiasts and survivalists in recent decades.  Rocket stoves traditionally utilize an “L-shape” design in order to direct air and fuel into a combustion chamber.  Air is channeled horizontally towards the “corner” of the “L-shape” design via a Feed-Tube (the Feed-Tube is often referred to as a wood box or fire box).  The channelization of air within the Feed-Tube prior to combustion preheats the air as it nears the combustion chamber beneath and around the fuel, serving to reduce the convective cooling of the combustion chamber that usually occurs via an uncontrolled interaction of ambient air with the combustion area.  Permanent or larger rocket stove designs often feature insulation of the combustion chamber and Chimney in order to prevent air-cooling of the Chimney and combustion chamber and consequent reductions in efficiency.

The efficiency of the rocket stove design is among the reasons for the popularity of these designs.  The rocket stove design offers a more efficient consumption of biomass (twigs, scrap wood, wood chips, etc.) than many other wood stoves.  The rocket stove concept involves a flow of air drawn towards the combustion chamber (a draw) by the low pressures created by the high temperatures therein.  The channelization of air also serves to pre-heat the wood prior to combustion, allowing the induced draft within the Feed-Tube to function as an evaporator.  That is, this pre-heating of the wood evaporates water from the wood within the Feed-Tube, drying the wood and preventing much of the energy loss in the combustion area normally expended to evaporate water.

Live or “green” wood is comprised of approximately 50% of water by weight, while typical firewood properly stored and left to dry is comprised of approximately 20% of water by weight, depending on environmental factors.  However, unlike a campfire or competing camp stoves, the Wood Mite Rocket Stove design evaporates water from the wood fuel as it nears combustion within the Feed-Tube, which in turn provides a means of pre-heating “greener” or more recently felled biomass prior to combustion, greatly expanding potential fuel sources.

 The improvement in efficiency mentioned above is a consequence of improved combustion, which of course translates to decreased production of the pollutants caused by incomplete combustion.  These include the production of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, both of which carry negative health costs upon inhalation.  An estimated 1.5 to 2 million people die each year as a consequence of pollution from solid fuel use, mostly in third world countries where biomass burning is the principle means of cooking food.  Any decrease in the production of these pollutants will carry positive health implications for the users.

 As wood burns in a campfire, flammable wood gas is released in the form of volatile organic compounds.  These wood gases usually comprise at least 50% of the potential chemical energy available from the wood fuel.  Exothermic reactions (wood burning) begin at approximately 250° C (around 500° F), and wood gases do not ignite until approximately 600° C (around 1100° F).  However, the configurations of a fireplace or campfire fail to ignite most of these gases since they do not usually reach sufficient temperatures for wood gas combustion.  This unburned fuel cools and condenses when dispersed and forms particulates in the form of smoke.  Smoke is wasted fuel.

 The reduction in both ash and smoke production resulting from a rocket stove burn (upon reaching optimal operating temperatures) both testify to its efficiency.  One 2007 study documenting the replacement of traditional wood stoves with rocket stoves in sub-Saharan Africa reflects this efficiency.  These stoves were non-Portable, insulated stoves that were used to produce hundreds of thousands of meals over a period of months or years.  The four institutions involved in the field test reported a 57-71% reduction in wood fuel purchases upon the introduction of the stoves.

 Most rocket stoves currently available on the market, however, are either prohibitively heavy or bulky to serve as an ideal camping or survival solution.  The smaller of these  require several square feet of packing space as our stoves do not. Furthermore, most of the “tube on a tripod” rocket stoves currently available and advertised as portable do not allow for ease of packing and are not easy to transport, in contrast to the Wood Mite Rocket Stove.  In sum, the Wood Mite Rocket Stove offers a lighter, safer, more efficient, and more compact solution than currently available with many rocket stove designs.

 To ensure your satisfaction with your purchase, you are entitled to a 3 year limited warrany on the entire stove.  However, since our products are hand-made here in the US using High Carbon Steel, your Wood Mite Rocket Stove should serve as a reliable camp / cook stove /insurance policy for decades to come.

Safety:

            The Wood Mite Rocket Stove is FOR OUTDOOR USE ONLY.  NEVER LEAVE ANY FIRE UNATTENDED.  Consider the fire an OPEN FIRE, so keep flammable material away from the Chimney.  KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.  And USE ONLY ON A NON-FLAMMABLE SURFACE.

            Beware of embers or sparks igniting nearby flammable material.  The Wood Mite Rocket Stove does not reduce or lessen the risk or hazard associated with the burning of any fuel.  Never touch a burning Wood Mite Rocket Stove.  All surfaces become extremely hot when in use.  Always have water and other means available to extinguish fire in case conditions become unsafe, and Always practice proper fire safety.

To order contact Michael @ atomicarcwelding@gmail.com