The Best Mushroom Growing Steam Generator You Can Make?

[@dr-bl8ph]

Your videos on building these large scale sterilizers are the only ones that have helped me understand how these things actually work and because of you I have also learned how to install a 240v outlet in my house so thank you for the new knowledge!

[@OakandSpore]

Good stuff! And thanks for the support

[@Italo_is_Lost_again]

It is a big "Morel" boost to see that you are recovering well. Awesome boiler, pretty "fungi" too! Okay, lame puns apart, we are all thankful for the video. Keep up the good work keeping us inspired.

[@OakandSpore]

You should be arrested over the quality of those puns..

[@naturalsurvival1536]

@@OakandSpore They definitely should be placed in a PUNitentiary.

[@OakandSpore]

Maybe you'll go to jail. Maybe you'll have a cell mate, maybe you'll write a book. You can call it "MY CELL, and LIAM, my cellmate"

[@naturalsurvival1536]

@@OakandSpore Oof.

[@blairandersen8414]

Hi a Big thanks to Oak and Spore im all new to this but im also a st/steel fabricator so yep i made mine and put in a few changes.. bigger diameter steam output pipes and a 3kw element also has a 2kw element in the body aswell but havnt wired up yet. The body was made from 2mm st/steel and i ended up high temp silicone and bolting lid down as i used a 11/4 socket my id of output hose is around 28mm 30mm so since its going to atmosphere no pressure should build but will still put a safety valve in later,, im using just under 4ltrs of water p/hr and for the now just have a 25ltr drum gravity feeding unit which will change to a 100ltr drum so i dont have to get up and refill late at night and will soon make it so my condensate can return back to it to save more energy as feeding in preheated water will turn to steam alot quicker but in saying that it heated my drum to 100 degrees C in bang on 1 hour. Great ideas and well worth your knowledge thankyou again..will update you on any big changes.

[@nielvanzyl]

Well done mate, that there is one sexy boiler👍

[@OakandSpore]

I do like sexy...

[@viktormorris194]

Awesome build! Your vids inspired me to build something similar but ended up adding 2 pressure relief valves to replace the weight on top. Only uped efficiency ~3-5% but well worth it imo. Thank you and keep up the awesome work

[@OakandSpore]

5% is still a good increase!

[@itsSHIRAAZ]

Why 2 pressure relief valves?

[@pollopollo3531]

Cool design I like it!

[@OakandSpore]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@Rickgrant1984]

Impressive! I’ll be building one soon. Thanks for the video.

[@OakandSpore]

No worries!

[@davidonion4150]

What did you use to attach the insulated board? Glue of some type?

[@williamvallejo5976]

Hey there, so where do you get the box itself? I am definitely looking to do this, but I can't see that info is it provided in the plans n where to get it? If I know this info, I will buy the plans for sure 😎

[@dimitriboon7225]

Hello. Would it be feasible to use an horizontal freezer as a basis? Generally it is insulated and quite airtight, no. If one takes low cost version or a second hand, the cost is minimal and the work not more than making sure the cover seals well and a steam tap is fitted. Thank you for the advice.

[@germanudo1]

What gage Steel did you use?

[@garfunkle660]

How much in materials and services did you pay for someone to make the steam generator? And what sized space can you sterilize with it

[@jackthemuss2493]

Yeah nice one mate, I love how small it is and 18 percent is 18cents off the dollor.

[@OakandSpore]

100% that's the efficiency I was aiming for. Bring small, easy to insulate, and easy to seal does wonders for the steam output.

[@88Xcreative]

i bought this online. looks really good, but you have electrical samples?

[@1972taco]

Nice video. How is your arm. You had surgery, the operation succeeded?

[@OakandSpore]

Yeah mate, operation done as dusted. Sling for 6 weeks then start physio...

[@1972taco]

@@OakandSpore good news. I hope for you and you wife that your arm will heal properly.

[@tinyrick9376]

If you cut a hole in the top plate you have weighted down, you can add another tri clamp port to the top and utilize a stainless PRV. If you make it removable, it could double as your fill port. Then you just sanitary weld that top plate down. They even have spunding valves that you can regulate the pressure with.

[@OakandSpore]

I had thought about that, installing a 2psi PRV. But the method I used was the simplest and cheapest. I might make alterations in the future.

[@YADA70073]

how much KW of heater?

[@michaelleewagaman301]

Hey one armed band. Glad to see your getting back in the game. Video request. Explain how you get constant flushes. Thats where i am stuck at. They fruit all at once or sporadic. Even though i follow the same cycles. Time in incubation chamber and into the fruiting chamber.

[@user-sn5uw7it5u]

Got the blueprints! Also, for the water level switch and temperature switch at 5:46, where did you end up installing them? And did you need to drill new holes for them? And do you mind providing the shopping links for them too? Cheers :)

[@OakandSpore]

google part number 2455R 9082-463 L110C I will install it right next to the element on the outside. Opens at 110c, which will stop the boiler.

[@marcusjay8103]

Very VERY nice dude Anyway you could explain how the boiler gets its water supply, is it hooked up to a gravity fed water supply that works with the stopcock? Also, think I could do this with an old chest freezer as already super insulated.. Build a false bottom with a water outlet for if it starts to build up? Would love to know more as bulk pasteurisation is slowing me down soooo much, its preventing me from expanding the business. Cheers for any help buddy

[@bjoernsk85]

Awesome boiler! I would however, suggest to have the lid spring loaded instead of weighted down. That way you can easily adjust the force pushing down on the lid, simply by turning a screw, and you won't risk the weight falling off halfway through a long sterilization process.

[@CMZneu]

I would suggest some more safety features, like a hinge and loose latch or something idk, cause it's gonna be a bad time for anyone is near that thing if the weight falls off.

[@OakandSpore]

There is near no pressure, so if the weight falls off, only a little steam comes out the top. Pressurized boilers are the real dangerous ones.

[@cosmicbear88-23]

@@OakandSpore I was curious why you aren't using a pressure steamer? i know heat sterilizes fine, but wouldn't containing the pressure use less water and take less time?

[@OakandSpore]

Its costly getting something large to hold steam pressure. There are also a lot of laws around pressure vessels, they need to be inspected and approved because they are very lethal in the event of a rupture.

[@cosmicbear88-23]

@@OakandSpore ok thanks for the information!!

[@CMZneu]

Gonna be honest my first thought was "there's a reason boilers are usually round" but it's not really containing much pressure so it should be fine and easier to insulate with that stuff you are using, also looks great!

[@OakandSpore]

This one can't overpressure

[@astonmcleod5344]

Excellent engineering, would a wall paper steam generator suffice, or even a home sauna unit, could be modified to have continuous water???

[@OakandSpore]

I have thought about that, but unsure how they would go with boiling steam for such long periods.

[@kanaaleilanden]

I dont know this fella.. but i know when he smiles he has a bad day

[@SaphoSheep]

My God it's beautiful, I've laid eyes on it for 15 seconds and already I'd drop almost any sum on this. Also props to whomever manufactured that for ya, real top notch work. Any estimate on cost for the total build?

[@OakandSpore]

The fabrication is the most expensive part, and stainless fabrication generally isn't cheap. I got 2 quotes, and the varied by a whopping $350 USD! The fabricators I used were about $550 USD.

[@blairandersen8414]

@@OakandSpore just lucky I happen to be a stainless steel fabricator aye...love you vids keep them coming and when this covid is done with i wouldnt mind coming down from Auckland and meeting you in person if possible..

[@OakandSpore]

You're a fabricator in Auckland?

[@blairandersen8414]

@@OakandSpore yes i am have been so for 30yrs

[@blairandersen8414]

I will email you my number

[@inkablue23]

I appreciated the highlighting of boomer skills with the visual graph aid. I now understand their contribution to society

[@OakandSpore]

I am a visual learner ;)

[@MindCrime550]

8:13 a submerged electrical water heater is essentially 100% efficient at converting electricity to heat 1:1 While you could get more energy into the system for less money by burning fuel it won't have the same energy conversion efficiency as a submerged heater. If this system is solar powered (pv or thermal) it is way better than burning a fuel in terms of clean and green.

[@OakandSpore]

yes I figure it was 100%, but I read thing online saying they aren't quite 100%. I think limescale buildup actually lowers the efficiency somehow.

[@RKBrumbelow]

So long as you are not converting to steam. The phase transition is causing a fairly large hit, and any steam escaping magnifies the effect. (In other words you are more correct than you might have supposed) As to the lime issue, minerals in the water are going to be problematic to the degree the minerals precipitate out and the insulation it causes. One possibility would be to run it in 2 stages. Run stage one under the precipitation curve, this distilling the water and running a second element to step the temperature up to steam, if steam is fully necessary. The first stage water will get heavier as minerals are left behind, but the lime scaling should be reduced. A regular cleaning with vinegar or some other mild acid would extend element life. I have not run the maths on any of this, it is simply off the cuff thoughts.

[@neogeo8267]

How are you planning on wiring the safety switches into the elements? I suppose you'll use a low-voltage & isolated relay or similar?

[@OakandSpore]

The switches will shut off the PID Controller.

[@the_jerf]

How about doing something similar with a 30L keg? It's already sealed, then you could get the tri-clamp ferrules stainless welded on?

[@OakandSpore]

Sounds like it would work!

[@joshuawanji4854]

Wow! You able to make and sell to people? Interested to buy one.

[@OakandSpore]

Yes we can. Send me an email.

[@neogeo8267]

You can build a custom heat-pump boiler and use it to cool your house while boiling your water ;) Can be about 4x more efficient as resistive heating (eg you can get 4kw heat into the water for 1kw of pump operation). Love your videos.

[@EasyX2y]

heat pumps usually cant cook water

[@neogeo8267]

@@EasyX2y two stage can absolutely boil water

[@EasyX2y]

@@neogeo8267 i said usually, i doubt these are cheap/readily available. Also they are less efficient. But yeah if you have them available at a price point feasable, why not.

[@Jeffery_Saulter]

Did you have a look at sauna steam generators? You can pick them up for around $300 and look very similar to your box design generator

[@OakandSpore]

I've looked at that, but unsure how hot the steam is.

[@aomeigao7568]

Hello, can you cultivate any kind of wild mushroom

[@OakandSpore]

Not really. Some you can't really grow in a controlled environment

[@MrConfrontation]

What size pipe and tri-clamps are you running for the pipe work.

[@OakandSpore]

1.5inch

[@SkidMarkSmeller]

How is this steamer working out for you? Could you attach the steamer to a horse water trough and steam the trough?

[@OakandSpore]

It's brilliant! I use it every week.

[@SkidMarkSmeller]

@@OakandSpore omg 😱 you answered me! I think your famous! Thanks keep the videos coming I love them and so does everyone else

[@romainarnoux]

Hi mate it's always a pleasure watching your vids thx a lot. However I was wondering how you control the temp inside the chamber. How can you stay around 80 Deg ? Cheers.

[@OakandSpore]

Inside my sterilizer chamber? I have a thermocouple inside the chamber connected to a PID controller.

[@romainarnoux]

@@OakandSpore sweet. Where is it physically placed in the chamber? I'm asking coz the steam is very hot way above 80. Are you placing the thermal sensor inside a bag?

[@OakandSpore]

The sensor is in the top of the sterilizing tank, above the blocks. The steam is pumped into the bottom of the tank.

[@romainarnoux]

@@OakandSpore thank you ! I'll start a mushroom business in France by the end of the year and your explanations are really useful. Mush love !

[@pauloantunes8826]

How many hours do you run your sterilizer?

[@OakandSpore]

around 20 after it's warmed up.

[@pauloantunes8826]

@@OakandSpore OMG really? I did my first batch yesterday and I had it run for 6 hours, I guess the first batch gonna contaminate real bad. Inoculated with P Eryngii 5%

[@OakandSpore]

You might be alright. To be honest I haven't found reliable data on how long you need yo run the for, plus the temperature plays a huge part in now long you need.

[@pauloantunes8826]

@@OakandSpore Another youtuber does it for 12-14 hours and he has a couple of all-American sterilizers. I will share with you my results later. Great content BTW

[@pollopollo3531]

@@pauloantunes8826 the goal is a core temperature of 200f for 6-8 hours. Use a temp probe on your next run

[@oloizosqoloizos337]

Hey man,great job,building our own mushroom farm w m brother,we bought your plans,and so far so good, Just we stuck to the modification of the floater arm,could you share the specifics about it?our original was a straight line,but in one of your videos we saw that you "warped" it in a different shape(or that model came out like that).we either end up having the floater sphere to low to start running water so its touching the element,or it is to high and the floater doesn't stop .maybe its the floater model/design after all.thanks anyway!!!be well!

[@OakandSpore]

There is a float model which fits really well into the boiler. Just needs a little bending to adjust perfectly. It should be linked in the description. Send me an email if you are still unsure.

[@EasyX2y]

you could save about 10% or more by preheating the water intake with a cheap DIY solar water heater, this could shorten the startup time and while running you need to have a good system that can heat 3.4l per minute as close to 100c as possible. Also bags could be filled with hot water (solar heated) and instantly stored in the tank? So less time to heat them up, but not sure if that fits into the workflow, the insulation could keep the heat for a while though.

[@olliemarkota8440]

Does the 2500W generate enough steam for the size of your tank? Must take a while to get up to temp? What did you use (size element) in your old boiler setup?

[@bgladish12]

Wondering the same

[@treetalker76]

What about solar radiant heat powered steam boiler?

[@OakandSpore]

Like with PV panels? You would need a huge battery to store the energy and power it.

[@treetalker76]

@@OakandSpore I was thinking a large parabolic mirror boiling water?

[@OakandSpore]

You might have prohibitive setup costs, and it might not work on a cloudy winters day.

[@treetalker76]

@@OakandSpore youtube has videos on making parabolic mirrors out of cheap mylar. How many days of sun is how many days of free steam. It may work moderately even in cloudy days. On those days you can always suppliment with electricity?

[@taskos1261]

Hey mate i am grately inspired by your content and i am try to build an almost the same setup, i would like to ask you how long does it take with your 2.5kw element to heat your tank ( i suppose 1000lit) and if that power is doubled would that time be proportionally reduced?

[@OakandSpore]

About 10 hours when its around 60% full (60 x 5kg bags) if you doubled that, it would effectively half the heat up time. Its all about how face you can get joules of heat into it.

[@taskos1261]

@@OakandSpore Thanks a lot for the info Tom, i just purchased the blueprint and i have some questions should i post here or better by e mail?

[@OakandSpore]

Send an email!

[@greggbennett1750]

Just about to build some sort of steam contraption closely based on your methods. One thing though is why don't you use the condensed water to feed it back into the boiler so that it doesn't need to heat fresh water from say 20-100c but instead heats 95c water to 100. I remember on another video you mentioned the energy that it takes from 1-100 is 1/5 the energy to get it from 100 to steam but that's still potential wasted energy. Unless it is really really negligible?

[@OakandSpore]

I't quite negligible. The cost of setting it up to recoup would be more expensive than the cost of just using a bit more power to heat the water.

[@joepolignone9766]

Could you use it To steam crabs

[@joepolignone9766]

Could you steam crabs with it

[@sam-ev3df]

Why don't you use a coal fired boiler? How much does it cost to get one of these fabricated?

[@OakandSpore]

Because I don't like coal.

[@FreeAsABirdSydneyAustralia]

😂 love the dry commentary on the boomers 😂

[@TimDonk]

If not for slow shipping, I'd be steaming substrate bags already. I've uploaded a video of the build so far, but I have to figure out how to tag you in it.

[@TimDonk]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/onu9fqRvj71loc0

[@PPP-on3vl]

What it does?

[@kbbb4227]

reminds me of a fuel tank on a sail boat.

[@themyceliumnetwork]

that's a lot of math your doing with your arm, slow down buddy & let it heal up some & remember that when those boomers hear your comments there going to want to whack you with a stick & your going to need that arm LOL great video & great design, please take care of yourself so that you heal up as quickly as possible.

[@OakandSpore]

Send me your healing vibes! I'm resting as much as I can. Resting = computer games, so it's not all that bad.

[@ehbarooo]

Look like a sauna steam generator

[@Catzillator]

Hey I'm here to thanks for the content but get well soon okay?

[@OakandSpore]

I'm healing as fast as my body will go! Shame there's no mycelium that can stitch up a wound..

[@IronJohn755]

Apparently all you need to grow a modest amount of oyster mushrooms is basically everything about electricity, thermodynamics, sterile lab culture, construction, mycology, marketing, business management, etc. etc. etc.

[@OakandSpore]

I know, simple right!

[@IronJohn755]

@@OakandSpore Holy sh$% brother. I think I'll stick to "mushroom hobbyist" but major respect to you and others turning this into a business.

[@petarknezovic9447]

Is there a reason why you and everyone else makes these boilers instead of just buying one? They're not very expensive.

[@supergiantbubbles]

You're pretty damn funny.

[@OakandSpore]

Thanks mate!

[@saeed6811]

That's a lot of math for a shower.

[@destroyer8000]

Ah, this video confused me greatly till it dawned on me. I’m looking for a DIY steam generator, not a DIY steam generator. See if it takes you as long as it took me to figure out.

[@OakandSpore]

I am do confused right now

[@coreym491]

Yeet

[@OakandSpore]

Yeet!

[@kbbb4227]

lol

[@OakandSpore]

Want to see how much revenue we make from selling mushrooms? checkout this link 👉 www.oakandspore.com/farmforprofit 👈

[@johnslugger]

What language are you speaking???

[@OakandSpore]

The best language ;)

[@johnslugger]

@@OakandSpore Slow it down a bit. I can't really make out everything you say. TALK SLOWER, LOUDER AND MORE CLEARLY. You sound like a 'mumble raper' while I do love your videos but I hate watching them twice.

[@OakandSpore]

@@johnslugger What country are you from?

[@johnslugger]

@@OakandSpore USA

[@OakandSpore]

Here's a hard lesson. The USA isn't the centre of the universe, and people don't need to change the way they speak so Americans can understand them ;)

[@Alex-ee5pl]

Yeah man a big muffuggin soldered copper boiler on a gorillion BTU propane burner for me thanks