Rocket Stoves Are a Prepping Must

This Simple Stove Could Be the Difference Between Life and Death for Your Family

This simple homemade stove could be the difference between you and your family having clean drinking water or a hot meal or beverage in an emergency situation or not having those things. Although designs for Rocket Stoves vary widely the principals that make them work so perfectly and efficiently are always the same.

Note that this very nice, hot fire is being generated by nothing but twigs that can be picked up nearly anywhere. This design is fully portable and can be taken anywhere you end up having to go. There are plans for various designs online as well as plenty of choices of premade designs.

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This is a very good diagram showing a simple cannister design with optimal ratios for the best heat updraft, and with plenty of room for the essential wall of insulation materials that ensure minimal heat loss as well as minimizing the risk of being burned.

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Another common design is this very simple one welded out of square pipe. These can be made by folks with good metal and welding skills or bought online quite cheaply. Since this design lacks insulation, the entire thing gets VERY hot and is somewhat less efficient in delivering all the heat to the bottom of your cooking pots. This might be an advantage in a situation where you and your family were also trying to stay warm, outside, in a very bad situation. Lots of heat is going to be radiating outward from this design.

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There are plans online for very simple, stacked brick stoves like this one. The one disadvantage in using brick is that your design is not going to be very portable. These would be great for a back patio, but it would be wise to have a portable option or two as well.

This design would make for an epic Father and Son or Daughter project! My Dad had endless projects like this going at all times when I was a kid. He was always a left brained genius at stuff like this which I never was.

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This concrete block stove is as rudimentary as it gets and could be quickly assembled on the fly if you could find the blocks. It is also very portable for a brick type design.

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This stove shows just how very simple all this can be if necessary. With enough fuel this would get the job done.

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Square pipe stoves like this one are easily bought online or if you have the skills, easily made. These stoves may need larger pieces of wood to properly operate since so much heat is escaping through larger openings and the lack of chimney insulation.

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This bifurcated chimney design results in having 2 burners all in one stove. I would guess more, larger fuel would be needed to burn this effectively.

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A pair of these extremely efficient, well designed, light weight and very portable stoves were my choice back in 2021. Whether your boiling water, cooking soup or flipping pancakes or eggs these stoves get the job done. The high efficiency means even small twigs burn very hot.

These are stoves that you could just pull off the road, pick up some twigs and branches and do whatever needs to be done anywhere or in any situation you find yourself.

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The afternoon sun on my back deck today served to nicely illuminate the interior chambers of this Ecozoom stove. The upper chamber and grate are where you start the fire. The lower chamber serves to pull in outside air for the crucial updraft and catches the ashes. The wood rack stores nicely on top when not in use.

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We are now to a place in time, I believe, where it is crucial to be thinking in these terms. The essential trinity of survival are adequate food, shelter and safe water. If any one of these things is inadequate you can be in serious trouble before you know it. In a real emergency situation, more people always succumb to drinking unsafe, dirty water than anything else. Plan NOT to be one of those people.

Just one of these stoves could provide safe, boiled water for many people. As long as there is a decent water source boiling will make it safe enough to drink in an emergency situation.

The best rule of thumb is to always have a second and third backup plan for all three of the essentials. This is why I own both a nice propane camp stove and a gasoline stove in addition to these rocket stoves. When I was a Boy Scout on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout, we had the phrase “always be prepared” drummed into our heads.

If you haven’t done much thinking about these issues now is the time while there still IS time. There is no time like the present, and it is time to have our houses in order both physically and spiritually. Think about where your weak links could possibly crop up and fill those gaps with haste. Have multiple options and backups in place. Think about what you would need to take if you were suddenly forced to leave your home. Make lists and have those things ready to go on short notice.

I hope people will find this information helpful. If it helps just one of you it will have been worth it. I plan to do more posts like this as I can get to it.

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