Is this a boiler?

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Greg_Lewis
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Is this a boiler?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Slightly off topic, but this could be steam..... My friend and I were hiking Tuesday down toward the San Joaquin river and visited an abandoned building that looks to have been a workshop of some type. In the back we saw what's in the photos below. It is larger than what you'd think would be a water heater and sure has lots of adjustable somethings on it. Whether it's a boiler or just a heater, there are sure a lot of those thingies on it. So the question is: Whazit?

image0.jpeg

image2.jpeg
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
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Bill Shields
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by Bill Shields »

It has a pressure relief valve on it, so it has the possibility of heating water to a boil.

It is obviously some sort of electric water heater

9 heating elements?
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
pat1027
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by pat1027 »

Bill Shields wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:00 am
It is obviously some sort of electric water heater

9 heating elements?
Three phase.
318J
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by 318J »

Definitely an industrial size water heater. All water heaters are equipped with a safety valve.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Hm. Now that y'all have me thinking (for a change), it could be a quick-response or high-heat heater. The pressure relief valve does look like what's on my home water heater. I don't think it's 3-phase as the power line to the building is only two-wire and it's in an isolated area at least a mile from anything else, so it's unlikely that there was 3-phase there in the past. The building is near an abandoned cabin and could have been a garage. One wall is open and has tracks for sliding barn doors. The walls are some sort of sandstone brick and mortar, so someone went to lots of trouble to build it. The cabin, about 250 feet farther on, shows signs of 1960s decor with remnants of a shag carpet and other mid-century styles. The site would be a nice hideaway for a weekend, about three miles from the main road. This area, which is now public land, has a history of ranching and mining so who knows.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
pat1027
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by pat1027 »

Could be 220V with 110V elements.
rrnut-2
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by rrnut-2 »

It is a three phase industrial high capacity water heater. If it was running on 240 single phase, it just wouldn't heat as fast, but it still would work. I have had to work on a couple of these at the foundry. The ones that we had, ran on 480vac and would heat from cold to 180degs in about 5-10 minutes.

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rmac
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by rmac »

There's information about what looks to be a similar, modern unit here.

One of the details given on that site advertises:
Banks of heating elements (3 elements perbank) are energized according to adjustable(1 to 20 degree F) differential set points for each bank
That kind of matches up with the three thermostat-looking things at the top of Greg's first photo with the nine heating elements below.

They also advertise:
208, 240 and 480V single-phase and threephase delta which is convertible from three-phase to single-phase (in field) and vice versa (except208/54 kW) and 277V single-phase also available
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Is this a boiler?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Ah ha! I knew you guys would come up with the answer. Thanks. Another thought: It's not hooked up to any piping. There is a flexible hose on the ground next to it that runs outside and disappears down the hill. So it is possible, albeit unlikely, that the heater was not used there, but just dumped. Or could it have been hauled in used from somewhere else and just had a few of the heating elements hooked up to the available power?
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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