Garn-work season

[TCaldwell]

After 4 years of the same water and 3 sets of anode rods,it was time. I stopped the anode rods at precision chemicals advice as water tested fine each year. I got tired of looking through the clear water to several piles of anode debris of unknown quantity, well actually it weighed 24.9 lbs wet in a home depot bucket!
I waited about 6 weeks from last fire to drain the 75deg water, chased it with a pressure washing and a knotted wire wheel to knock off the stubborn deposits, rinsed and cleaned with a shop vac, I'm not as limber as i was the last time!
i will say the 75deg water not immediately drying the residue on the flue tubes made the pressure washer work well. I installed the sidestream filter in my mix loop and am refilling now with hot water to avoid the condensation time at the start of a burn that i hope for later this afternoon.
Tuesday I'll drain the cleaning chemicals, refill, refire and by next weekend be ready for another season.

 

[velvetfoot]

That's a lotta hot water!

 

[TCaldwell]

true, but anything over 100 deg greatly reduces the creosote like condensate that plays havoc with gaskets and such. Let the oil boiler work for the wood boiler once in a while!

 

[eauzonedan]

Tom
Unsure if you noted any sediments or other gunk on your tank bottom. If so - consider leaving a hose bib on your mix / filter loop to allow you to add a length of semi-rigid pex on a hose to stir up stuff that likes to hide in nooks and crannies away from the normal circulation path on the bottom of the tank....... This allows for the filter to grab it. Dan

 

[TCaldwell]

Dan, I actually put a hose bib on the loop with ball valves on either side, i guess now I'll have a pool filter of sorts, good idea. I think the old anode rods were pretty much to blame. Drained tank last night, just finished pressure washing and vacuuming, now in the filling stage. I plumbed the filter as sidestream t'd into my mix loop with a spring type inline flow meter primarily to adjust the flow through the filter but also handy to monitor fill flow rate. Not sure how good my well is after this summer of no rain so im limiting my fill flow rate to 2 gpm, this is going to take a while.

 

[mike van]

We need rain so bad - I have to do the same Tom, but wouldn't try to refill now on our spring -

 

[maple1]

We also need rain bad here. We had some showering last night, but the well is low & the lawn is brown, has been all summer.

 

[mike van]

Tom - Did you get refilled & back online? I drained mine Sunday, swabbed it out Monday, and refilled today but not lit yet.

 

[TCaldwell]

Yes sir, back online and ready for winter, stacking garn barn with wood as we speak!

 

[Woodfarmer1]

Would you post a few pictures of the filtering system please?