Fast Way Water Heater

[mrboilwash]

Found some stange vintage immersion heaters on Ebay.

Does anybody know how the Fastway works ? I am wondering if it has an insulated element ? Wattage ?
Wish I could read the red tag.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-Vco-FAS...457?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0ac6ec69

 

[mrboilwash]

The next one explains itself how it works.

The current simply goes through the water.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1921-Zi...967?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae10ff8c7

 

[henry200]

I remember those immersion heaters from my grandparents' farm when I was growing up.  There was the tank heater out in the barnyard for the cattle (which I was sternly warned NOT to touch!) and grandma had ones like both of those pictured for heating water in the kitchen.  The house never had running water and she used them to heat a kettle of water for washing or bathing.  I don't know how great the risk of electrocution really was, but I heeded Mom's warning and always kept a safe distance whenever they were being used.  I sure was curious though!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I know the type of heater where there are two electrodes placed in the water and the electrolytes in the water complete the circuit to produce heat. Hot steam vaporizers use this principle. The electrodes were in a Bakelite tube at the top of which was the vent for the steam. I think I read in the directions for one we had not to add salt to the water because it could make it boil so violently it would boil over. That said, I don't understand how this type of heater could be used in a stock tank because the cattle would be knocked off their feet when they touched the water. Maybe it was a sealed rod type heater but your mom did not want you to risk being shocked by stray current leakage or something. Maybe she was just being a mom keeping her child safe. It would be neat to dip the base of a light bulb in the water being heated and watch how brightly it would light. When I was going to school we were always warned in health and science not to have a radio in the bathroom that was near enough to the tub or sink to be touched or that could fall into the tub. There were also "true crime" stories where people were murdered that way.

I remember reading in an electrical manufacturing magazine about one salesman's encounter with a woman when he was trying to sell electric water heaters sometime after WWII. She became very agitated and negative over the topic. When he asked why she related the experience of heating wash water in a tub in the basement. She would fill the tub, she said, then place these two paddles in it that plugged into a special box. Then she would leave the basement, lock the door and go to the fuse box elsewhere and turn on the current. Once the water was hot, she turned off the current, unlocked the door and went down to the tub of hot water, removed the paddles and started the laundry. Once he explained the difference between the way she heated water and a storage hot water heater she "warmed up" to the idea, but the danger of what she had to use before that was graphically remembered. I don't doubt that what she had to use was a 220 volt apparatus and certainly lethal.

 

[mrboilwash]

Thanks guys for bringing some light on it.

 

[tolivac]

Immersion heaters---We have a GIANT one here at the transmitter site-can handle up to 750Kw of power.It is used as a "dummy load" for testing and tuneup of our transmitters.It consists of a soda water tank(sodium carbonate)added to water until you get 300Ohm resistence as measured on a network analyzer.the water is heated by an immersion element-the water has to be at a high temp to properly dissolve the sodium carbonate and provide the proper resistence.A pump circulates the fluid thru a tank that has electrodes connected to the transmitter output.then the fluid circulates to a plate heat exchanger to a Antifreeze water solution that is pumpted into an liquid to air heat exchanger outside the building.4 large blowers cool the heat exchanger.
Immersion loads are used for testing electric chairs prior to an execution.the electrodes of the chair are connected to a tank containing salt water.If the water boils within 30 sec or so the chair is approved for use.Like that 220V immersion heater-like the electric chair-would work but dangerous to use.Radios can have one side of the chassis connected to the powerline-5 tube "series" sets-Depending how its plugged in-the chassis could be "hot" with 120V.and such radios had to be in a wood or plastic case with wood or plastic knobs.Later radios of this type had polarized plugs so it could be plugged into one way so the chassis was on the neutral side of the line.Some solid state radios were like that,too.I had one.Power transformer equipped radios didn't have this shock hazard problem.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember in testing electrical conductivity of various compounds in high school chemistry that distilled water did not conduct current. You had to add electrolytes to make it conductive. The most amazing thing was that as expected, dry salt crystals would not conduct current but salt, placed in a porcelain crucible and heated with two torches to the point where the salt actually became liquid, was conductive in its liquid state. This is not surprising given its chemical makeup, but actually getting salt hot enough to melt was an amazing thing to behold. We see salt dissolving all the time, but this was actual liquefaction from heat, passing from a solid to a liquid state; I don't know if it could technically be called melting.

 

[tolivac]

Thats correct-Dionized or distilled water is nonconductive-we use it as a primary coolant for parts such as tubes,coils,vacuum capacitors,and solid state modulators operating at high voltage.All of the transmitters here have a water conductivity monitors that monitors the conductivity of the water.If it goes over like 3Ma-the transmitter is shut down.The water and water filters then have to be replaced.some of the parts the water goes thru are at 30Kv.

 

[sudsmaster]

There is a metal cutting process called EDM - Electron Discharge Machining. In the wire method, a thin brass wire (about twice as thick as a human hair) is run from one reel to another, through a set of guides, and past the metal piece that is to be cut. The metal piece and the wire are submerged in highly purified water (deionized) so that the water is basically non-conductive. A very high voltage pulsed current is sent through the wire, and the small arc that forms burns away the metal in a fairly precise manner. These machines are not inexpensive and have lots of computer controls to keep the spark and the wire happy. And then over half the foot print of the machine is taken up by all the filters and plumbing to keep the water pure so that it has very high resistivity (low conductivity).

EDM is one of the best ways to cut through very hard metals. Ironically, the harder the metal, the better the Wire EDM works. Go figure!