Show me your kettles

[marinesteam]

After getting to experience the enjoyment of a nice cup of tea while steaming down Coniston water it seems that a Windermere kettle is a must have on my future vessel. Since my mind was wondering toward such subject I thought I'd ask.

I'm assuming that Windermere Kettles are improvised items but forgot to get details, I get the impression that it's basically a steam coil inside of a pot of some kind, preferably with a spigot. What makes for a good installation? What should I be looking for base fabric to make one from? Coffee urns?

Please include pics.

Thanks

Ken

[Edward]

Dear Ken ,

Most are made from brass or copper , the advantages are that these materials are reasonably easily worked and to most peoples' eyes are good looking . The disadvantages are that the finished kettle needs polishing and as any water which stands in a cuprous container for a while will become contaminated with copper the inside should probably be tinned . If you have the tap/valve/spigot at the very bottom and always drain and then refill the kettle before use I think it's pretty unlikely that you'll get copper poisoning .
People have used almost any vessel which looks nice , samovars , urns and just plain old pots . A stainless steel cooking pot would serve well and the outside would look nice lagged with wooden strips .

The coil(s) can be either flat in a pancake shape or compound like the wound spiral filaments in a tungsten light bulb ; the simplest solution is to coil the pipe into two pancakes one above the other : admit the steam into the lower coil and exhaust it from the upper one . This element should be as close to the bottom of the kettle as practical .
The exhaust can go anywhere ,but if fresh make up water is an issue it should go into the hotwell or condenser .

In order to extract the maximum heat from the steam put a slight constriction in the system , the easiest way is to put a small "nip" in the pipe just before the exit from the kettle .

Most of the difficulty is in finding nice looking small spigots . I know of one British steamboater who found the tap he liked and made the kettle for it years before he started on a boat .

Regards Edward .

[Mike Rometer]

I don't think copper poisoning is much of an issue as most domestic water pipes are copper these days (starting to be plastic) and tinning it could lead to lead poisoning.

If make-up water is an issue I advise care with where you pour the 'tea' after you've drunk it.

[steamboatjack]

The kettles are "tinned" with Tin not solder.
Regards
Jack

[gondolier88]

Ken,

Solder with lead in it is pretty uncommon now anyway as it's illegal to use on potable pipework in most countries, so soft solder is fine for tinning purposes, tinning the inside also caulks the seams if the pot or whatever was designed to be of decorative use rather than practical.

Copper used in potable supplies is of strict copper %'es and has to be to state Standards, decorative items are not guaranteed to be 100% copper, and other alloys may not be suitable for leaving hot water in for periods of time, hence tinning is essential.

Brass taper plug cocks with a water tap outlet are fairly common, and with a mahogany/teak handle with a brass ferrule can look very upmarket indeed- the only problem with cocks is that they can jam open as the spindle expands quicker than the body when subject to instant boiling water- however, although I'm yet to see it done, I can;t see why modern PTFE sleeved taper cocks couldn't be utilised, it's amazing what a nice handle can do for a fairly mediocre looking valve.

I would be tempted to go the route Edward suggests, however put the steam into the top coil and exhaust out of the bottom, as this makes far better use of the heat.

As Edward points out, the drawback with Copper/Brass kettles is their propensity to require polishing as soon as you use them- this could be got around by making the kettle out of a stainless cooking pan (which would also come with a well fitting concentric lid, of course), insulatethe outside with 1/2" ceramic wool, then wrap a Copper cylinder of 15/16" larger diameter than the cooking pan around the lagging and you now also have a flask as well as an insulated kettle (from little fingers, as well as cooling air), not only that, but if you insulated the underside of a loose fitting copper lid (there for appearance only) I'm sure you could probably get away with boiling the kettle far less than is required normally, as well as only having to polish the copper to stop it oxidising through contact with air/rain etc.

Greg

[Mike Rometer]

If I remember correctly the term "tinning" is an old one and a misnomer, as tin on its own will not flow on the surface, so requires a quantity of lead and antimony to be included, so is in effect solder. Lead-free solder is a totally different, more modern, matter.

[fredrosse]

As to tinning without lead, all of the modern "lead free" plumbing solders will wet very well on copper, but I think tinning would be unnecessary, since there is so very much copper piping in domestic water distribution, virtually none of it is "tinned".

There are any number of silver plated tea kettles available on e-bay (or copper if you wish) that would work well. Set on a wood pedestal, or hanging by the handle on a hook, with stainless or copper heating coil attached to the steamboat boiler. Prices range fron $10 USD upward. One would simply fill the kettle with water, place it in the heating coil position, and turn on the steam. Several cups of heated water is produced very quickly, (in a matter of seconds) then the kettle pedestal can be swung out of the way (or kettle unhooked from its support) and the hot water kettle is ready for use to make tea. I like the concept of having no modifications required of the kettle, and just a small coil (a few turns of 1/4 inch OD tube to be submerged into the kettle) permenantly attached to the boiler auxiliary steam supply. Condensate could be directed wherever conveinent. Is this arrangement commonly used?

[Lopez Mike]

I've been a passenger several times on Uno, owned by Stephanie Hylton of Lopez island. Her tea heating arrangement follows Fred's idea mostly and works wonderfully well.

There is a coil of small stainless steel tubing self supported from a valve on her boiler. The tubing is perhaps 1/16" I.D., I'm guessing at ten turns, 1 1/2" diameter and the same long. The beginning and end of the coil are at the top and the open end is directed away from personnel.

She holds a cup of water out and up such that the coil is submerged in the water. She cracks the valve a bit and within seconds the cup of water is boiling. This happens so quickly that with three cups of tea to be made, she spends more time fussing with bags and treacle than she spends holding the cups in place.

For myself, I plan on finding an elegant tea urn with a decent sized opening and using it unmodified with just such a heating coil. Perhaps a bit larger coil. That way I'm not fabricating something that would be, with my skills, horrible looking and it can be washed out easily. A nice little platform with modest fiddles to hold the urn while it is heating and afterwords and I think I will be ready for pretty much any eventuality.

[marinesteam]

I like Stephanie's idea, it's like the electric single cup immersion heaters of old... like this http://www.rei.com/product/781694/rei-i ... ter-120240

I watched the SBA cd "Vanessa 2010" again over the weekend and remembered one of the places that I had seen a kettle that I liked. This photo http://www.steamboatassociation.org.uk/ ... Id=1117882 in the SBA register shows Vanessa's kettle. It's a simple straight sided pot with a nice lid & spigot, nice and not frilly. I seem to think that I have seen this similar vessel in pics of other boats. Does anyone have any background on this particular kettle? I'm not sure if Vaness'a owner is on this forum

Ken

[gondolier88]

Ken,

I don't think Vanessa's owner is on the forum, yet.

That is simply a Windermere Kettle through and through, copper cylinder with brass wire handles, spun lid with turned wooden/brass handle, steam pipework entirely hidden and a quarter-turn brass taper plug cock with a modified mahogany handle.

Windermere Kettles are an invention devised to boil water in an elegant yet simple way for on steam launches on Windermere. It was made the way it was because it was a feature of the boat, SL Branksome's kettle will probably hold about 2gal for example! It was traditionally placed on the boiler casing of the Loco-boilered Windermere launches, as can be seen here on Shamrock;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... _n6b_Uj_9g

Gondola's can also be seen in the left half of the frame of this video too;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... x99uriIwFo

Greg