First, I'm not an active poster on this site, although it has been a wealth of information over the years and helped me decide on the purchase of a gasification boiler. Thank you to everyone who has posted helpful information over the years on how to operate and maintain these units. I have an Econoburn EBW-200 model that I purchased new in 2008 and it has been in use for every heating season since then. I'm in central New York so our heating season generally starts in October and goes into March-April. I've been very pleased with the performance of this boiler over the years since it has been very reliable with minimal maintenance. Besides the yearly turbulator cleanings, I've replaced the fan capacitor, door gaskets and ceramic nozzle once. After replacing the nozzle, I cut a plate of 1/2" thick steel with a slot in it to fit over the nozzle to protect it, and it has worked well to reduce the wear to the nozzle and doesn't seem to have any effect on the gasification process. When I initially purchased the boiler, I had intentions of eventually adding 1000 gallons of pressurized storage. After using the boiler for a couple of seasons without storage, I realized that I was satisfied with it's performance, and decided against adding storage. Fast forward to a couple days ago, I came home from work to find the fire was completely out and the ash was a soggy mess inside the boiler. After shutting down the water feed and cleaning out the boiler, I found a small hole in the front wall inside the upper chamber, about halfway between the bottom of the door opening and the floor. Further inspection revealed the front wall is paper thin in the middle since I could easily poke through it with a screwdriver. The steel feels thicker when I tap on it as I work my way outward from the center. The front wall is clean with little to no creosote buildup. The steel appears to be slightly wavy as if it is warped from the heat. All of the rest of the walls are structurally sound with a thin coating of creosote buildup. When I scrape off the creosote coating, which is like a thin coating of tar, the steel underneath is shiny, clean looking steel, with no signs of corrosion. The boiler water I drained out was nice and clean, with no signs of rust or corrosion debris in the water. I called Econoburn and was told the issue is likely due to corrosion from creosote. In my opinion, if the issue was creosote related, then all of the walls would be suffering from corrosion. Rather, it appears the thin creosote layer actually protects the bare steel from corrosion. I didn't ask about warranty, even though Econoburn advertises a 25 year warranty on the pressure vessel. It's a prorated warranty and after 14 years I'm in the lowest bracket where they would only cover 20% of the cost of the repair. I'm about 4 hours away from the factory (about $100 round trip with current diesel prices), so I decided to call a local welding company and they're going to come out tomorrow and assess the situation and hopefully be able to weld a patch on the inside of the front wall. My brother has a smaller size Econoburn put into service around the same time, and he hasn't seen any issues with the front wall deteriorating. I'm curious if anyone else has seen had these issues? I'm not upset with Econoburn since I think they build a great boiler which has given me 14 years of trouble-free service. I'm definitely money ahead than if I were to have heated with propane for 14 years. I was just expecting this boiler to last 20+ years. Even if it is patched up successfully, I realize this is a bit of a bandaid fix and it will always be in the back of my mind that it will eventually fail again, in the middle of winter. I'll try to get a pic to attach to this post when I get home from work.
Econoburn Pressure Vessel Failure
- Thread starter Greenrider
- Start date
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salecker
Minister of Fire
Hi
I am on year 14 on my Econoburn 200
I think storage would have helped you avoid your leak.
I wish i could get away with yearly cleaning of the flue tubes, I had to startup this year with dirty flue tubes as the coating would not come off cold.So i fired for about a week before i could clean them.Noticed a big difference the next fire in loading time of my storage.So instead of cleaning 1/2 way through the season i am cleaning every 2 1/2 cords.
I wonder if your damage occurred in the off season?I see some folks do off season precautions to keep their boilers dry in the of season.
I am on year 14 on my Econoburn 200
I think storage would have helped you avoid your leak.
I wish i could get away with yearly cleaning of the flue tubes, I had to startup this year with dirty flue tubes as the coating would not come off cold.So i fired for about a week before i could clean them.Noticed a big difference the next fire in loading time of my storage.So instead of cleaning 1/2 way through the season i am cleaning every 2 1/2 cords.
I wonder if your damage occurred in the off season?I see some folks do off season precautions to keep their boilers dry in the of season.
Here are some pics of the hole. The wall is beer can thin at the hole. This is before cleaning the steel other than a light scrape with a putty knife so I could see what I was dealing with. There was barely any film of creosote on this front wall.
Here are some pics after I cleaned it up with a wire wheel in a grinder. The tape starts at the bottom ledge of the door opening. Tapping anywhere on this wall sounds like tapping on a metal barrel. Very hollow, thin sound compared to the rest of the walls and top, which sound much thicker. Is there even supposed to be water behind this front wall, below the door opening?
Is it possible this is an area of poor water circulation or an air pocket that allowed the fire to overheat the steel?
I'm sure storage adds to the longevity of any wood boiler but I'm not sure if that's what caused the failure. There are absolutely no thin spots anywhere else on the boiler other than this one spot on the front wall. If it was due to corrosion from creosote then there should be evidence of this in other areas. I attached a pic of the other walls, which have a thin layer of creosote, but the steel is nice and shiny underneath. The brown spots aren't rust but rather burned creosote that crumble off easily. Also, the boiler is in a climate controlled garage all summer. I run a dehumidifier to keep humidity at 50% so it's a pretty stable environment. I have pieces of bare steel laying around from various welding projects that don't have any surface rust.
Yikes! I'm hoping this repair will be much cheaper. Even if it's just a patch job to get me through the winter so I can reassess my situation.
I have a Tarm all steel boiler that I have used every winter -- now starting on my 43rd year. I have absolutely no corrosion/rust problem with the steel in the boiler walls. The secret is the 60 watt resistance heater I have in the boiler when not in operation during the spring/summer months when the humidity is high. With the resistance heater, the boiler wall temperature is always above the ambient air dew point temperature. As a result, there is never water condensate on the walls. Condensate on the boiler walls in combination with the corrosive chemicals in the creosote is an absolute condition for destruction of the boiler.
I believe you need to do more than run a dehumidifier. I live in the Cleveland/Akron area which probably has similar weather conditions like you have in New York. Those very damp spring days, with large temperature swings and hot humid July days have a lot of moisture in the air. Just a little condensate on the creosote of the boiler walls creates a highly corrosive chemical mixture.
John M.
salecker
Minister of Fire
I have noticed on mine that area always is the last area of coals or the next day that area will have charcoal.Plus when i clean out the ashes in the upper chamber they are always piled against the wall there.
How often do you clean all the ashes out of the upper chamber?
If they were left there over the summers with high humidity i could see them corroding the wall.
I bought a bear trap that the PO spray painted gloss black,i placed it under the drip line of my boiler building.I spread ashes on it and after 4 years it is getting a good rusty patina back.
That is about the crappiest place to fix.
I clean the ash out weekly and at the end of the season I shop vac every last bit out after shoveling out both chambers.
$500 later I'm back to heating with wood. I had a local welding company weld a patch over the front wall. After he inspected everything he agreed with my assessment that it's not from creosote corrosion from inside the fire box but rather it corroded from the inside of the water jacket. He said it's likely the water is boiling in that area, either from poor circulation or an air pocket, which creates steam and oxygen, which leads to corrosion. He also agreed that it's not a water quality issue since the rest of the boiler walls are fine. He also added a free-standing steel plate in front of that wall to keep the direct flame off it, to try to avoid further damage in that area. Now that I think of it, I've always heard a slight hissing sound coming from the front of the boiler when the draft fan shuts down. I always thought it was moisture in the wood escaping but I season my wood 2 years before burning it, and it's all dead trees and blow downs to begin with, si it's good and dry. I can still hear the hissing through the fan shroud, which is right over that front wall. Unfortunately, I don't think this will be a long term fix, but it should at least get me through the winter. I guess I should start thinking about buying another boiler. I'm not knocking Econoburn, but after this experience, I think I'll replace it with another brand. Hopefully it will be the last I'll ever have to buy.
Greenrider Glad you found someone that quickly to get you back up and going. Both times I had welds fail on my Garn I ended up being down the rest of the winter and it was fall by the time I got back up and running both times. I ended up spending a lot of money on propane and electricity to get up by until I could get the Garn repaired.
cumminstinkerer
Burning Hunk
@Greenrider my Econoburn 100 in my avatar did the same thing with the boiling, I think circulation in that area is pretty poor, the plate will help some, if you have some space between the added in plate and the main wall maybe add a firebrick in there to help cushion it more.
It definitely appears to be a design flaw. I wonder if there were changes made to the new ones to prevent this? Keep a close eye on that front wall. When it corrodes from within you can't see it until there's a hole. It will sound different compared to the other walls when tapping on it. Good idea with the fire brick to absorb the heat. In think I'll do that behind the plate since it just sits in there.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
That's what I was wondering too...is this a place that you can stack some firebrick for a lil protection?
cumminstinkerer
Burning Hunk
@Greenrider I passed mine along to a friend that will be using to heat his pool mostly, maybe some for his garage, I now have a Polar G2+ that I really like, the econoburn was a good boiler and I liked it, no harm in trying the brick.
How long did you have the econoburn and why did you decide to switch to the Polar?
Yes there's room since I cut my logs 20". I think the fire box is 24" if I recall. A layer of fire brick behind the removeable plate sounds like a good plan.
PassionForFire&Water
Minister of Fire
The cause is abrasion from the combustion gasses.
It's like a continuos sanding operation over the many years of operation
That's why Euro boilers all have removable protector plates or sacrificial plates; you sacrifise these plates to spare the boiler walls.
It's the same in large industrial biomass boilers or even oil boilers.
You will need to replace a large section (cut out) and weld a new section in
An experianced TIG welder will be able to fix this with good control of heat from welding process.
I would avoid MIG welding process at this boiler age
It's like a continuos sanding operation over the many years of operation
That's why Euro boilers all have removable protector plates or sacrificial plates; you sacrifise these plates to spare the boiler walls.
It's the same in large industrial biomass boilers or even oil boilers.
You will need to replace a large section (cut out) and weld a new section in
An experianced TIG welder will be able to fix this with good control of heat from welding process.
I would avoid MIG welding process at this boiler age
maple1
Minister of Fire
Not sure I agree with that. My boiler is Euro, and no plates. The combustion chamber is actually pretty tame. It always has a thin scaly layer of creosote on the walls. The secondary chamber is another story, but there are refractories down there that bear the brunt.
Having said that, I'm not familiar with the EB and exactly where the issue is.
salecker
Minister of Fire
I don't believe the issue is from combustion gasses,as was noted by the welder the erosion is from inside.
The area dosn't have the gasses moving past it.
I tapped mine yesterday and it sounded good fingers crossed
I hear the kettle sound when i start a fire,i leave it in bypass mode till i hear the kettle sound then close the bypass.
@Greenrider what are you using for boiler protection?And have you had your water tested
Mr._Graybeard
Feeling the Heat
I have it plumbed per Econoburn's instructions with the low temp bypass loop. I have a temp gauge on the return line near the boiler that reads above 140 even under heavy load. I haven't had my water tested but haven't noticed any unusual corrosion of anything else, including cast iron pumps, gate valves, etc. I think if it was due to water quality then the rest of the boiler walls would be suffering the effects as well. I did add an anti corrosion additive when I initially filled it. When I drained it after I found the leak the water looked nice and clean.
mark cline
Minister of Fire
Here is a picture of an Ewb-200 in its early construction. Is the area that’s comprised, the seam above the 2 round secondary inlets where the lower edge of the upper chamber meets the water jacket ? The refractory would be behind this at least halfway up the water Jacket chamber. Still trying to get an idea where the leak is . From what I can remember on my 300 , there is no water jacket below the door and above the secondary tubes.
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