Choose A Right Boiler: Fire Tube Boiler VS Water Tube Boiler

Boilers come in all different types, sizes, and shapes and are classified by configuration of the furnace, or firesides, and the watertubes, or water holding volume. The two main boiler types consist of firetube and watertube boilers, and deciding which of the two will best fit your process needs is not as easy as it may seem. It's not as simple as just comparing prices for similar nameplate steam capacity, and there are some significant differences to consider, like operation pressure, rated steam capacity, water output, application and the boiler cost, etc.

Water Tube Boiler, SZS Series, Gas Oil Fuels

Fire Tube Boiler, WNS Series, Gas Oil Fuels

Design Structure: In a water tube boiler, water travels through tubes which are surrounded by the by-products of combustion, or flue gas. In a fire tube boiler, the flue gas travels through the tubes, which are surrounded by hot water.

Capacity/Output: Usually the boiler output mainly depends on design limits. For the fire tube boiler, like our WNS series gas & oil fired boiler is 1 ton -2o ton, however, the water tube boiler usually has a very large capacity, some companies can manufacture 500 ton boilers.

Fuel: As we know, almost all the large type boilers are water tube type, any fuel is available, including the waste heat, MSW, low grade coal or other possible fuels. On both fire tube and water tube boiler various types of fuels can be used for providing the heat.

Efficiency: Normal efficiency of the fire tube boiler is about 80 to 85 % but this can be increase or decrease by using different a accessories. Efficiency of the water tube boiler is more than that of fire tube and lies within the range of 85 to 90 %. efficiency of water tube boiler can also be increased by using different accessories.