Thanks for digging up an Immersion Water heater. I used to use those back when I was in Marines in the 80s. We would let the flame in the cup burn for a minute or so to create the draft before lighting the main burner. We would just burn regular gas and let it drip like you did toward the end. If you didn't preheat it good, the gasoline vapors would ignite and blow a flame back up into your face if you where watching down in there. It only took one face full of flames to learn how to light one.

I remember using one of those in Korea back in 1989. We heated water with Mo-Gas to clean cooking utensis. When lighting the back blast burned my eye lashes off. Luckly my eye brows were covered with a cold weather cap. Fun times. You are using it in a creative way. Great job.

Those things are cool. They work great and will burn just about anything that wont clog em up. Aint seen one of those things since I was with the 82 nd back in 1971. Damn I'm old.

When I was in the Army we used old or contaminated gasoline. You can use anything that will drip out of the nozzle and burn but you might need to use fresh gas to get it started.

I have used these for a couple years now in the processing of biodiesel. My vid of the heaters are from 2010. I now use my heater (in my videos) to heat a water/wvo heat exchange system on a mobile biodiesel processing unit. These heaters are rated to about 35k BTU on gasoline. I use biodiesel in mine, and can boil a 55 gallon drum of water in about 30 minutes.

I was a 94Bravo in the Army Reserves and learned not to use to much gas and use extreme patience the hard way. Tried to fire mine up in AIT and because it wouldn't light i looked down inside with to much gas and when it ignited the flash fire that came out got my eye lashes, brows and singed the front of my skinned hair back about 2 inches??? So be patient when lighting and take your time and be careful! The stacks shot up in the air also! No burns and a great life lesson on following instructions and being patient!

Wrap your drum with a water heater insulator while you are heating the water. This also allows you to control the heat distribution when you need to heat the greenhouse space.

It was really great to see some engineering applied to everyday life. Thanks for posting.

These heaters are hilarious. We used to let "the new guy" light them all the time. Many singed hairs and laughs all around.

Well I am from the old ARMY ( Pre T-Rats) and we used the immersions heaters they will boil a drum of water in a few minutes, there are alot of different uses for them !!! Good Find, if you know of anymore let me know :) Great Vid

Seen a few folk lose their eye brows lighting these haha

Sweet heater and setup ...nothing like a good mater samich

You should teach a college course on this kind of stuff man. This is real world practical knowledge. So glad to know you on here. You are a true asset to the prepping community brother. No joke. Thanks so much for sharing everything you do on here.

Respects, this is not for laughing. While watching Your video, something came up my mind... With this kind of tubing trough water (or air), or something like intercooler radiator, You could recuperate heat made by wood gasifier, to cool the gas. Same on motor outlet... Your idea to use a heat reservoar in this way is great!!! Thanks for sharing!

I have never seen one of those before. Very cool. I love simple functional devices like that.

Finally a use for my used motor oil I have been saving. I wouldnt mind a $25 green house like that at all. I am probably going to spend more then that on the plastic one I plan on covering my stuff with this winter.

On my last propertty we were experimenting with a rocket mass heater to heat water, then adding a thermal gravity loop to the system to draw the water without a pump up into a tank, and then to an outdooor shower. It didnt circulate on its own as much as I liked, so i did eventually install a bypass and a hand crank pump to recirculate the water from the lower heating tank up to the larger storage one.

The efficiency of the heater would be greatly increased by piping a air in take from outside so that the heater isn't sucking all the heated air out of the greenhouse. Should be a quick fix and will help keep heat even.

Good way to keep the right amount of humidity in your green house through the winter too..

I used to work in a big restaurant as a dishwasher and I used an industrial sized dishwasher that used a lot of hot water. Now this dishwasher was using 220 degree plus hot water to clean dishes, I know because there was a temperature gauge in plain sight hooked straight to the thing. I say this because I was constantly handling dishes straight out of this dishwasher while only turning my hands red and not causing any noticeable damage. So I doubt 130 degrees would do much damage, if any.

That is a wonderful little heater and a great application.

The gasifier truck is most similar to those old trucks that ran on propane than anything else.

Cmac is right. Blowback is a definite possibility. Had that happen, we were using them to heat tanks of water for showers in Saudi 1991. One guy had blowback and he fell off the tank. He was ok, his face was blacked by the soot. Kinda funny. We used kerosine, diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline. They also have space heaters using the same premise.

Reminds me of the principle of a pulse jet. Kinda had the same sound too.

hehe have those in the Cdn forces to heat water for shaving and washing up in the morning. uses gasoline and have seen the smoke stacks launched in the air when lit the wrong way !! BTW great videos, keep it up. learning lots and im sure other people are as well.

Brother, I love this idea....

As an engineer, now carpenter, I have started an internal door replacement company. That means that most weeks I will have a shed load of doors that I can burn in a rocket stove to heat my home and aquaponics system. In England lead paint isnt a problem, but I still wonder about what rubbish I may be pumping into the neighbourhood. Would you have any thoughts on filtering my output. Thanks for some inspiring work. If you dont have time to respond, I still wish more power to your elbow sir.

to buckstarchaser, this type of heater was normally in HQ area where the chow tents were and was primarily for cleaning and such. Using gas they were prone to blowing up as some people tried to fill while running and sometimes the water had a gasey taint to it. Nice video and definetly a steal at $50.

You can also use diesel fuel or kerosene. NEVER USE GASOLING OF ANY TYPE DUE TO FLASHPOINT AND BECAUSE OF VAPORS THAT CAN RAPIDLY IGNITE. I have used one of these things myself @ Dugway Proving Grounds in '84

ahaha nice thx for the memory, would love to find one of these heaters.

It always has to be a slow drip,,,but faster than you show on the video,,, ate many c rations heated with this. it should not blossom every time a drop goes down. These things work great!! Good Luck

that heater will get that water to a boil. but you need to have the fuel drip to where it looks like a string of beads. I've not seen one of them for 20+ years

That's really nifty! That warm water should hold good heat after the fuel's gone and store the daytime heat from the sun too... The extra humidity may also be good or maybe bad. I was trying to think of why the military would have this kind of heater since it would likely make a tent soggy from the water... Hot showers and dishwater is probably the answer. Will this suck in a lot of cold air from outside for the fire? Would it be hard to make an air pipe that feeds it from outside?

Interesting design. Much better idea to use a slow burning fuel. Well done. Thanks for sharing.-g.

Why not? I do it all the time. I have 180 degree water in my boiler that I mix down to 130. I guess all the welding toughened up my hands.

We cut the side out of a 6' diameter tore. Lined it with a go small tent. Put in immersion heater and made a hot tub.

Our procedure was to preheat until the second stack section was warm to the touch. Then drip lit gas off the preheater cup into the bottom unit until it sustained burning.

I run biodiesel in mine to create hot water for my biodiesel reactor. Gasoline can be used but there is a severe danger of back fire during ignition.

To every one looking at getting one of these, use caution with what you burn in it Tried gasoline and mortared it. Lost hearing for a bit and a good bit of hair. WMO/Diesel works well and fairly easy to light. Only problem is that the oil doesn't burn off completely on the vaporizer and pools in the bottom, making it messy and hard to control the heat. After my tank was empty, it burned for another 1 1/2 hours off the oil puddle, burning the paint off.

You said something about converting your swimming pool water into drinkable water, i would love to see a video on that. Thx.

I'd like to see an update ad the tomatoes grow a bit. Would be a very effective way to grow year round. I'm sure the boiler would be easier since you use if for most everything but the immersion heater is a good idea too.

Dude! You gotta let the preheat cup burn in the pipe for a while before you light the burner side. You will have much better luck if you mix some gasoline with with the lighter fluid, especially to start. You already had fuel pooling in the bottom of the burner and you kept turning it up. Don't do that. I ran these things in the late 1980s on my first field problem(45 days of KP as the FNG who just got there and hadn't been assigned to a section yet). We ran these on straight MOGAS(gasoline) They lit really easily, go figure. But if you pooled the fuel, you'd get a giant orange flame coming out of the vent stack when it finally heated up. Simple and brilliant design if a bit dangerous.

Great video, had some questions about its size and mounting setup that were all answered by watching this video. I'm going to attempt to pipe in an automatic circulation system to a heat exchanger core with a low current blower and see if it'll put a dent in the sub zero heat factor of my garage. Question is how many BTU'S will be convertible. Thanks again, hope the Mater' sandwiches were great!

Thanks for the memories. Yes they do blow back but only when someone gets courious and looks inside. We ran gas and the drip rate was to look like dog chain (indivdual drips alomst conected)

We did when I was in the Army but you'll have to use gas to get it started.

Very Kewl, i think you'll have em fresh home grown mater sammiches all winter long

this is great to see, I would like to know how this works out for you, I have some ideas in mind myself for growing food in the winter, however, I'm in Canada so the winters here are a bit colder. , but I was thinking about having the north side be an earth wall, with 2x4 structure for the roof and angled walls, solar rated 6mil plastic stapled to both sides of the 2x4 to hold heat better, paint the inside black, and run an aquaponics system inside (an above ground pool will hold heat)

When I was in the Army in the early 80's, we used these in the field to heat water for washing mess kits and shave water. Nothing harder than trying to shave your face with 2 days of stubble and that waxy camo paint on it in 30 degree weather with cold water...

Nice video! Just so you know, tomatoes will not set buds at temps below 85 degrees F. as memory serves. Tomatoes transpire a huge amount of water and need lots of air circulation in greenhouses to prevent diseases and white flies. Burning hydrocarbons in a greenhouse are not good, either. Releases some bi-product gas which harms the plants. As well informed as you are I am sure you are way ahead of me on all these fronts and have the solutions in hand. Keep up the good work!

?? would the drum of water hold the temp longer, and maybe be higher if you built a cover for the drum< like a lid on a pot ?? your vid's are great...

Very nice setup. Thanks for sharing.

See the vids of some Swedish lads converting a Volvo 141 to run on wood gas. very good.

BAD ASS! I need one for my camping hot tub.

Very cool and at a great price, I love the stuff you come up with.

When I was in the Army We used these things in the field to heat dish water at the field kitchen. We used diesel fuel in them. I would not use regular car gas.

that wuld also raise the humidity as well not a bad thing with the right plants

Nice work. Alcohol would also burn nice...distill your own off of waste veggies and clippings.

Gas works quicker and is safe, just be careful. I like those things they work great.

I wonder if you could use other sources of fuel oil such as bio diesel or Vegi oil.

Very neat. How long does it take to heat that drum of water?

Thank you for the only non retarded video about this item on the web! How to light it, how it works, no stupid rap music, etc. I have one and plan on using it in my greenhouse that we will build near the end of our season this year.

We used these heaters in the US Army -- 1959-1961. Always used gasoline for fuel. Had the troops wash their mess kits in hot soapy water using long handled brushes, then rinse in 2nd "garbage" can, and final rinse in 3rd can which had boiling water. Had a nick name for these heaters. Can't remember what the name was.

75 bucks...wow Great deal. Hope they do well. Thanks for sharing...

Always use a little higher grade to start esp when cold, military uses whatever is delivered, this is considered obsolete now pick them up

Very nice!

LOL! One of those blew up in my face back in my army years.

The idea of the wick is to initiate the draft in the flue before you light the drip. I’ve used one of these a lot, gas is the preferred fuel and the most economical. Diesel a very slim chance maybe, but waste oil, never happen, if someone has ever made this heater work on waste oil go ahead and make a liar out of me but I don’t think that is goin to happen either. Even with gas the drip and the fire need monitoring and adjusting, the flame dynamics in the donut change and the drip that was working fine 10 minutes ago may now be too rich and filling the flue with soot and carbon. Good luck, there’s always a learning curve with this type of surplus stuff

Used this in the Canadian Army. I was the only person who would light these at my BMS because all the other medics blew them up! LOL good times! ;)

Out of all the equipment I handle in my 12 years in the Army, Lighting one of these while on KP duty serving as a privet, waz one of the Scariest things I did... I rememberd one of the cooks had burnt his eye brown off earlyier that day.

It would sting quite a bit if you put your hand in it but finger's okay (55 Celsius I can't think in Fahrenheit)

My friend has a Lister Diesel Engine he uses to run a back up generator and in the tank for the engine antifreeze he put a copper coil so he can run clean water through it for doing laundry or whatever. and it also take away a lot of heat from the engine. He asked me to put up a few video's of it on my You tube ch so he could show some people. The neat thing about it is it can run on almost any oil, You just have to clean it every 500 hours if it's dirty. here is 1 of them /watch?v=77wiB_lKtog

Be carefull with that heater, back in my reserve days, I seen one of them catch on fire. That was with gas, but I've never trusted them since. Cool green house!

good video engineer keep up the good work also have you ever thought about geting an electric golf kart there really alot of fun and im sure you can think of something cool to do with them anyway great video keep up the good work

enjoy your videos. ? can u use waste oil in the the immersion unit.and also wanted to let you know i made a leave burning rocket stove today and it worked great got it posted on my youtube site great way to get rid of the leaves in the yard and heat or cook with it. thanks.

I know you're right about the 130 degree water I have done it with no burns. I wouldn't leave my finger in for too long but yes it's possible with no harm as long as you don't have tender hands.

Dude, Your the man. Great videos and very informative. Love it. Sean

I used the same immersion heaters when I was in the Australian army. We never had any major problems using petrol (gasoline), except when people would do it wrong and there'd be an almighty boom, quickly followed by badly singed eyelashes and eyebrows. As I recall, they don't use a lot of fuel, either.

Start your draft and let it run for about 3 to 4 minutes before dripping fuel in.

very cool... you can't go to the supermarket for less these days

MAN THAT'S AWESOME!!! Keep up the good work!

Never seen one of those before. Do you have a NSN # for the heater?

Thanks for sharing, good finds!

sweet! giving me some ideas...

This is the type of weapon in a Hq & Hq Btry in an Artillery Battalion. When starting up the M67 the unit will sometimes sound a loud bang (they use gasoline). The GI's waiting to wash their mess gear will sound off with "SHOT OVER"!

I have a question, I am not sure how it is working fully, but could you fill the drum with sand instead of water and have the sand as a thermal mass that would hold onto heat longer then the water? I guess I am not sure if sand or rock would hold onto heat any better than water, really interesting and cool

man what a good deal, getting that green house for $25! id love one for my seedlings :D

@dfgiuy22 I'm not sure how they did it, you have to watch how much fuel is dripping in. It might have been a fuel leak in the tank too. I never actually seen the fire, but I'm told it was pretty impressive. Not trying to be a xxxx, just trying to throw a word of caution...

Love it !

In the British army we used to call them kitchen mortars.

Did I miss it? How long did it take to get that drum up to 130 degrees? Very interesting I must say.

Why is your IBC Tote in the back ground black? Did you paint it? Cover it with plastic? Now, how do you plumb this heater into a water system?

I never had one blow back on me and I won't even go into some of the stupid things we did with them. Where did you find one for $50?

These things are so dangerous when run on petrol which they were designed for. Many a British Soldier has lost eyebrows and hair trying to light one of these things on operations at 5am 😂

We always use gasoline in the army. gasoline fumes light easy so they started quickly.

Did this work in the winter? What zone do you live in?

Cool vid.,thanks!

interesting,never seen anything like that.

I got you beat, Picked up four tomatoes for $1.99. Pre-Growed! :D where on earth did ya get charc light fluid for free?

Wonder how effective it is with pine sap/camphor.

fahrenheit right?