I picked up a 4500 watt 208 water heater element today cheap. I need to make a steem generator for wood bending and was thinking of using this element in a tank. My calcs say it would draw 21.6 amps at 208 volts, for an effective resistance of 9.63 ohms. At 115 volts it should draw 12 amps and produce 1380 watts? and at 230 volts it should draw 23.8 amps and produce 5500 watts? It takes about 3700 watts to boil 1KG of water in 10 minutes so it should take 26 minutes to boil off 1kg of water at 1380 watts, and 1 kg of water is one liter and will produce 1700 liters if steam at atmospheric pressure and 100C.
This should be adequate I think - steam bending 3/8" thick X 14" elm in a 2 foot by 5 foot plastic "barrel".
Did I calculate this correctly guys?