This was my in reply, with a couple of grammar corrections, to a similar question that was asked in a different thread.
Hello Joe;
I read the other post where they were discussing "where does the water come from?" Interesting, very interesting.
The water is a byproduct of combustion. Whenever you burn a hydrocarbon, you produce water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). I don't care if you burn wood, natural gas, or acetylene; the end products include H2O and CO2. Sorry I can't make the numbers subscripts.
We did an experiment in Physics class once where we had to calculate the BTU (heat) content of natural gas. We placed a Bunsen burner in a dish and placed both under a boiler. We measured the flow of water and recorded the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature. We also measured the volume of gas being burned. Several of the students requested new boilers because their dishes were rapidly filling with water from their leaking boilers. The professor just laughed and turned to me; he called me "his little dummy welder", and said, "Tell all these smart people where the water is coming from."
They didn't believe all that water could possibly be coming from the combustion of the gas, but let me assure you, it did. 26 pounds of acetylene produces about 18 pounds of water that condenses on the cold surface during the combustion process. If you were to keep the base metal surface below the dew point, as we did with the boilers, you would not see the "wet spot" disappear. Think of the warm moisture laden air condensing on cold water pipes in the summer.
I don't know where you live, but here in New England, on cold winter mornings water runs out of the exhaust pipe of our cars and trucks until the exhaust system heats up. Every gallon of gasoline produces about a gallon of water when completely combusted.
So, now you tell me, is it a good idea to use a propane fired gas range to store low hydrogen coated electrodes on a field site? What is the burning fuel producing? Are the electrodes exposed to the gases produced by combustion? What's the difference between steam and water?
I was preheating a heavy column in the field in early February many years ago. Once the column was heated, I turned the flame down low so that I didn't overheat the column, but did maintain the preheat temperature. By the time I had the column welded, I had an icicle hanging down in the web that was about three foot long. The foreman accused me of melting the snow off the roof some five stories above my head. No one said you had to be the smartest man on the job to be the foreman.
How many times have you been told to drive the moisture out of the steel before welding? I've heard it many times. Then, once the part is heated, the welders go on coffee break or off to lunch and then resume welding without reheating the part. After all, they already drove the moisture out of the steel. Meanwhile, I get my butt chewed for wasting gas and time trying to "stay warm" as I maintained the required preheat temperature. I never told the foremen they were idiots or dumb as rocks. I just collected the overtime repairing everyone's cracked welds. The wheelbarrows were full and heavy, but the bank never once refused the money.
As for the steel absorbing moisture; think about it, how thick is a beer can? If the steel (or aluminum) was porous we would not be able to buy beer in cans. The beer would leak out. If steel was porous, you would never get me into a submarine. The water molecule is rather large. The pores in the steel would have to be large enough to accommodate them. We wouldn't need screens for our windows, we could use quarter inch thick plate! Ok, ok, I'm getting carried away, but you get the idea.
Happy New Year!
Best regards - Al