Graham Chiu

Maybe your sticks are too wet, or the cinder blocks too wet. Do you get a fire going if you feed the sticks from the top?

I don't know if this has been sorted yet, but since catalytic stove allow for the combustion of the fuel at lower than standard temperatures this results in the release of more dioxins into the environment i.e. the air you will be breathing.  At higher temperatures these dioxins are incinerated.

You can cook inside as well as outside. I started to use wood pellets because they're cheaper than almost any other wood source in the shops.

I used my artificial logs here as well to heat up the burner so that I could cook naan inside on the walls

Phil Stevens wrote:Graham! MATE! That is Rube Goldberg stuff right there. How did it come out (taste wise, that is)?

Hi Phil.  Tasted just fine.  Took 2.5 hours to cook but other references said that this was standard for this type of "camp side" cooking on the side.
I've now bought myself a tripod so I can try this out in front of my chiminea!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
But hardwood or softwood? Thoughts?

Softwood have higher BTUs since they contain more lignins.

I use these https://www.ebay.com.au/i/112621909241?ul_noapp=true

Burns for about an hour and I add them to small logs as that helps them get going.  Lasts about an hour.
I don't recommend their use in a ULEB type stove though.

You can see my use here

I haven't read the whole thread but the point of having a fire inside the middle of the tandor floor is to send radiant heat in all directions to the surface of the tandor so that you can cook naan or whatever on the walls of the tandor.  If you feed heat in from a side then the heat will not be directed symmetrically to the walls making cooking interesting!

You could look at a riserless system such as the double shoe box 2 which then dumps to a stratification chamber.

Chris McClellan wrote:

Chris, isn't that a tlud biomass gasifying stove rather than a rocket stove?