Research on stream explosion between coolant and molten metal has a great significance for accident prevention in industry safety. A series of experiments and corresponding comparative study were carried out on the water droplet interactions with molten lead and tin using a high-speed camera. The typical factors including the water droplet dropping height and thickness of molten metal were focused. The results show that three phenomena of Droplet breakup, Bubble and Crown can be observed in the water droplet interactions with both molten lead and tin. The crown height increases with an increase in the water droplet dropping height. However, it firstly decreases and then becomes relatively stable as the thickness of the molten metal increases. Especially, due to the different density, viscosity and surface tension between molten lead and tin, some significant differences can be found in phenomenon evolution and regimes, evaporation time of water droplet, crown height etc. A smaller bubble and an additional liquid column appear on the lead surface. The evaporation time of water droplet on molten lead is slightly shorter than that on molten tin. The maximum crown height in the water droplet interaction with molten lead is much lower than that in the water droplet interaction with molten tin. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.