55 gallon drum wood heater

JBGrizzley

Eight Pointer
Found some kits that convert a 55 gallon drum into a wood heater for cheap. Anybody ever build one of these can tell me how well they work and hold up? Thinking of putting one together for the shop
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
If it is the kit that uses two, one as a heat exchanger they put off a bunch of heat. The key is finding heavy drums. There are all different gauge thickness of them and the thin ones won't last long. I have seen two of the ones that uses two drums and they work well as far as putting out heat. If you can't find but one heavy walled drum use it as the actual fire barrel and then use the thinner one as the heat exchanger, that will prolong it quite a bit.
 

JBGrizzley

Eight Pointer
If it is the kit that uses two, one as a heat exchanger they put off a bunch of heat. The key is finding heavy drums. There are all different gauge thickness of them and the thin ones won't last long. I have seen two of the ones that uses two drums and they work well as far as putting out heat. If you can't find but one heavy walled drum use it as the actual fire barrel and then use the thinner one as the heat exchanger, that will prolong it quite a bit.
Thanks. That may be the problem with cheap metal these days. Most the drums i can get to easy are carquest coolant drums & john deere oil drums. Maybe i could line one with extra metal if i dont find a drum to my liking.
 
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