Kettle

Kettle
(Building)
Location
Compound
Size
5 × 5
Requirements
Cooking
Cost to Build Copper Sheeting 4 Iron Pot 1

A Kettle is used for preparing a range of products like potash, fertilizer, and arsenic. With Desiccation skill, it can also be used for evaporating various liquids by boiling.

Some kettle recipes, such as that for potash, require continuous boiling. During this process, more wood is needed overall than the kettle can hold at one time. Thus, for these recipes, the kettle must be regularly stoked by adding more wood to keep it going.

Cost

• 4 Copper Sheeting
• 1 Iron Pot

Built in a Compound. Uses 5x5 cells.

Sources

This building becomes available after you have learned the Cooking skill. Specific recipes may require additional techs or skills (see below).

Products

Output	Input	Method	Tech/Skill Needed
10 Potash	5 ash, 25 Water (Takes approx. 15 min to complete)	Stoked	None
50 Flower Fertilizer	3 Rotten Fish, 5 Water, 5 Wood	Non-stoked	Horticulture
3 Salt 1 Potash	25 Salt Water	Stoked	Desiccation (2) to configure kettle, but skill not required to run it

Products

Output	Input	Method	Tech/Skill Needed
5 Potash	5 ash, 25 Water (Takes approx. 15 min to complete)	Stoked	None
50 Flower Fertilizer	3 Rotten Fish, 5 Water, 5 Wood	Non-stoked	Horticulture
50 Grain Fertilizer	1 Rotten Fish, 1 Dung, 5 Water, 5 Wood	Non-stoked	Farming 2
50 Weed Killer	1 Toad Skin Mushrooms, 5 Water, 5 Wood	Non-stoked	Farming 2
25 Sulfur *	25 Sulphurous Water	Stoked	Desiccation (1)
3 Salt	25 Salt Water	Stoked	Desiccation (2) to configure kettle, but skill not required to run it
3 Sulfuric Acid	25 Sulphurous Water, 1 Salt	Stoked	Desiccation (3) to configure kettle, but skill not required to run it
8 Arsenic	1 Razor's Edge Mushroom, 1 Scorpion's Brood Mushroom, 5 Oil, 5 Wood	Non-stoked	Toxin Extraction
1 Geb's Tears	30 Flower bulbs	Non-stoked (?)	Advanced Horticulture

* Sulfur should be made by evaporating Sulphurous Water in a tub, which does not use any wood or require any skills.
** Ain't nobody got time for that.
*** You ain't the boss of me.

Methods

There are two methods used for the kettle:

• Non-stoked - load with requirements including wood, leave until complete (Takes about 42 real seconds to complete).
• Stoked - load with requirements, stoke with wood and ignite, continue to add wood/stoke as it burns down until the liquid is boiled off. For stoked runs (see details below), you will need 28 wood per kettle (assuming no mistakes), with the total process taking about 15 teppy minutes (about 30 teppysec per tic / Tic meaning each wood burned takes about 30s each). Note: Stoking a kettle is a completely different (and much easier) procedure than stoking a Firepit!

Stoking

In general terms, it works as follows:

• Once the kettle is ignited, it runs in a series of 30-teppysecond ticks. At the beginning of each tick, it consumes one deben of wood. At the end of the tick, it evaporates one deben of water. (Meaning that most of the time, except for the very beginning and end of the batch, it will consume one wood and one water simultaneously every 30 tsec.)
• The first three ticks after igniting are "warm-up" ticks... wood is consumed, but no water is evaporated.
• If at the beginning of a tick there is no wood left under the kettle, the fire goes out. The batch isn't ruined, but the fire will have to be reignited, and will go through the warm-up process again, wasting time and wood.
• You can stoke the kettle at any time to add wood, but it will only hold up to 5 at once.
• Takes 15 Teppy minutes to complete.

Stoking Run

Method 1

1. Load requirements
2. Ignite (cost 5 wood)
   • Burns off 1 wood in lighting
   • Fire burns till 0 (4 wood)
3. At 0 wood stoke 5; water is at 24 now
4. At 0 wood stoke 5; water is at 19 now
5. At 0 wood stoke 5; water is at 14 now
6. At 0 wood stoke 5; water is at 9 now
7. At 2 wood stoke 3; water is at 6 now
8. Let burn out
9. Take the product (don't discard!)

Method 2

1. Load requirements
2. Ignite (cost 5 wood)
   • Burns off 1 wood in lighting
   • Fire burns till 1 (3 wood)
3. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 25 now
4. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 21 now
5. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 17 now
6. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 13 now
7. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 9 now
8. At 1 wood stoke 4 (max); water is at 5 now
9. Let burn out
10. Take the product (don't discard!)

With this second method, you only ever have to "Stock Max", which means you can use the "S" hotkey every time. This is extremely handy when you are running a large number of kettles. It is one extra step but it still works out at the same amount of time and wood but also means that it is less likely that lag or your ability to stock a lot of kettles doesn't result in the kettle stalling (fire going out).

Stoking a Kettle the Easy Way

The above method works perfectly but tends to end up with you tied to your keyboard watching for the wood to reach 0.

You don't need to do that. Just ignite the kettle, and stoke max whenever you happen to be looking at the kettle, until the amount of water in there is 6 or less. Then stoke enough wood so that the wood will run out with 1 measure of water left: if you're at water 6, stoke to 5, if you're at water 5, stoke to 4 wood, if you're at water 4 stoke to a total of 3 wood, and so on.

That way you can alt-tab and read Facebook or chat with your guildies, and just stoke whenever you get a chance. Just check often enough not to let the fire go out (like I just did whilst writing this wiki entry - FAIL!). However, if it does go out, it's not a disaster - you'll just need a bit more wood.