Tube stove is the most simple design for a briquette stove. It is not as efficient as Holey Roket, but still achieves a great output, using the hole of the briquette as an extension of the combustion chamber – the flames are centered to the middle of the pot just like with the Holey Roket.

Making of the Tube Stove

..is even easier than the Holey Roket, as we don’t need to cut the plastic pipes in 45 degrees angles, but only need one pipe that we need for making briquettes, together with one wooden or metal square-profile rod, app- 6x6cm*, 50 cm long.

*This dimension/surface area should always be one half of the combustion chamber diameter surface area. Two holes – each on opposite side of the stove – form exact same air-intake area as on top of the stove’s rim

See the stages of production:

                

In this case, I used pottery clay and mixed it with sawdust (1 part clay, 2 parts sawdust) to provide insulation, lightness and less chances for stove-breaking while cooking. The materials need to be mixed well and added as little water as possible so the clay is easy to form with hands, but still possible to mix well. You can see a more detailed material preparation with the Holey Roket Making chapter on this site

1. We need a flat platform where we pile up the clay

2. Set up a wooden rod and draw a circle (cca 18-20cm in diameter) to set the border of stoves walls

3. Pile up clay around the rod in the diameter borders.

4. Put the plastic pipe for making briquettes on top of the wooden rod, this will form the briquette-shelve

5. Pile up clay all the way to the top – cca 30cm

6. make an even stove rim

7. attach the briquette-drying hooks

8. carefully pull out the plastic pipe and wooden rod

9. put the stove in a shady place to dry

10. fire the stove in a kiln at the appropriate temperature

 

Cooking with the Tube Stove

As we have two holes providing primary air,there might be some draft coming from one hole. We can close one side when starting the fire if its really windy.

 

1. First we can throw some small branches, paper or briquette crumbs on the bottom to start the fire

2. When we have a solid flame, we can put a briquette on the fire.

3. We can put the next briquette on the fire immediately if we want a really strong fire, or we can do it later.

4. The fire-volume can partially be manipulated with opening and closing the air intake holes

*For this stove, we used metal Pot-Holders, attached to the top of the stove

An extra feature could be added to the stove base – a metal volume modifier, where a round base could be made out of metal. To manipulate the fire volume, the stove could simply be turned to the side, closing the primary air holes at the sides of the stove.