What happened to all the Seton type boiler owners

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roaring fire

New Member
Mar 9, 2008
33
newfoundland
:bug: I have operated a seton clone since 2007 & this forum has been a wealth of info over the years.
This year it seems the boiler room could be renamed the eko/garn room.
It would be great to hear from some of the old players in my arena ie. iseedeadbtus, pat53, mole,
snowman & others that have done rebuilds on those units.
I have a couple of burning issues, excuse the pun, I would like to throw out to the gang
1) I just finished removing the side panel & cleaning the arse of the water vessel.
2 hrs later I fire up again but this has got to be the dirtiest job I have encountered.
It is the only interaction with the boiler I don,t enjoy.
So the question: Has any user through your r&d been able to have a break through in this area?

2)I have 2 propane storage tanks in my basement since last fall & I would really like to get
up & running this spring.
My current situation
a) wood boiler in remote shop
b) back up electric boiler in basement for emergencies ie. for simplicity not interested
in mating or having electric kick in automatically
c) Radiant heat in house controlled by zone valves & circulators
d) The nofossil setup is not working for me. There is no local expertise in my neck of the woods
I really need to talk to someone who has been down the road & can apply their knowledge to my
specific situation

thanks
Dan
 
Still here bro...LOL My Seton 130 is working great. Since I did the HX modification on my unit, I have definitely noticed that the HX is staying much cleaner than years past. I think the reason why is that it is more directly in the flame path now and gets hotter than before and that helps keep the creosote burned up. I took the back panel off and checked it in late January and it had very little build-up at all. Took me about 30 minutes to clean it up. The horizontal tubes above the firebox are almost spotless right now. Be advised tho that I do have 500 gallons of storage and do 3-4 hour burns at 400-450F stack temps on average.

By all means get those storage tanks into use, you won't regret it. I plan on burning wood this year until May at least, depending on the weather. In years past I would quit about the end of March because of too much idling and creosote build-up.

Pat
 
Thanks Pat great to learn your boiler is working so well.
What mod did you make to the vessel or can you refer me to a previous post on that topic?
I know the storage is going to improve things , especially with the coming of spring.
How are the skins holding up on your unit?
I noticedThe galvanized skins on my unit starting to break down last fall so I stripped
it out & installed 32 gauge stainless .I feel a lot safer operating the bioler this winter.
I am going on vacation this week will be back around end of March. I would really
like your guidance on the storage set up when I get back, any imput would be greatly appreciated.
Dan
bound for Cuba!
 
Hi Dan, here is a link to the HX mod I did on mine...

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/70507/P0/

As far as the skins go, mine look great. I'm on my 3rd season and they show no sign of rusting or corrosion. I get a little dripping from them the first time I fire it up for the season and then nothing after that at all.

Lots of info here about storage. I'm sure many will chime in and get you pointed in the right direction. Enjoy your vacation..
Pat
 
Still here. Just been super busy lately. Hopefully this summer and fall I'll have more time. I'd like to make some changes and maybe build a new boiler shed.
 
Hi Dan, No breakthroughs to report. The only minor victory is that I can take the back off, dust off the ash, and reassemble in under an hour now. It's still a sucky job, but the tubes can be dusted clean with a bottle brush once you get your storage in. Then you can throw out your improvised scraper tool collection! Other than that, boiler is working OK, skins are fine. I think Fred used a better grade of stainless than the clones.

Good luck!

JR
 
Great to hear from you snowman. I got a lot of respect for guys like you that built your boiler from the ground up.
The seton style boiler gets a lot of hard knocks on this forum & I think it is important for users of this unit to speak up.
As a very astute friend of mine once said " if you going to buy a car, talk to the man who drives one , not to the man who sells one"
I am on my 5th winter with my unit & it has paid for itself twice over. More importantly we are comfortably warm in our 4000 sq ft house
& the bonus is radiant heat from the boiler in my 1200 s ft shop. I own a landscaping business & having the boiler in the shop
has made working there very comfortable. Some of the changes I have made to my unit that enhanced efficiency.
1) Similar to Pat53 I discovered the smoke path behind the refactory to narrow,restricting flow & creating cresote.
I removed the refactory & shortened the fire chamber by 4 inches, this gave me extra room in the secondary chamber.
This mod really improved efficiency
2) I installed a clock timer that I reset each time I reload. The single big advantage I always have hot coals in the fire chamber
haven't had to strike a match since october.
3) This fall I noticed a small amount of corrosion on the galvanized skins, so I bit the bullet & installed 32 g stainless
really happpy I made this decision.
Overall I like the Seton design, i like that I don't have to split wood. If it will fit through the 13 by 18 in door it will burn
Most of all I like the simplicity
Now if I could only get my storage hooked up
Happy burning Snowman!
Dan the man from Newfoundland
 
Hi Mole
Delighted to learn you are still refining your Seton!
Anxious to hear how you clean the unit so fast!
I have a 12" side panel which I remove.
Do you have a time gasket or do you apply the super red each time
you open it up. I spend a lot of time cleaning the old material&
applying new high heat sealer each time.
The insulation also takes a beating & most times is replaced after each cleaning.
Thanks
Dan
 
roaring fire said:
Hi Mole
Delighted to learn you are still refining your Seton!
Anxious to hear how you clean the unit so fast!
I have a 12" side panel which I remove.
Do you have a time gasket or do you apply the super red each time
you open it up. I spend a lot of time cleaning the old material&
applying new high heat sealer each time.
The insulation also takes a beating & most times is replaced after each cleaning.
Thanks
Dan

Yikes, having to change out the insulation after each cleaning would be expensive. Why do you have to change the insulation? Is it damaged when you take the panels off?

Pat
 
Pat,

Thanks for the link on moving the hx forward and down.

Did you re-skin afterwards? The hole on the tom moved forward - correct?

Do you have any pictures of the new hx position in relation to the firebox?

Thanks,
Steve
 
SteveJ said:
Pat,

Thanks for the link on moving the hx forward and down.

Did you re-skin afterwards? The hole on the tom moved forward - correct?

Do you have any pictures of the new hx position in relation to the firebox?

Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve, sorry no pics of the HX. Even if I did, it would be hard to tell it was moved. What I did was to move the HX DOWN and FORWARD 1.5 inches both ways. I cut off the nipple on the HX inlet and welded on a new one that angles up and then bent horizontal to match up with the hole in the back panel again. The top nipple I didn't do anything with because it was long enough before. I just cut another hole in the top skin to match up with the nipple and plugged the old one with kaowool. So no, I did not have to re-skin afterwards. By moving the HX it makes it much easier to clean the horizontal tubes and the vertical tubes are not stuck up against the kaowool anymore. That makes it easier to clean and gets better heat transfer. I believe I'm getting better heat transfer all around now that the HX is more directly in the flame/exhaust path.

Pat
 
Ditto still here. I did not get to my secondary burn project last summer, however I did install rugged new skins with a side that comes off in less then a minute. Also, the insulation is encapsulated inside the panel so no messing around with that. Even with the nice fix, cleaning Hex is still a dirty nasty job...
 
I'm here too - just REALLY busy with all things summer: Yard, garden, wood, stove cleaning, kids running around, job.......

Thinking of replacing my current 30 plate HX to a 50-75 plate. Anyone with a closed system got any advice on this - is it worth the investment?
 
Hi,

Really glad to find a bunch of Seton experts! I'm getting ready to set up a Seton W-90. I've been looking everywhere to find info from someone with experience using these units. My W-90 is sitting on my truck, and I am planning the installation of an underground 1700 gal. stainless storage tank (old milk tank) and building an adjacent furnace room and wood storage room. So I have the time to make mods to the Seton. I purchased the Seton because I was looking for a SIMPLE COMPUTER FREE boiler with water tubes instead of the usual fire tubed units with worthless warrantees (no better than the Seton lack of warrantee). I had designed my own but didn't have the time to build it myself. Initially I plan to use a HX in my Heat Pump powered furnace so that I can utilized my AC. Eventually want to do PEX in floor.

Read a lot of negatives about Fred. Took the time to visit with him at his place in Yak. Found him pleasant. Couldn't accuse him of running a scam op, but he certainly doesn't run a big time business, builds his boilers in a shed. He was very up front about everything, showed me his units inside and out. He was open about some of the problems with his unit.

I have read about several issues, seems like mostly soot and creosote problems. The fixes I have read involved increasing draft, increasing return water temp, pipe sizing, and reducing idling time, also noted a couple references to furnace room ambient temperature. The reply regarding decreasing the fire box size is a new one, like to know more about the concept and process.

4000 SqFt ICF home (very well insulated 5 inches of foam in walls and 6 inches in roof). I have a fairly large load, and I bought the smallest unit in the hope that I can run it high and use the storage to keep the in house temps level. The storage and furnace will be buried within 25 feet of my HVAC room. I have a good solar and generator powered backup electrical system. At this point everything else is open, haven't started purchasing yet.

Really would appreciate suggestions on setting up the boiler and any mods to avoid some of these problems. I bought this unit with the idea of using it as a basic building block.

Thanks,
Dave
 
I recently purchased a home with a w90, and it gets very cools where I live. This will be my first year with it. I think most seton owners did some research and sold them. The little I have burned so far is not instilling confidence in how little wood it will burn. Hasn't even gotten cold yet and I've had days where I have put two wheelbarrow loads in 24 hours. Already experienced the air leaks due to no door gaskets, installed gaskets. I'll be interested to beat of your experience. Excuse any typos to smartphone typing. ..
 
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