Steam water heater

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Dhutch
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:03 am
Boat Name: SNB Emily Anne
Location: Staffordshire (UK)
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Re: Steam water heater

Post by Dhutch » Mon Feb 29, 2016 12:30 pm

At least one of the steam narrowboats using a conventional hotwater cylinder (often called a calorifier on a narrowboat) used a whole-system thermostatic mixer on the outlet and I have thought of doing the same on emilyanne, if only to set it to something really quite high like 75c which would still curb the upper limit if was boiler by mistake and in doing so also protect the plastic hep20 plumbing fittings which are technically only rated to I think 85c.

Certainly if I was plumbing it today I would, but also it does work fine as it is, and certainly I wouldnt aim to regulate the lot down to shower-temperature as it is nice to get pipping hot water fomr things like to rinse pint glasses for fast drying on the walk to the pub!

One boat also has an industrial pressure reducing valve on the steam feed, which was something like £200 and is huge, and again while if I had one I might well use it, cracking a 1/4inch bsp metal-seat valve does the job perfectly and in 20 years we have yet to have any issues with seat erosion etc with the given duty cycle. A ptfe seat valve might be best avoided however.



Daniel
johngriffiths
Warming the Engine
Warming the Engine
Posts: 86
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:13 pm
Boat Name: Tenacity

Re: Steam water heater

Post by johngriffiths » Mon Feb 29, 2016 12:41 pm

Daniel, there is nothing to stop a lifter being used to take water from an internal tank, you might want to put a very light non return valve on the supply side. It has the immediacy of a pre heated Wm kettle without the danger to the skin.

Windermere water isn't so great when the blue algae bloom, which happens a lot these days. We've stopped using it for making tea and carry fresh in 18.9 lt bottles for drinking purposes.

Cheers

John
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