Econoburn 200 cleaning, top cover only

[goosegunner]

I cleaned my Econoburn 200 yesterday by only removing the top cover.

The turbulators and bar were removed in one piece.

1. I used a rope to tie the turbulator handle in the up position. This puts the linkage bolts up near the opening for the top cover.

2. After removing the two linkage bolts I lowered the turbulator assembly down to the fire tubes and returned the turbulator lever to the down position.

3. I used some coat hanger wire to make a pair of hooks about 18" long. I hooked those into the linkage bolt holes. I was able to pull up on the wires and pull the whole assembly out.

I am very careful to not have my boiler idle ever. It really is not that difficult to do with 1000 gallons of storage and weighed burns. There was a fair about of ash build up in the upper flue box area and in the tubes. I had very little creosote in the tubes. Just some dry hard spots, no shiny or glazed stuff. Most of the build up was removed with a 2 inch flue brush, followed up with a 2-1/4" brush. A few spots were scraped with a long piece of copper pipe.

If you use the 2-1/4" brush be prepared to only push all the way down and then pull back up. It is too tight to change directions. For my next cleaning I will have one of the spring tools to make a quick scrape and brush. I looked over the seal for the back cover and it looked good so no need to remove it.

My goal for this season will be once a month, remove the top cover, remove the ash build up and do a quick brush.

gg

 

[maple1]

With 1000 gallons of storage, I would think it should actually be pretty hard to MAKE a boiler idle - unless one is real careless with loading it up more than once.

I've only got 660, & mine can't idle. The hottest my storage has gotten was 201 top, 185 bottom. That was relayed to me by my kid a few hours after I left home after putting a few more sticks in to bump it up a bit to carry over the two days I was gone. If a good working overheat dump zone is in place, then between the house & storage it should be able to hold off a boiler from going into idle, unless load after load is run through it.

Since heating season has appeared again, I have taken to not charging up storage like I used to. I don't have enough to get me to the second day, except if there's a bit of a mild spell, so I usually have to burn every day anyway - so I'm good with 180/170 now, or so. That'll get me to the next day.

Gotta say, this gasifying stuff is great - I looked up my flue a couple weeks ago in the first big cleanout since it came online a year ago. Just a thin light ash coating in places, all the way up. No creosote to be seen anywhere, except my firebox. So I'm starting on year two of no chimney cleaning. This after 17 years of brushing out creosote 4 times a year from the top of a two storey house. Just take off the cover from the cleanout T at the back of the boiler & drag out the ash that's settled there, and the same for the cleanout T at the bottom of the chimney - twice a year. And I might be able to avoid most of that going forward with a shop vac thru my baro opening.

Awesome.

 

[goosegunner]

I could get mine to Idle If I load too much towards the end of a charge. I calculate my wood so when return temps are high the boiler output is falling off due to lack of fuel. This is the case when I charge tank top to bottom with a high temp.

I also started doing similar to your practice of just giving it enough to go to the next fire depending on outside conditions. When it gets below 15 degrees as a high temp I have found with my forced air distribution it is best to just do 2 smaller fires a day, idling is not a factor when running like that.

Flue temps are much lower after the good cleaning. It has been running 340-400 most of the day as I bring my tank up from 80 degrees for the fall heating season.

gg