Battery powered water bottle boiler?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

What are some ideas for a mobile water boiler, like a kettle but much smaller and runs on batteries? It would be very useful to be able to take some cold water from a tap and turn it into boiling water some minutes later.

Would a 100-200w element be enough to boil a litre or two of water? I could keep the battery pack in a PVC pipe and just have some crocodile wires hanging off one of the ends of the pipe. It would look basically like a PVC pipe but with both ends sealed and some wires hanging off it. Could probably even make 2-3 of these and attach them together and stick them in a backpack, or just put them on the back of the backpack, all 3 PVC pipes joined together.

So do you think this would be feasible? Or just a waste of time and money? I’ve been fantasizing doing something like this for months now…

2

Bored? Maybe read something. Exercise your mind.

3

Maybe you could rig it all up to a pressure cooker. Also, make sure you mutter “Allahu Akbar” a lot while you carry it. Should be fine.

4

Actually, I recommend doing the math to exercise your mind, OP.

My off-the-cuff calculations (using Google to find tools to do the calculations) tells me your batter pack would need two pounds of lithium-ion batteries to power a 200w immersion heater for 1/2 hour to boil up 2l of water from room temperature. One time, after which your battery pack is (A) flat and (B) probably damaged from being completely discharged. But Li-ion is just about your only choice, since almost everything else has much worse energy density (so you’ll have to carry a 7-pound battery pack of Ni-Cd rechargeables.) Maybe NiMH, which looks like a 3-pound battery pack and maybe less dangerous in case of rough handling.

5

You have a tap for the water but no electric outlet handy? Batteries don’t make sense. A small propane or liquid fuel based heater would work. Campers do it all the time.

6

Here’s one that works with a car battery. Might not be able to crank your car afterwards, though.

7

Is this for a camping trip, or for a steampunk project? If it’s for camping, I second TriPolar’s point: Fuel combustion is much more efficient than batteries in that context. Even a small charcoal or wood fire can boil water if you’ve got a container and time. (For example, see this camping samovar.)Or, make tea or whatever you want in advance and store it in a thermos. Over the short term, it’s easier to keep a liquid warm than heat it up from cold.

If it’s a steampunk project, go nuts. Just be careful and don’t burn yourself :slight_smile: