EF-2 Life expectancy

[charger1966]

Hello, I have a 2004 Enviro EF-2 in my house. I bought it brand new and have had it serviced right along. The last six years I have been servicing it to save money. With normal wear & tear on this unit,replacing broken or worn out parts, IE: bushings, auger motor, vacuum switch & both blowers, the brick panels,the insulated panels behind the brick as well. How much longer will this unit last me? I have just noticed a faint smoke smell coming from the convection blower outlet and wonder if the heat ex-changer tubes are possibly burned through. Has anyone had any kind of experience with this ? If so can they be repaired & How? Thanks, Lance

 

[johnny1720]

I have only seen two sets of heat ex-changer tubes burn through. Both of those stoves were burning 100% corn and you could easily see through them. What you do is clean them up with scotch brite pad and a metal bottle brush. Then put a light inside and look for light leaks down the tubes as a first test. If you are really worried about it call in a pro and have them take a peek. When they build stoves they pressure test them, you could rig something up if you wanted to but probably not necessary.


I always laugh when I see people change stoves just to purchase another identical or similar stove. Those people must have money to burn, the life expectancy of a stove is 15-20 years unless you abuse it. So they could slap on a cheap coat of paint and a few replacement parts and have a new stove.

 

[charger1966]

I did clean the tubes as best as I could on the inside . The scraper is broken so I could not use it. I just never had the time to replace the rod. I did shine a light inside and try to look down each tube but I didn't see anything. Maybe that is a good thing. I will however try to clean them better and get that scraper t work again. Thanks for the reply.

 

[johnny1720]

Go to a store and find a nice round wire brush. Clean those tubes up and put the brightest light you have inside the burn box of the stove. If you tear that stove down enough you could pressure test each tube really easily.

If that tube scraper is broke. You are loosing a bunch of efficiency. I bet you just got a down draft on your chimney. The possibility of your heat exchanger having holes is slim