Wood-Stove Hot-Water system

Click on it with a modern browser, it's a active link, i was just there:
excerpt: A cautionary tale from one of our correspondents.

"A co-worker of mine put a heat exchanger in his furnace firebox. Without proper controls he quickly made high pressure steam and soon solder joints were failing and the system came apart in what sounded like several small explosions. His solution? Weld the damn thing together the next time. It held together, but it back-fed steam all the way to his artesian well and he had a nice geyser out back. True story." Scott

Nothing wrong with copper as long as the rest of the system is properly designed for it. However, since most folks are not well versed in boiler design, and copper is rather expensive, welding and heavier components of st. stl. are probably preferable.

However, that does not change in any way the requirements for proper attention to safety. Simply because a design can withstand higher pressures/temperatures due to material properties, section thicknesses or "bigger" welds", does not mean that safety, particularly safety relieving devices (safety valves, rupture disks, etc.) can be avoided or ignored.

In the case cited, the well acted as the relieving device and while it may cause a chuckle, that was more fortunate than humorous and a good example of God protecting fools. It is a smoking gun pointing to the ignorance of a design that lacks relieving devices and who knows what else. More example of DIY ignorance causing harm.

Somewhat early in my engineering career, I saw the results of boiler failure and the steam explosion that followed. Fortunately (for me), it wasn't my design or equipment that failed, and more importantly no injuries, but it sure put the fear of the almighty in me next time I sat down for a design effort. Another true story. J.P.M.

The link at the beginning of this old thread no longer works