The Steamboating Forum

I haven't been able to find any good sources for design or orientation of Ofeldt boilers. Can anyone recommend anything?

I don't know of any literature on the Ofeldt Boiler, the Ofeldt Blue flame kerosene burner yes, but it's just a sales brochure pointing out it's feature, no real numbers on anything. Written in 1908 with warnings like "Better switch over to Kerosene now as Gasoline is getting hard to find and may soon be unavailable" Not much to go on.

Back to the boiler, I'm using one in my car and a few folks around are using them in boats. My Tug will have an Ofeldt eventually.

Here is a crude drawing I made which is mostly my work notes to see how the coils would fit around the drum. The center drum is 6" schedule 80 14" tall and the coils are wound from 10' of 1/4" pipe. With a 375k BTU Kerosene fire it will put out roughly 8 hp. The second from bottom picture is my friends boiler, 3/8" copper coils brazed in to steel nipples, he runs that in a car with two Locomobile engines and it makes ample steam, with respect to teh gearing . This is very easy to build in that manner. Original patent is posted as well. Or if you're really ambitious, the last picture is a twin Ofeldt design, reportedly working very well.

-Ron

Hi Ron,

thank you for the pictures.

Hi Tom,

some drawings are available from Reliable Steam Engine Co.. There you can find also some drawings of burners and boiler controls.

The invention of Mr. Ofeldt is in my opinion the inner steam separator shown in the first picture because the outer design of such a watertube boiler first was offered by SIMPSOM & STRICKLAND in 1907 in a catalogue. That was the inspiration for me to built my LOCKENWICKLER.



It works very good.


Best Dietrich

What a beautiful little boiler, looks like it would be perfect for a canoe size steamer.

Quote: "The invention of Mr. Ofeldt is in my opinion the inner steam separator shown in the first picture because the outer design of such a watertube boiler first was offered by SIMPSOM & STRICKLAND in 1907 in a catalogue."

The design with vertical center drum and vertical coils around it's circumference belongs to Ofeldt. The Ofeldt's were geniuses that held many patents, mostly on steam apparatus. Here are a few of their patents from 1900 ~. They eventually started building steam cleaners when there was no more demand for steam vehicle components and that company survives until this day. The Jenny products group, or "Steam Jenny".







-Ron

Hi Fred,

What a beautiful little boiler, looks like it would be perfect for a canoe size steamer.

you are right. There is enough steam to run a 32 x 38 mm double acting twin at 6 bar (84 psi) with 600 rpm.

It can also supply my 2 HP steam engine (HASBROUK #10) at low rpm to test its function.
How does it work - https://youtu.be/AgGv3aA5R78


Best Dietrich

Dietrich,

Nice boiler and engine, very good workmanship. That would be a great boiler for a steam bike.

-Ron

Thanks for all of the excellent replies.

Based on what I've read and seen from you all, Ofeldts are really good for fast steaming. I'm still in the middle of deciding between using an Ofeldt and a 3-drum (Yarrow?) boiler, and based on what I've read it's probably going to come down to ease of construction and suitability for coal firing, as bituminous coal is pretty easy to get here in Oklahoma through the local steam organizations.

I'll be placing an order tomorrow with Reliable for their Ofeldt plans.

--Thom

If it's for a steamboat, and you're coal firing, go for the Yarrow. They're somewhat bigger and heavier than the Ofeldts for the same steaming capacity, and the time to reach pressure is a little worse, but the real point is that Yarrows are very easy for external tube cleaning, which you'll need to do fairly regularly, and for tube replacement, which you shouldn't have to do very often.

Yes, I know, steam lances are quite good at tube cleaning, but having used one quite a lot, they do have their limitations, whereas brushing always works.

RGSP wrote:If it's for a steamboat, and you're coal firing, go for the Yarrow. They're somewhat bigger and heavier than the Ofeldts for the same steaming capacity, and the time to reach pressure is a little worse, but the real point is that Yarrows are very easy for external tube cleaning, which you'll need to do fairly regularly, and for tube replacement, which you shouldn't have to do very often.

Yes, I know, steam lances are quite good at tube cleaning, but having used one quite a lot, they do have their limitations, whereas brushing always works.

Thanks for the advice. Do you know of anywhere that sells plans for a Yarrow?