Just finished cleaning the EKO

Huff,
Your tubes don't look that bad for the length of time between cleanings. Definitely ready for brushing though. The condition of the tube area is all the more reason to dump the turb actuator as it only will eliminate larger chunks of build-up. From there you will be able to take 15 minutes every month and do brush patrol.

I haven't done the chain mod yet. My buddy with the welder is gone till tomorrow . It will take little time now that I have eliminated the actuator and cut the shaft off

Don't forget to bolt a solid plate where the shaft port was.

You really cut it off? I was only kidding.

Well by looking at the wear pattern of the turbs it was pretty easy to tell they did FA. I cut the shaft off. Makes it a lot easier to do the cleaning on the fire tubes . I can weld it back together if I ever needed to. Your suggestion was a good one thank you Fred .

I was just trying to throw you into a mild state of panic Didn't work

. Temporary tube puncher

Rube Goldburg would be proud of you. Are you sure you're not from New England. I grew up on a farm where with people that could get a job done with anything that was laying around.

Worse........Canada............ Ever seen Red Green show? Haha, I can say that because I'm minutes from the Canadian boarder.
I'm suprised there were no hockey sticks involved
TS

Yup stayed up till 330 am this morning to watch Canadian junior team play . if I didnt have that length of ready rod, a hockey stick would of been my next option i have several. lol. Red Green would of used duct tape I used red electricians tape

I put the shaft back in the port then put the turb handle back on. Now my boiler is a sleeper. I'm still gonna tell my wife to keep operating the handle before loading the boiler. Hahaha !

Brushes

http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/2706/=krx6ng

Rod
http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/2706/=krx6n4

gg

I went back in so I could measure what lengh chain I would need if I wanted to compare performance of twisted turb vs chain. While I had one pulled, I took a photo. I lied, My rings are 3" OD. 2.5" ID.

Anyone know what size brush to order for an EKO 40

Interesting stuff. Received an EKO 25 today. Had it delivered to a business address nearby. Forked from semi-trailer to a 5x10 utility trailer in just a few minutes. Then came the long part. Unloaded alone from trailer by come-along anchored to existing stove down a makeshift ramp. Then to get it off the steel pallet was more fun, alone, that little bugger is heavy. Anyway, all is good and it sits on shop floor until I install casters.

Considering what this thread is about, now would be the time to alter turbulator setup? At first look in turbulator access, I was wondering what the procedure would be to clean tubes (looked like it would be a chore) as cranking the handle did not look like it would do much. Are those twisted steel lengths for cleaning or to aid in heat transfer?

Hey guys, I sure appreciate this site and what you all have going here.

Them twisted ribbons of steel are the turbulators. They are called turbulators because they interupt the laminar flow in order to provide better heat transfer. I believe that mess of hardware that activates the turbs is put in there to make us feel good. After all the excellent engineering they have in the rest of the unit, they have to know that the turb rocker is useless. I hope they don't think we're that gullible.

Below is picture of how I hung my chain turbs. Nuts and bolts. On one end I used a metric nut so that it would snug down on bolt. My chain is 1/2" transport chain. Heavy stuff but dropped my stack temps at least 100 DegF.

I am so glad I pulled my turbs out a year ago...what a pain it was to use them..... Even with rotating them at each loading things got fouled up. I tore the whole mess out, made a shaft to chuck in my drill that accepts 1-1/2 inch wire brushes on a hex shaft and now 3 times a year I run them through the exchanger tube and polish them up. The boiler has worked great all winter without a major cleaning, burning pitchy pine, rain & snow soaked dried wood and the odd pile of bones after a slaughter.

I have noticed that I get a bit more fly-ash in the chimney stack, but I put a tee coming off the boiler, so I can open up the bottom & brush it all down. I don't see the need for the turbs or the chains. It all seems like work. It takes 10 minutes start to finish with the drill, and the boiler can be moderately hot--as long as there isn't a significant amount of active coals in the bed.