FYI - horizontal flue ash buildup

[pybyr]

As an FYI to those who are new to gasification boilers and/ or maintenance of such systems:

You can look forward to a remarkable absence of creosote in the chimney and any flue pipe between boiler and chimney-

BUT

Be sure to check any horizontal flue runs (yes I know that they are to be avoided/ minimized/ pitched with a rise) for buildup of fly ash.

I have a horizontal run between my boiler and chimney (it was unavoidable given old farmhouse basement geometry...) and each season of burning manages to fill that flue pipe nearly half full with an accumulation of fly ash.

 

[vvvv]

I'd think the flyash is insulating the bottom of the horizontal run & avert creo condensation?

 

[pybyr]

I'd think the flyash is insulating the bottom of the horizontal run & avert creo condensation?

There's essentially no creosote whatsoever in the flue-- and when the ash starts occupying a significant percentage of the flue cross-section, it can't be doing anything helpful.

 

[willworkforwood]

Do you have access to that pipe from your BD? Every few weeks I clean out my horizontal pipe via the BD opening. I was going to build a tool to do the clean out, but then happened to noticed our metal kitchen ladle. Turns out that was perfect for dragging a pile of loose ash back to the BD for removal. But bending a tin cup into an oval and attaching it to a thick wire would work too (along with probably 4-5 other ways). Just pulling out around 80% of what's in there is all I try to do.

 

[pybyr]

Do you have access to that pipe from your BD? Every few weeks I clean out my horizontal pipe via the BD opening. I was going to build a tool to do the clean out, but then happened to noticed our metal kitchen ladle. Turns out that was perfect for dragging a pile of loose ash back to the BD for removal. But bending a tin cup into an oval and attaching it to a thick wire would work too (along with probably 4-5 other ways). Just pulling out around 80% of what's in there is all I try to do.

Thanks for the suggestion. My sideways run is much longer than I'd normally ever want (again, old house basement constraints), so even though I put some Tees on it for access, I end up needing to vacuum it out (with a homemade Frankenvac arrangement).

The main reason I am mentioning this is that I'd hate to have someone who's new to gasifiers go into the heating season with a flue that is already substantially restricted by ash (but may not realize that this is going on), and will only get worse as the situation progresses.