(again)steam from water using a 12volt car cig. lighter?

Question

i am trying to make steam using a car cig lighter. the water is in a 8x3x2 plastic container that is hand held with a hole at one end.i am looking for something to put inside the plastic container to heat the water and turn it into steam,the steam will come out of the hole.something that will turn the water to steam very fast.can you hepl now?

Answer 1

You might start with one or more 12 volt beverage heaters like this one: http://www.skingcompany.com/Cooking_and_Kitchen-RPBH_012_Road_Pro_12_Volt_Beverage_Heater-P58.aspx

The description says that it is rated 120 watts and draws 10 amps. I believe that it actually uses 120 watts of power when plugged in to a car’s cigarette lighter socket when the car is running. The voltage with the car running is about 15 volts and the current for 120 watts would be about 8 amps. If the battery voltage is about 12.5 volts, the heater will produce less than 90 watts. That is enough power to start boiling 150 milliliters of water in about 10 minutes, but considering that the container needs to be heated along with the water and some heat is lost, it will take at least twice that long. Once the water starts to boil, 90 watts is enough to make a gram of steam every couple of minutes not considering heat lost. A typical car battery will run one of these heaters for about 10 hours.

These little heaters will boil water in a plastic cup, but they need to stay covered with water. Without water, they will get too hot, melt the plastic, and the heater itself will fail due to the heat. You can buy more powerful 12 volt heater elements (600 watts I think) that are replacement parts for recreational vehicle tank water heaters. Before experimenting with one of those, you should learn how to do the math involved in the design and understand the difficulties that you will encounter.

Answer 2

While water heaters for use in a car are available, I see a need to ask just what you are going to use this steam for? If it is heat something, such as coffee, you don't need to generate steam. Hot water at 110 degrees would do just fine. Your plastic container is going to get very hot, to hot to hold in your hand for steam generation. The plastic, unless designed for those temperatures is going to fail as well, either from melting, or exploding should you inadvertently generate to much steam to quickly. If your intent is to use the steam to drive something, forget it, the efficiency just is not there. You have much better efficiency by using the engine of the vehicle as designed. If you want to have an alternative power source that works then a better plan would be to build a wood gas generator. The designs are proven, and work very well since they were used in Europe and to some extent in the states during WW2 with gas being rationed as it was. Mother Earth News has a plans for a wood gas generator, and there are other places to get designs for fuel generators.
You'll burn a lot more fuel trying to make steam from a 12 volt power source than if you use that power source as it was designed to be used. A 12 volt battery by itself would only last a few minutes, not nearly long enough to do any really useful work.

Answer 3

Hopefully not the actual lighter element! That wouldn't be good for more than a few drops of water at a time. You'd do best by calculating how much energy you need to raise that water to 212 deg f. Also, I doubt a plastic container would do a very good job. How about using a 16 oz 'tin' can from the supermarket? That and a heater coil sized to do the job on a reasonable amount of current, and you'll be set.

Answer 4

It seems you have about 3/4 of a cup of water. Your heating element would have to have a resistance of about 1.5 ohms. You could make such a coil out of nichrome wire.

You could purchase a car water heater though, Try Car Water Heater on the Internet. I saw one for about $23.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Do the math. How much steam, not water vapor, do you think you can generate with a 12 volt car battery?

Answer 7

You need to get a heating element that will not blow the fuse in the car. In order to do this, I would look for something like an automotive defroster that you plug in and take the heating element out of it.