To make a flowing water heater with your own hands is a great idea if you suffer from a lack of hot water in the summer or want to organize a shower in the country. You can make a flow machine yourself, because it is quite simple in structure. What you need to work and what stages to go through, you will learn in the article.
Flow heater device
We wrote in detail about how the boiler is arranged in the article “How to choose a flow-through water heater”.
We list the main nodes and consider the principle of operation. The body of the device is equipped with a flowing heater, which is placed in a protective flask, therefore it is practically not subject to scale. Water passes through the heater, reaching the optimum temperature. The advantages of this kind of work are that you can get hot water at any time.
To create an electric water heater, the most important thing is to purchase a heater. You have two options:
- Simple - buy a new item in a store. It is important to choose the right power: a conventional network will not withstand more than 5 kW, and for a cottage it is better to take 3-4 kW.
- To make a homemade heater.
What is needed to make a heater:
- Spiral (TEN).
- Copper tube for the manufacture of a protective housing.
- Two steel tubes with a ½ thread.
- Steel sheet 3 mm thick.
- Nichrome wire.
- Heat resistant adhesive.
- Corrosion-resistant paint.
- Gas-burner.
- Apparatus for welding.
- Bulgarian.
- Drill.
- Brush for metal.
- Sharp core.
- Electrodes
- A hammer.
How to make a heater yourself:
- Screw the spiral out of the copper pipe. Make at least three turns at a distance from each other.
When twisting, the tube may wrinkle on bends. To avoid this, we recommend filling the cavity with sand and closing the edges with plugs.
- Wrap the wire tightly around the tube so that there are no gaps between the turns. Fix on the ends with heat-resistant glue.
- To get more power, the spirals are powered in parallel. With a sequential power supply, heating will be worse.
- Then the element is placed in a copper tube and sealed.
To accurately manufacture an electrical appliance, it is necessary to calculate the materials.
Calculation for the manufacture of direct-flow heating elements
It is necessary to calculate the dimensions of the future heater, how much wire and copper pipes are required.
How much wire may you need? To take a shower with a normal pressure and heating the water, the power should be at least 5 kW. From the calculations below you can see the current strength:
P = IxU; I = P / U = 5000 W / 220V = 23 A
Therefore, in advance, take care of the normal wiring in the room. Better use a thick cable. Now calculate the indicators using this formula:
R (maximum resistance is 1.1 Ohm x mm² / m) = p (wire resistance) x L / S (cross-sectional area).
How to know the cross-sectional area? Only by calculation method:
S = πr² = 3.14x0.5² = 0.8 mm²
Wire length:
L = 8.8 / 1.4 = 6.2 m
Divide this number by the number of turns of the heater.
Suppose the dimensions of the tube are 10 mm and the thickness is 1 mm. When winding the wire in parallel, the distance between the turns should be 2 mm.
How to assemble a flow heater yourself
Before you begin assembly, prepare all the parts. The metal needs to be cleaned from rust, for this a drill with a brush head is used. Note that the diameter of the sheet must exceed the size of the bulb of the heater.
Mark the places on the sheet where the spiral will be located. Use a drill with a drill diameter larger than the heater foot. Make holes for fastening the bolts. Punch holes at the end of the product. They should be located exactly in the middle.
Make two sketches with a grinder. Follow the pattern and layout. In the second embodiment, holes are not needed. The result is the lower and upper part of the device. Then proceed as follows:
- Connect the part with the holes and the bulb of the heater. Make sure that all connections are tight, and then weld the parts to each other.
- Make sure that the length of the bulb does not exceed the size of the spiral more than 1.5 cm. Otherwise, you need to shorten it.
- In the pipe, make two holes for supplying water, top and bottom.
- Weld the pipe sections so that the threadless side faces the bulb.
For mechanical heating to work, you need to adjust the temperature. Therefore, install a thermostat next to the heater. The start button is best installed on the surface of the tank.
- Weld two bodies that have been cut from a sheet.
- Install a ground bolt inside the camera.
- Connect the device to water and run to check.
- Inspect how tightly soldered the parts are for leaks.
- If everything is in order, turn off the device, prime and paint the surface with anti-corrosion paint.
If desired, you can arrange gas or wood heating of the water. But then it is better to make a storage-flowing case.
A simple home-made device is not safe, so you need to constantly monitor its work, control the flow of water so that the heater does not work in vain. After all, this technique does not have protective sensors.