Strange one for you ...

[danny7299]

I have a customer that uses some water steamers , he wants to be able to control the steam so he would like to reduce the voltage going to the 3kw element , therfore ruducing the amount of steam , any pointers ?

 

[Zeespark]

Anywhere with water around I would want IP/ELV wiring, dont know if this is much help to you Danny.

AndyGuinness

 

[revjames]

I may be missing something here but isnt that why we have thermostats?

not talking about voltage reduction but switching and controlling temperature which in turn controls amount of steam? otherwise I would suggest a more accurate method such as a controller and thermocouple (Omron for example)

 

[danny7299]

Well the steamers are made for the job , and they have 3kw 230v elements in , all rcd protected , just wondering how to go about controlling the element temp , so you can control the steam ...

 

[danny7299]

I may be missing something here but isnt that why we have thermostats?not talking about voltage reduction but switching and controlling temperature which in turn controls amount of steam? otherwise I would suggest a more accurate method such as a controller and thermocouple (Omron for example)

It's an idea ... I am just looking at the option that I have been asked for ... I guess there must be a reason ? I think they want a gental simmer rather than a full out boil

 

[ProDave]

Do the people that make the steamers not make any controls?

If you really do need to control the power (rather than on/off thermostat control) then the only thing I can think of are industrial temperature controllers that usually work in burst firing mode, and work with some form of temperature sensor. Won't be cheap though.

 

[revjames]

Voltage control is complicated and IMO not neccesary, a thermocouple feeding a controller and a solid state relay switching the element current would work well. Industrial hat on as this is how I remember controlling temps on plastic injection moulding machines.