10 cords worth of nozzle wear. Good?

[JP11]

Cleaned the whole firebox out this afternoon.

Snapped a pic of the rear nozzle. Doesn't seem like much wear.

????

 

[BoilerMan]

Is that 10 chord worth of wear total?

TS

 

[JP11]

Yes.. actually I didn't total.. but it's probably 11 cord.

 

[JP11]

Hard to notice the scale.. but I'm saying the "chewed" part is maybe a half inch wide, and maybe 1/2 deep at the deepest point.

JP

 

[maple1]

Any thoughts of getting some castable refactory type stuff & building that area back up? Or maybe building it up more than it was originally? If you could do that every year, you could make that nozzle last a long time, I'd think - should be an easy job before it gets serious wear. Be interesting to hear from others who've done something like that - and also about a source for stuff to do it with.

 

[mr.fixit]

Here's what I did to extend the life of the nozzle in my EKO. It has held up well and the boiler operates better with the nozzle the correct width. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/oak-nozzle-erosion-on-eko-40.72151/

 

[JP11]

Any thoughts of getting some castable refactory type stuff & building that area back up? Or maybe building it up more than it was originally? If you could do that every year, you could make that nozzle last a long time, I'd think - should be an easy job before it gets serious wear. Be interesting to hear from others who've done something like that - and also about a source for stuff to do it with.

Vigas has a steel or iron one. I may try that. Doesn't look like much of a job to change it out. By the looks of it, they should last two years apiece for the refractory ones. I plan to get one metal, and one refractory one this year when Mark from AHONA visits the fryeburg fair.

JP

 

[stee6043]

I have 5 seasons on my EKO now and have almost no wear on the nozzle. Mine looks nothing like your photo. I am getting some wear on the refractories in the lower chamber, however. Those may not last another season.

For reference I'm burning mostly cherry, oak and this last year plenty of beech. If my nozzle continues to wear the way it has I don't expect to ever have to replace it...knock on wood.

 

[stee6043]

One question - how often do you clean out your upper chamber during a heating season? I'm conviced that not cleaning the upper chamber during the season helps with nozzle wear, for what it's worth.

 

[JP11]

One question - how often do you clean out your upper chamber during a heating season? I'm conviced that not cleaning the upper chamber during the season helps with nozzle wear, for what it's worth.

I wouldn't say that I "clean" it. But I keep raking the coals towards or over the nozzle.. so it's effectively cleaned out quite often. I guess the wear must come from the air pulling ash laden dust around that corner of the edge.

 

[rkusek]

I think Stee may be right as far as the EKOs go. I no longer clean out all the ash in the upper during the season and never bang the metal tools around in there anymore. I shopvac it out after I shutdown. The bed of ash I believe helps protect it when loading with wood too. My nozzle is worn some like the others after 5 yrs but I think Mr. Fixits solution is the way to go and just change it out every year. Especially to burn at slower rates. Also like Stee, my original lower refractory needs replacing but it looks like the new style one may not be worth the money. If anyone has a sucess story doing their own casting let us know.

 

[woodsmaster]

I've patched the nozzle wear on mine twice now. I used premixed refractory cement I got at Menards. It works great ! I just vacuum the ash out, Insert a piece of foam board to fit the hole and apply cement around the foam to the worn areas. should go one step further and overlay it like Mr. fixit, but haven't.