Steam generator idea

This week end I had to repair a steam generator for an iron.
So I had a look inside, and I saw something not so stupid.

The tank was 2 quarts, in stainless steel, looking like a box.
There was an output for a gauge, one for a pressure switch, one for the steam solenoid valve.
Of course there was a safety valve.

The idea they had, was using part of an iron to heat the tank. They took the heating element with the bimetal temp switch, pressed it against the tank with an aluminium sheet in beetween.

I might try this. Irons are not that hard to find in scrap yards, a few sheets of stainless for the tank, the safety elements, and that should do the job.


I'll try to post some picture of the base system in the next few days.

Would recommend that you calculate the heat requirements for your intended use and divide by 3143 btu's to get to KW needed for heating element. The common steam irons are usually .75 KW, and typically 2-4.5 KW is needed for steam heated step mashing. Yuri Rage has been down the steam injected mash route, check his design for steam generation as an example of what is needed.

Not a bad idea...

But I think, as kladue suggests, a single household iron will be sorely underpowered for the task at hand. I'm using a pretty powerful heating element on my boiler. When I had it connected as a 120V 1500W element, it barely worked. Now on 240V and 6000W it's probably overkill, but it really works well. I'd recommend at least a 2000W heating element (roughly 3 irons).

Sure, one 850W iron will be too small to boil 1.5 gals of water in a decent time.

2500W seems more reasonnable

here are the pictures.

First the steam generator from outside:


Then from inside:





As you can see, it's a little tank.