cleaning a seton after one year

[2.beans]

cleaned out the back of my boiler after this years season. it was alot better then last year with no hard creosote build up on the vessel. i had 2.5 gallons of ash build up in the back but not as much as last year either. i was able to clean it up and reseal it in about a half hour. not to bad. i made it run wide open alot longer this year but i was still way behind on my wood. i was cutting all thru the winter of the wood pile. i have this years just about done already. so this season should be better. i should use less wood also because it will be drier. if anyone with a seton style boiler has not done this they should. i dont believe the boiler will last very long without cleaning it. not to mention the fire hazard.

 

[91220da]

I agree on the cleaning for longevity. I have a Greenwood 100 which is the clone of the Seton. I just cleaned mine this weekend and I used a power actuated brush that I made. It worked great. I bought a 2" diameter by 4" long boiler tube brush from Torrington brush co. I then took 3/16" x 36" long piece of round stock steel and milled 3 flats on one end so I could chuck it in a power drill. I welded a bolt on the other end that allows me to thread the boiler brush onto the shaft. With the drill running in forward it self tightens the brush in place. 10 minutes of running the brush in and out of the tubes and back and forth from the side and they look new. I think next time I will order a 1 1/2" dia. brush the two inch brush got pretty mangled from forcing it between the tubes. The brush was about $5 so a small price to pay for a clean boiler. I am still not happy that Greenwood folded but there customer service and warranty would have been useless anyway. Should have bought a Seton.

 

[JMann]

I'm going in to clean mine this week. Did you remove only the side panels or did you take the back one off as well? What scraping tools did your use 2beans? I'm thinking of using simply a wire brush and a five in one (painter's tool). Any advise is much appreciated as this is my first (of hopefully many) annual cleanings.

 

[2.beans]

I'm going in to clean mine this week. Did you remove only the side panels or did you take the back one off as well? What scraping tools did your use 2beans? I'm thinking of using simply a wire brush and a five in one (painter's tool). Any advise is much appreciated as this is my first (of hopefully many) annual cleanings.

i cut a hole in side of mine and then welded a piece of 2" angle iron in to screw the panel back to. the problem of removing the panel is damaging the insulation in the process. i had some insulation to replace what i damaged. i use a boiler cleaning brush and a piece of round stock thats bent to fit half way around the vessel pipe with a handle on the bottom. if you really want to see it i can take a picture but its the tool that is used to remove a fisher plow from an older style truck. i didnt make it look like new but did make sure that there wasnt any thing between each pipe. when i cleaned my father inlaws i almost had to use a hammer and chisel.

 

[JMann]

I got the panels off but messed up the insulation in the process. I called Bethel Engineering to ship out replacements. They are putting together an official Seton Cleaning Kit, to be available sometime this Summer (not waiting for that). When I took the panels off, I did notice orange residue and other signs of early rust at the very bottom. Whenever there were warmer days or the wood was a little green, I'd get a little moisture drip off of the bottom of the boiler. It doesn't seem that bad but I don't want to overlook it either. Anyone else come across this?

 

[Sting]

Sorry to see all the work you face!

I might add they show exactly the disadvantage of a water tube boiler!

 

[2.beans]

the only time i had any dampness was when burning green wood. my boiler is sized really good to my house so even if i run without storage i would get real long burn times. the longer the burn times the better off the boiler will be.

 

[JMann]

Not really a lot of work, just a few parts (side panels w/ insulation) that Bethel will ship to me at no charge. The tubes are not bad at all, most of the ash buildup falls off easily. I'd say it will take approx 2 hrs of my time for 5 months of burning. I have most of my wood stacked and ready for this year so burning green wood (and getting the moisture buildup) should be minimal.