Survivalist Forum banner

Can you make a rocket stove that uses a candle?

7K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Determined 
#1 ·
Just learned about rocket stoves yesterday on here. I was wondering if you could make a rocket stove using a candle as fuel. Would it work? I mean would it increase the efficiency of the candle like it does with small sticks (not having to use a roaring fire that loses the energy).

I'm talking small scale, so maybe coffee can or less, coke can. I'd did see a coke can rocket stove, supposedly that's what it was, but the others were just "stoves" that had candles under them. They didn't have the elbow bend, with insulating around it, etc.
 
#2 ·
Interesting thought. Never tried it, but I suspect it would eat the candle in fairly short order if it didnt just melt away 1st. This may be a case of 'wrong tool for the job'. Hard to imagine having a candle but not access to a handful of twigs, tho odd things do happen. Try it and see what happens, I'd be interested in the out come.
 
#5 ·
1. There can't be more Energy Output than there is on Input. A System based on candles or even tea-stove lights won't work or release top heat only for 2 minutes :D
2. The wax of household candles produces parafine vapours, which finally burn. In case, you don't add enough air / oxygen these vapours are poisonous...especially at home, where air circulation is just fair.

A Rocket heater would need some fine tunable preheating of the wax, a burner light, which works independant from the main flame and some tunable heated tubes to control the amount of parafine-vapours. The main problem is: there is only a very small temperature difference between burning and explosion of it all.
...if it would be that easy, there should be already a car or a commercial stove running with that kind of engine.
The Idea with the tuna-cans ain't a good idea either, because once there is too much heat, that warming stove would collapse in a giant fireball....it may work without explosion for a couple of times and when you least expected it..booom..and your tents are gone..
 
#6 ·
Best efficient way to keep warm is still:
- warm, dry clothing and eventually a windshield
- something hot to drink, prepared with a minimum amount of fuel. It keeps you warm from the inside and your clothing isolates.
Everything else gets you noticed by light, smoke, smell and keeps you stuck on one place, if you overdo it (i.e. storing tons of food, fuel, water..)
 
#9 ·
As I wrote: there is only a very small temperature difference between burning and explosion of it all. With a big flame, (eventually in a steel box) there is a fair chance
of the wax starting to boil and after that its going to evaporate all at once. Thats a cloud of paraffine (gased wax), lots of air and flames..

Sure, you can burn a few stove lights and construct something with a coke can and a computer-vent, but i won't call it a rocket stove (needs some kind of fuel injection) and you can't use candles, because they'll be melting on one side with the wax just dripping down.
 
#10 ·
At normal temperatures and pressures, paraffin/wax needs a wick to burn. For rocket stove purposes, you're better off melting the candle and making dryer lint fire starters. The lint acts like "micro wicks", so a greater volume of paraffin vaporizes per second, therefore bigger flame. Couple different designs online based on what is used as the mold/container - TP tube, egg carton. Dry grass clippings in lieu of lint should also work. Good Luck, please observe all standard precautions when playing w/ fire.
 
#11 ·
The main Problem is the impurity of wax, because unlike ethanol its always a mixture of alkanes with longer or shorter chains of carbon (molecule view) which make some candles burn 10 hrs, while others of same size will last only for 2 hrs.
As soon as a bigger flame is used, the weight-energy-value is almost the same as oil, followed by liquid gas or fuel. Its good for emergency cooking.
For some extra heat i use a small handwarmer, which uses a tsp full of purified fuel with platinum as a catalyst and lasts 3-5 hrs.

Outdoors (only on sand-/stone-ground or a fire may burn undergound for weeks!) its easy to make something like the dakota firehole: dig a little deeper, keep it burning a little longer, then fill it up with sand (at least 15") and build your shelter directly above it. The sand-stone-mix keeps the heat, which is slowly released straight to your back.. a nice and lasting radiator during cold nights.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top