Water water everywhere...

[ninge]

Hi,

I'm new here - please be gentle!

I'm currently expecting delivery of my very first steam loco and I'm wondering what i should do for water to fill the little beastie when it arrives.

I've seen it mentioned in many places that filling the boiler with tap water is not exactly recommended.. but what would be the best solution for me?

- I live in a flat (no garden - which might be tricky for building my own line ) so while rainwater sounds great it's no good to me as i don't have any way to collect it.

- Is filtered water ok? Could i just use a britta filter or similar?

- I have a couple of fish tanks and often get RO (reverse osmosis) water from the local fish shop - would this be ok to use?

All advice welcome!

[SLRmidge]

Hi ninge, I think it depends on where you live as 'hard' water can cause scaling (like in kettles) & causes problems for our little steamers. The water round here is relatively 'soft' & 'Ive personally had no problems using it for 5 years now....

[ninge]

Doh! I should have mentioned that - Definitely hard water here.

It's the main reason for relying on using RO water for the fish tanks, and the inside of our kettle looks pretty terrible

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

yup, we have the hardest water in the country. I use rain water which is collected in a large bucket with a piece of fine cloth strapped over the top of it to filter out the large muck. Then this is run through a britta filter and then used. It seems to work ok but I do have to wash out my boilers once a year - you should see the crud that comes out of them! This is prototypicle!!

[mhlr]

Same as Keith, I use Dehumidifier water, keeps your flat free of any damp, and runs yer steam engine! I always drain out my boilers after running sessions anyway, but Britta filtered water or whatever should be ideal.

Welcome by the way! What steam dragon have yer purchased?

[ninge]

That's excellent - time to purchase a dehumidifier for the flat then

I've purchased a Ragleth - I wanted something simple to run and with scope for a bit of tinkering with the way it looked for my first loco.

I was going to get an edrig and one of the baldrig kits but then they announced ragleth and i figured that would be a good starting point.

I've already built a bit of rolling stock using Andel kits and have a binnie skip and a brandbright coach to build before the loco arrives - will take some pics and post what i've done so far tomorrow when i get back home!

[Narrow Minded]

Now then, I can't double-check until I get home, but when I bought a water filter from Wilko's and read the small print it looked suspiciously like the filter had a "de-ionising" efect on the water

Consequently I haven't used it and stuck with my rain water filtering plant
Can anyone set my mind at rest that the water filter is safe to use?

Also, what size dehumidifier are you using (to produce a decent amount of water) Pete / Keith? - ie which one do I price up in Argos or wherever?

[ninge]

Many thanks for the help!

As promised i've stuck a few pictures in the photographs thread of my work so far

you can find them here: http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/sutra40790.php#top

[Narrow Minded]

Having checked the packaging of the "Brita" filters, it definitely states that there's an Ion Exchanger layer built into them.

Does anyone know for sure if this is producing de-ionised water?

I'd love to use it for loco boiler water but having heard the horror stories attached to using de-ionised water (attacking the silver soldered joints), I'm reluctant.

Anyone?????????????

[Sir Clothem Cap]

Hi Ninge, I have built a rainwater harvesting system and then filter the wateranyway. If you are local to portsmouth area your welcome to a gallon or two if you bring your own bottles! My system is on my website.