Steam generators for saunas, hammams and baths: features

Using a steam generator, also called a steam generator, you can turn almost any room into an excellent bathhouse with a steam room filled with light and hot steam, and by adjusting its density and temperature, you can create a microclimate corresponding to either a Finnish sauna, or a Russian bath, or a Turkish hammam.

What does installing a steam generator in a bath give?

Steam in the bath is not only a pleasant procedure. With its help it is carried out:

• cleansing the surface and pores of human skin from dirt that is visible and invisible to the eye;
• conclusion together with sweat secretions of toxins, slags;
• recovery, healing of skin, hair;
• treatment of the throat, lungs.

Why is a steam generator better than an oven?

The Russian bath has always been famous for its special light steam, but when it is received, for example, using a conventional wood-burning stove, most of the steam simply flies into the pipe.

When using special steam generators for baths and saunas, which are closed systems, all the steam generated by them remains inside the bathhouse. Such units have a fairly simple and understandable design, because Russian craftsmen often themselves build, for example, a stone stove for a bath with a steam generator of their own design, using either an empty gas cylinder or thick-walled metal containers as a water tank.

However, the construction of a massive sauna stove capable of producing good steam is a very troublesome task. It is necessary to make a foundation, build a chimney. And while everything built should strictly comply with the requirements of the fire safety guidelines. In general, there are many problems in this case. At the same time, having bought an electric steam generator for a Turkish bath or a gas steam generator for a Russian bath, you can get the result quickly: you just need to hang such a unit or install it on the floor and figure out how to use the control panel.

So, installing a purchased steam generator is better than using a conventional bath stove, as:

• all steam produced by such an aggregate remains in the steam room, and does not fly into the pipe;
• process control can be automated, which is impossible when using firewood;
• the process of continuous vaporization occurs without jumps in air temperature and sudden changes in its humidity;
• You can adjust the quality of the steam by lightly pressing the buttons on the control panel;
• a high-quality steam generator can provide hammam and sauna baths with a lighter and more pleasant steam than that obtained with the help of water and hot stones.

What are steam generators?

Modern steam generators can be:

• automatically operating devices connected to the water supply system;
• autonomous installations, in which it is necessary to ensure their work independently periodically fill in water.

It seems that the first type of steam generators is better, but given that the water in the pipelines often contains a lot of impurities, then in this case there is a high probability of clogging of the system and scale formation, so some people think that it is more advisable to fill the steam generator with guaranteed clean purchased water or dialed from the well.

Depending on the operating conditions of the steam generators, they are divided into two more varieties. The first of them, as a rule, is installed in hammams, Turkish baths, in which the air temperature is 35-50 ° C, and the humidity is 80-100%.Such a steam generator saturates the bath compartment of the required quality with steam, thereby replacing traditional boilers in which boiling water creates the necessary level of heat and moisture in the room of a classical hamam, but for such steam generators a separate room is required, as well as a plumbing connection.

The second type of steam generators is, in fact, an addition to the electric furnace and allows you to get a microclimate corresponding to both the Finnish sauna and the Russian bath.

It is believed that a Russian bath requires an air temperature of about 70 ° C, and its humidity should be approximately 20%. At the same time, a Finnish sauna requires humidity in the range of 5-10%. The air temperature can reach 100 ° C, and sometimes be higher.

Separation of steam generators depending on their energy source

Given the method of heating water, steam generators can be:

• electric;
• gas;
• diesel.

European-made electric steam generators are often found on sale, since gas for European countries is not cheap, therefore, for example, a European steam generator for hammam is much less common than working on the principle of an electric furnace that heats the water until steam is generated. It is more profitable for the Russian consumer to purchase, for example, for a sauna with a steam generator, a device operating using gas or diesel fuel, because receiving a large amount of hot steam requires a lot of electricity, and therefore significant financial costs.

An electric steam generator, in turn, can be:

• electrode type (water in this case is heated due to the flow of current between the electrodes through it);
• equipped with heating elements (tubular electric heaters, which are tubes made of metal, filled with a heat-conducting insulator and having conductive filaments located inside them in the center, usually of nichrome);
• induction type (such devices producing steam work by generating powerful microwave radiation according to the same principle as kitchen microwave ovens).

Steam generator device

Almost all steam generators, no matter whether they are used for a hamam or a Russian bathhouse, are arranged in a very similar way. They are always equipped with:

• a tank (capacity) for water;
• primary water treatment unit;
• a pump that creates the movement of water;
• a pump to promote steam;
• steam generator;
• control unit (often based on microprocessors);
• control sensors and signaling devices providing control of the unit operation and safety of its operation.

Overview of the most popular steam generator models

Manufacturer HumiSteam (Denmark)

This gas-fired steam generator, software for which was developed by Carel, is highly efficient and easy to maintain. This unit can operate on liquefied gas, and when connected to the main gas pipeline. Its operation is allowed at any water hardness. For control, it is equipped with a liquid crystal display. The steam generation power during operation can reach up to 3 l / h. Approximate cost of the model: 93 thousand rubles.

Manufacturer Harvia (Finland)

Harvia's Helix HGX is a compact, steam-powered, high-capacity steam generator. The device is intended for domestic use. The device has a multifunctional touch-type control panel for setting operating modes and improved operational properties, due to the presence of an automatically operating system for flushing heating elements (TENOV) and descaling. The cost of the model is about 39 thousand rubles.

The Harvia SS-20 is another steam generator (electric type) for home use.The volume of its storage tank is six liters, vaporization can be carried out at a speed of up to 2.5 l / h. There is another variation of this model with the designation Auto. Its feature is the presence of a system of automatic replenishment of water in the storage tank. The price, respectively, of the first model is about 29 thousand rubles, and the second (with the function of automatically adding water) is in the region of 36 thousand rubles.

Producer Tylo (Sweden)

Tylo VB model is a silently working compact electric steam generator for baths, hammams, saunas. The device is of high quality, as well as increased reliability. It has well-designed overload protection circuits. The length of its steam line is 15 meters.

With it, you can arrange a Turkish miniature bath directly in your apartment or in the country. This steam generator may include steam flavors.

When this unit is operating, its power consumed from the network can be regulated and set equal to either 2, or 4, or 6 kW. The cost of the model is about 54 thousand rubles.

Tylo VA is a whole line of devices of the same type, designed to generate steam and differing in both power consumption and the volume of its storage tanks. The use of Tylo VA steam generators is allowed both at home and in public places. Power consumption: 6-24 kW. Storage tank capacity: 2-18 liters. The cost of such a steam generator depends on the specific characteristics of the purchased model and may be in the range of 80-235 thousand rubles.

Today, the steam generator market offers a huge number of the most diverse models of these devices. And among them there are convenient for home use, and those that can be used in business. The installation process of these units is not very complicated, but the main thing is that when they are installed, it is possible to automatically turn off the equipment generating steam when even minimal deviations of the operating parameters from the norm occur.