Milkwood: homesteading skills for city & country Our rocket stove water heater: 2.5 years on (http://plantingmilkwood.files. wordpress.com/2011/07/img_10861.jpg) *Update* — Since writing this article, we've deconstructed, improved, reconstructed and cobbed this rocket stove. Have a look here (http://milkwood.net/2011/10/28/rocket-stove-water-heater- redux!). Way back in the summer of 2009, we built a rocket stove water heater so we could have hot showers at Milkwood. What a revolution. And 2.5 years later, our rocket powered shower is, surprisingly, still going strong, Since we get a lot of questions (and comments from warm, clean farm visitors) about this home- made hot water rig, I thought I’d do a little appraisal of the system: how it’s fared and what we've learned from such a simple, effective system for happily heated water.(http://plantingmilkwood files. wordpress.com/2011/07/3420481892_ela4b4c736_b1 jpg) Our rocket stove water heating system First of all, you should probably have a look at the original post dealing with building this system, The Rocket-powered shower (http://milkwood.net/2009/07/12/the_rocket_powered_shower/). It explains the basic setup. | like to think I've got a bit better at explaining things since i wrote that post, but that's life. I'll eave it un-trammeled. Our post Rocket Stove Roundup (http://milkwood.net/2011/06/14/rocket-stove-roundup/) touches: on the why, what and how of rocket stoves, and hints at their glory, if you're not up to speed. To summarize, our rocket hot water system has a rocket-stove style feed barrel, with a J-shaped feed tunnel. The hot air moves up through the heat riser and through a heat exchanger, which is the black box thingy, where the water gets heated. This is the only tricky bit of the system. ‘After the (not so hot now) air moves through and beyond the heat exchanger, it goes up a chimney, out the top and that's the end of that. It’s a very simple way of heating a very respectable quantity of hot water with minimal fuss, fuel, and footprint. I'll go through each bit of the system and explain how it's faring, and whether we'd like to improve it:& ” a (http://plantingmilkwood.files. wordpress.com/2011/07/3235431228_a07bb3473b_b1 jpg) The feed barrel in action, shortly after it's construction a é : (http://plantingmilkwood files. wordpress.com/2011/07/dscf3412.jpg) The feed barrel nowadays - worn, but working fine Feed barrel: