Water tube

-has a large furnace volume ratio to the water side surface area

(thus can be faster steamers depending on design)

-can also have thinner tubes (better heat transfer)

-in power plant service, where things don’t move around

- If a tube breaks on a water tube boiler usually you can view the leak, safely shut it down then fix or
plug that tube

- Water treatment is critical on any boiler but more so on water tube because of the thinner tubes.

- For safety considerations water tube boilers are preferred in large populated buildings such as
hospitals though most boiler rooms are separated for safety anyway.

- ships do not have the frequent power changes that railroad steam engines have

Fire tube

-The fire tube boiler design is able to withstand pressure/temperature variations far outside the
capabilities of the water tube boiler design

-If a tube breaks or is plugged by scale and over heats on a fire tube boiler you can have an
explosion.

- When a fire-tube boiler explodes, the usual cause is that low water exposes the top of the crown
sheet that separates fire and water in the firebox. Water no longer conducts heat from that spot. It
softens and ruptures. That relieves the pressure inside the boiler. ALL the water, heated under
pressure well above the boiling point of 212 degrees F, instantaneously turns to steam and expands
to 9 TIMES the volume of the boiler. The power unleashed in seconds is hard to believe. 

- their low initial cost,their compactness,and the fact that little or no setting is required.

Higher pressure gives more efficency, more opportunities for compounding, better fuel usage, less
water usage, etc. But the water tube is far more vulnerable to vibration induced metal fatigue in the
tubes and joints, thus the failure in railroad applications.

The late Dr. Robert H. Thurston, Dean of Sibley College, Cornell University, and past president of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, estimated that there is sufficient energy stored in a plain
cylinder boiler under 100 pounds steam pressure to project it in case of an explosion to a height of
over 3½ miles; a locomotive boiler at 125 pounds pressure from one-half to one-third of a mile; and a
60 horse-power return tubular boiler under 75 pounds pressure somewhat over a mile.