Rocket Stove Update

On his last several trips to Haiti, our engineer, Bob Fairchild, has been building new and improved versions of the school rocket stove. These have a high-temperature stainless steel firebox liner with insulating firebrick and an insulated skirt with stainless steel lining. We are now using imported pots as the cylindrical shape greatly simplifies the construction of the skirt – a crucial component for optimum efficiency. This has included a 40-quart version for the Father Jim Bretl Agricultural Center and two 20 quart versions for Sister Pat and Sister Jackie’s preschool at Chacho (one stove for rice, the other for beans).

­­­­He has also been repairing the early models built in 55-gallon drums. Some of the first stoves, built at Sisters’ Fon Ibo school in 2010, have been used over 1750 times to cook over 100,000 meals each! Repairs have included new angle iron and bolt pot supports replacing the original firebrick post pot supports, replacement of the upper part of the drum with a stainless sheet, and stainless steel bowls to replace the insulating refractory skirts used with the local hemispherical bottom pots.

There is an exciting new development in the quest to set up a rocket stove building factory. Father Dachemy, the new Haitian parish priest, has a cousin named Frantz Renelus, who recently received his degree in Mechanical Engineering in the Dominican Republic. Frantz has a piece of property in Gonaives and is interested in running a stove factory and eventually branching out into other metal products. Stay tuned!