Condensation back into boiler

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Scotty

Re: Condensation back into boiler

Post by Scotty » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:24 am

That is on the cards too shadow as part of modifying it.

speedtripledan: A bathroom fan just won't cut it. The steam produced from the boil exceeds that of a shower and overwhelms a small fan.

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GrowlingDogBeer
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Re: Condensation back into boiler

Post by GrowlingDogBeer » Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:39 pm

I did my first brew today using my cheap (40 quid) cooker hood from Wickes to extract the steam from the garage. I think it worked extremely well, I am very pleased with it so far. I did not notice any drops of condensation on the hood that were likely to fall into the boiler, and didn't see any drips fall from it at all. I went outside to where it was venting out and steam was flying out. The hood sits about 12 inches above the top of the boiler. I needed a bit of a gap so I could get the Chiller in and out.

From todays experience I am very impressed.

manxape

Re: Condensation back into boiler

Post by manxape » Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:05 pm

Well I went with a 150mm inline mixed flow fan 680 m3/h and it is silently but deadly! very much worth the money for the amount of steam it shifts.

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Kev888
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Re: Condensation back into boiler

Post by Kev888 » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:31 am

I think this may be where my previous experiments with the bathroom extractor fell down, IIRC it was 95 m3/hr, but yours is 7x that, and looking at the spec for Steve's shiny hood thats still over 4x what mine was, and considerably smarter - very tempted actually, but I don't think I've got the height for it.

I've another inline fan that is/was destined for the bathroom re-fit and i'd considered 'borrowing' permanantly but thats only 180m3/hr so maybe a bit marginal. I've not had any condensation for the last couple of brew days as the garage roof has been warm enough to let the steam float out without condensing, but I definately need to look at something like this before next winter, everything in there got soaked through by it dripping off again.

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kev
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Scotty

Re: Condensation back into boiler

Post by Scotty » Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:03 pm

I've been bodging the cooker hood today and tested it with boiling water. Whilst it did extract more steam, more vapour condensed on the fan housing and the colour of the condensate was yellowy/orange which isn't good.

In the long term, I don't think it will cut it so I have to consider an alternative. I am still contemplating a chimney made from stainless steel but what I have planned is this....

Flat-topped stainless lid with a 6" s/s flue and swan neck, with a 'tray' fitted at the bottom of the flue to collect any condensate. From the tray, a pipe which will allow the condensate to flow into collecting vessel.

How does this sound?

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