wigglywalker

There is a place in NH that is using an old water boiler, he has a 30~40' 2" copper coil? on a 250 gallon still. i am sure if you have a larger still steam would start to make more sense? seems to work for him, he also has a frankinstien hot water heater connected to it, not sure if it is to superheat or a buffer tank? i do understand that to change phases from water to steam requires 970 BTUs per lb. so it is kind of a waste of energy if you don't need it? i am sure heat up time is a factor, but as i type this i am trying to think how to pipe our new steam boiler...

While searching to see which filler to use i came across a post on some other site saying to watch out for different expansion rates of metals (copper/stainless) the issue was with the welds cracking at heat up/cool down. they recommended using silicon bronze vrs the parent metals. i think the site was something to do with NASA so i am sure the temperatures are not near what we are dealing with but I switched to silicon bronze after reading that when joining copper/stainless.

Copper sheet thickness.