After 10 working seasons, the blanking plate on my Harman PB105 pellet boiler began leaking this month after I stopped firing it and it cooled down. It had showed an occasional minor seepage previously that stopped when I torqued down the studs, but this time the leak was bad enough to require attention.
When I pulled the plate it was obvious that the rubber (?) gasket had plasticized and grown brittle. A factory replacement was available for $25 w/shipping. Some minor rust cleanup on plate and boiler body was necessary, so to get better access I wanted to remove the sheet metal cladding. That would require removing the drain spigot and return pipe. An easier alternative was to hack a couple of slots in the sheet metal so the cladding could be lifted free -- the way Harman SHOULD have built it.
After reassembling the plate and gasket, I refilled the boiler -- and noticed that the process of opening the drain, a Nibco quarter-turn ball valve, had caused it to spring a small leak around the shaft. Grrr. The replacement spigot arrived today via eBay, so I'll be draining the unit down again.
After
When I pulled the plate it was obvious that the rubber (?) gasket had plasticized and grown brittle. A factory replacement was available for $25 w/shipping. Some minor rust cleanup on plate and boiler body was necessary, so to get better access I wanted to remove the sheet metal cladding. That would require removing the drain spigot and return pipe. An easier alternative was to hack a couple of slots in the sheet metal so the cladding could be lifted free -- the way Harman SHOULD have built it.
After reassembling the plate and gasket, I refilled the boiler -- and noticed that the process of opening the drain, a Nibco quarter-turn ball valve, had caused it to spring a small leak around the shaft. Grrr. The replacement spigot arrived today via eBay, so I'll be draining the unit down again.
After
