Adobe 100 owner here. Bought in 2007 and started using about Dec 07. Rust on top in 2 months, but covered it with a panel on metal and been using until this week. Took back off today and pressure vessel totally plugged up with creasote. May put back on if I can and heat water till late fall, then rebuild totally. thinking about building out the sides back and top with 1/2 sqare tube and put in new insul if I can find it. Also hope to put steel back so I can take off to clean. Any ideas or feedback is welcome! Carl
Yeah, Phil cut corners and made them as cheap as he could . This is the reason for this whole post--I try to contact Phil-- he refuses to make contact with me or anyone I have talked to. I’m in the process of hooking it up to my pool with an AIC 130,000 BTU heat exchanger. All my panels have been affected with rust through. Very soon I will bite the bullet and have Mark from SJV Trailers fab new stainless steel panels . Of course this entails taking the whole thing apart-- it will be interesting to see if the insulation can be saved. I have a feeling it will be creosote soaked and won’t be able to be saved??? Still need to finalize a new gasket material to use for all side panels. I don’t have storage, but heating the pool will simulate a full out burn for quite a while to get the pool up to temperature. I will babysit this thing to make sure it does’nt melt down. I’m hoping this thing will last five years so I can break even and get a boiler that works as advertised.(Talking to the person that sold you the boiler would be nice too!) Have you ever talked to Phil besides the time you committed to buy? Pretty sad doing all this work on a boiler not even a year old. I’m sure this boiler would work better with storage---I have a heated crawl space right next to my boiler??? Keep postin’.
When I took my back off to clean the plugged pressure vessel, I had to pull back the top and sides alittle. Talk about black with creasote and then rust! You will need new panels,like you said stainless steel, and if you find them I would like to know the source and price , also on the Ruxol insul. TNX
When I took my back off to clean the plugged pressure vessel, I had to pull back the top and sides alittle. Talk about black with creasote and then rust! You will need new panels,like you said stainless steel, and if you find them I would like to know the source and price , also on the Ruxol insul. TNX
Mark @SJV Trailers will help you out. You will want to get accurate measurements on your dimensions while your old skins are off. You can call him @207-834-5582-- He’s a good man - he does what he says. His website is http://www.sjvtrailers.com. I have’nt researched the insulation yet. Call Mark and he will help you out.
Lucky you, you get to join the crowd. In all truth I sympathise with you but why should you be any different than the rest of us. There has been alot of good ideas floated around on this subject. You probably need additional storage so you can burn full out then shut down, sure does defeat the purpose of a easy heating system. Wish you all the luck in the world with your boiler. If you get it working well, let us know so we all can share.
Fired the old rust bucket up for the first time since April/May after the pool heat exchanger install was completed yesterday. Fed it slab wood from yesterday evening thru today. Pool temp. went from 67 to 74 today. Still experimenting with Grundfos pump speeds at boiler and pool loop. Might have to break down and use some real wood. Boiler top/skin could be used to cook steaks--It’s hot!!!
Jim, how long of a burn did you get running that thing at full boar. Did you try running it without the fan to see if it could keep up.
Loaded it up @ about11 PM last night - Iset my control @ 130* -I don’t reallly trust this thing without babysitting it. Fire was @ 120* this morning at 7:30. I let the bed of coals burn down until it reached 110*----- loaded it up again. Currently experimenting with the fan unhooked, damper propped about 1/3 open. Fire is much more controlled with natural draft-- started out with temp of 120*,now up to 150*. Fire doesn’t seem to want to go any hotter-- more draft??????? Return temp from pool is pretty steady @ 130*. Boiler smokes much less without fan going, I think it provides for a more complete burn instead of the fan fanning the fire, in turn, the boiler chugs likes there is not enough combustion air or there is too much combustion going on????
Has anyone checked the adobe boiler web site. Guess what its back up. Check it out. Maybe we can now get service for the junk we bought. Just kidding.
Told ya so!!! I knew that reputable salesman would be back in business with that fine furnace or boiler ---which one is it? Phillip Dougherty and Adobe Boiler--- names that ring service after the sale and the best quality product you can buy. I hope everyone that searches for Adobe Boiler or Phillip Dougherty is directed to this site for the real story. I see his new LLC is based in Florida this time, maybe he’s going to try all fifty states. Did you see the warranty section? Looks like he had a team of a dozen lawyers write that up. Hmm, I wonder why? Gotta laugh reading that section. Remember new customers you have all of ten days after delivery to provide Dirigo Manufacturing LLC written notice of rejection and a report of discrepancy or else Phillip Dougherty assumes your fully satisfied. Any Maine residents know who is building these heaps for him now? Ah, the story continues.....
Tore apart the rust bucket today. What a mess that was. Good thing I bought more insulation, because none of it could be salvaged. I bet one more season of use with the existing skins they would of completely dissolved . The frame still seems to be in good shape other than a little bit surface rust. The refractory looked to be in good shape. The lower back side of the pressure vessel was almost completely clogged big mess. Well good luck to the rest of you that plan on working on your junk. Good old Phil really took us for a ride on this one. I have a bunch of pics, when I figure how to post them I will.
Tore apart the rust bucket today. What a mess that was. Good thing I bought more insulation, because none of it could be salvaged. I bet one more season of use with the existing skins they would of completely dissolved . The frame still seems to be in good shape other than a little bit surface rust. The refractory looked to be in good shape. The lower back side of the pressure vessel was almost completely clogged big mess. Well good luck to the rest of you that plan on working on your junk. Good old Phil really took us for a ride on this one. I have a bunch of pics, when I figure how to post them I will.
Let me know how your rebuild goes on your less than a year old boiler goes. I’m interested to see how the new draft system works. My experimentation with the current system was a mixed bag. The pool puts a big load on the boiler. The fires/heavy load has made cleaning part of the pressure vessel you can see from the door pretty easy with a boiler brush.... who knows what lies behind the panels.
This unit definitely needs a clean out for the lower back side of the pressure vessel. I saw the units that Mark was building he has a clean out on the top back side of the unit. I think one would be much better suited on the rear panel so you can clean all that garbage that falls off the pressure vessel because it will collect at the bottom of the unit where the exhaust is. Any ideas on that before I start the rebuild. Could your boiler keep up without the fan running. How long would the load last without the fan. Will you be tearing your unit down or running it for another season. If it is as bad as mine was it won’t last. Still looking for a better gasket material, any ideas on that because I am sure I will be doing this again. Well thats it for now.
This unit definitely needs a clean out for the lower back side of the pressure vessel. I saw the units that Mark was building he has a clean out on the top back side of the unit. I think one would be much better suited on the rear panel so you can clean all that garbage that falls off the pressure vessel because it will collect at the bottom of the unit where the exhaust is. Any ideas on that before I start the rebuild. Could your boiler keep up without the fan running. How long would the load last without the fan. Will you be tearing your unit down or running it for another season. If it is as bad as mine was it won’t last. Still looking for a better gasket material, any ideas on that because I am sure I will be doing this again. Well thats it for now.
Yea, we definitely need access to the pressure vessel and rear of the boiler. I’m thinking of making the rear panel (top section, not the draft piece) overlap the top and sides so I can pull the whole rear panel easier---- I think you should be able to do that now but I’m not sure how easy it would be---I’ll find out soon enough. I’m kind of leery of putting any more panel seams on the skins-------one more place for creosote and smoke to escape. But I’m pretty sure the fan is the cause of the smoke leaking in various places--forces it out. The top panel will probably have to be unfastened and propped up with a 2x4/6 across the pressure vessel to clean the top of it. I wonder if an asbestos type panel on top of the pressure vesssel would help keep it clean by not allowing it to touch the insulation------I think this was discussed on this thread way back.
The boiler, with the fan unhooked and damper propped open, would keep an even fire anywhere from 130-140*. That was burning primarily slab wood which this boiler doesn’t like to burn. I’m going to burn all the slabwwod and switch to real wood, hopefully with better results. I think your new draft system will prolong your burn time,but like Mark said - draft is critical. I really didn’t pay attention to burn time because I was stoking that thing alot.
I will be tearing this thing down for an overhaul like you. I’m not going to worry about the panels falling off in the middle of the winter. I did a little research on gasket material and found http://www.auburn-mfg.com. They offer a Strip-n-Stick silicone adhesive tape which withstands 500* temperatures. I will call Mon. and ask questions and they offer samples also.
adobeboiler.com is now down again. Any new purchasers of an Adobe Boiler out there, would love to hear from you about your experience with Phillip Dougherty and Adobe Boiler..........
I used camper gasket material on my back panel. The kind you peel the one side off and foam on the other. I got mine at NAPA, it was cheap but seem to work. I need to get working on putting in my 1000 gal pressure tank but it isn’t cold yet so there is no incentive yet.Still need too figure out something for the expansion tank, how about 2 100# lp tank mounted valve down?
