Video - exploding water heater

Zackly!

Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

@ a 12 gallon tank in the demo... (locomotives I bet were hell!)

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Back in the 76/7 oil crisis I saw the results of a steam explosion in a basement. Neighbor installed an old wood kitchen range with a water back. Too bad the pipes had been capped and there must have been a bit of water still in there. Impressive. Total redo of a finished basement. Fortunately there was no penetration of first floor.

Harry K

Neat. Steam sure has lot of power once built up.

Thanks for posting that. I just saw a TV show about inventions. It said that exploding water heaters were pretty common before the T&P valve was invented.

THE VIDEO LOOKS LIKE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE TAKES POP'S ADVICE.

Very impressive, but I wonder how much "launch" they would have gotten if they didn't start them out from down in a hole which must have acted somewhat like a mortar barrel?

I bet they wouldn't have flown anywhere near as high if they were just sitting on the ground when they blew.

Jeff

I was going to comment lift mightn't have been what it was (but w/ slow dialup I didn't even try to see the video, but I can imagine having worked for 30 years w/ high pressure steam cycles even w/o seeing this example) but that schrapnel would have been much greater...

Except they don't mention how to check it... Just lift the lever on the valve/

Yeh, I made that mistake on my 12yo heater. Valve worked fine, but wouldn't shut off.

Not so high? OK, but not by much. The pressure wants to make a cylindrical tank round. The ends usually are the first to go vs. a longitudinal seam. The ends are flat. It usually goes _UP_ due to years of sediment/scale inside resting on the bottom. Scale act as a wonderful insulator causing advanced abuse/use on the bottom due to overheating and loss of elasticity.

This is more typical:

-zero

• read "overheating and then loss...."

I tested mine twice. Had to buy a new valve twice too.

Jeff,

Watts used to have a video of one set off above ground. Results were similiar.

Stretch

low resolution (dial-up) link

Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

I thought that was what fusible plugs were for.

snipped-for-privacy@at.us wrote on 25 Sep 2005:

Actually, the worse problem was riverboats. People who weren't killed in the explosion itself were likely to drown.