Heavy Duty Tube Cleaners

[Bob Rohr]

I've been think about building a heavy duty cleaner for the fire tubes. Then I remembered my drain clean daze

The cutter heads built for drain snakes are very durable and long lasting. I'd bet there is one close to the size of most tubes, or one that could be modified to fit.

 

[cityboy172]

The blades should be able to tweak where you want them to if you can get one close.

 

[Highroad281]

I ran through a couple versions of the sheet metal scrapers that I found examples of on the forum over the last couple of months. They always seemed to work ok for half a tube but then the tension would back off, the edges rounded off, etc. and the effectiveness trailed off quickly. Cheap and easy to build, but not awesome in my experience.

Today I tried out an idea I've been kicking around and it turned out better than expected. Thing works like a cylinder hone! Hard glazed creosote gone in seconds, really great. Smokes a drill battery in a couple of minutes but that was enough time for sure.

My Tarm has 3" i.d. tubes, your results may vary based on diameter, brush size, how much bend you put in the wires.

 

[Bob Rohr]

I ran through a couple versions of the sheet metal scrapers that I found examples of on the forum over the last couple of months. They always seemed to work ok for half a tube but then the tension would back off, the edges rounded off, etc. and the effectiveness trailed off quickly. Cheap and easy to build, but not awesome in my experience.

Today I tried out an idea I've been kicking around and it turned out better than expected. Thing works like a cylinder hone! Hard glazed creosote gone in seconds, really great. Smokes a drill battery in a couple of minutes but that was enough time for sure.

My Tarm has 3" i.d. tubes, your results may vary based on diameter, brush size, how much bend you put in the wires.

I was thinking the ball type drain cutter. I think it would hold it's OD well with all the high tensile coiled wire?

I've used the saw type root cutters in old clay sewer lines, they are very tough and hard to collapse or break down. You usually lose them before they wear down, just a thought.

 

[Highroad281]

I was thinking the ball type drain cutter. I think it would hold it's OD well with all the high tensile coiled wire?

I've used the saw type root cutters in old clay sewer lines, they are very tough and hard to collapse or break down. You usually lose them before they wear down, just a thought.

It definitely took a little effort to bend each braid out just a bit, but once set it was making just as many sparks in the last tube as the first one.

The boiler I got had been abused for 4 seasons before I ended up with it. I've spent hours trying to get the glaze off the inside of those tubes and nothing else would touch it. Now that they're clean and the stove is burning properly with decent fuel I may never need to be that aggressive with it again, but just wanted to share what worked for me.

 

[maple1]

I'm still using the same wimpy looking brush head that came with my boiler 2-1/2 years ago. There's just not much there to clean - a bit of fly ash. I suspect would be a bit different for those running without storage though.

 

[woodsmaster]

I use a wire tube brush slightly bigger than the tube connected to a fiberglass chiminey cleaning rod. It works well if I push it straight down and pull it straight up. I thought I'd be smart and connect it to my drill. It twisted that fiberglass rod like a pretzel, LOL...

 

[Hansson]

Tarm has has a good tube brush for the boilers.
Retailers in the US should be able to sell it.
Sry for the big picure..

 

[cpeltier]

I ran through a couple versions of the sheet metal scrapers that I found examples of on the forum over the last couple of months. They always seemed to work ok for half a tube but then the tension would back off, the edges rounded off, etc. and the effectiveness trailed off quickly. Cheap and easy to build, but not awesome in my experience.

Today I tried out an idea I've been kicking around and it turned out better than expected. Thing works like a cylinder hone! Hard glazed creosote gone in seconds, really great. Smokes a drill battery in a couple of minutes but that was enough time for sure.

My Tarm has 3" i.d. tubes, your results may vary based on diameter, brush size, how much bend you put in the wires.

Here's one I made for my Tarm Solo 60 last year. It works well but is slow to remove the hardened creosote.The knotted cup brush looks like it has the stiffness to break through that! I'll have to upgrade. I made mine from parts all sourced at Home Depot. A 3' long steal rod threaded at the end with a die and then screwed into a keyless chuck with a 3" cup brush. Runs on my Ryobi cordless drill.

 

[heaterman]

Just ran into a Garn that is going to need something like a cutter to remove all the crud in the flue tubes. (believe it or not....)

We got a call that it wasn't heating good and Drew and I went to investigate. (11PM when the call came in on one of the many -20* nights in February)
We walked into the the boiler room and Drew asked what the funky noise was. Being about 50% deaf I could hardly hear it but when I got down on the floor and put my ear by the lower flue tubes I heard what could best be described as "gargling".
We pulled the cleanout cover and about 5 gallons of liquid ran out on the floor. Really black, really stinky, really ugly liquid, plus some chunks of tar.

The owner had run out of seasoned wood and was burning stuff cut this past fall. In addition to that, his schedule kept him from firing the Garn on a regular basis and after talking with him he informed us that a lot of time the water temp was down below 90* before he could refire. This of course in combination with the green wood made for buckets of condensation in the flue tubes and the bottom two were literally filled with water.

No sir, a brush is not going to get through this junk. Wouldn't even touch it. At all. His Garn is now drained and he's running on LP for the rest of the winter.

 

[woodsmaster]

Just ran into a Garn that is going to need something like a cutter to remove all the crud in the flue tubes. (believe it or not....)

We got a call that it wasn't heating good and Drew and I went to investigate. (11PM when the call came in on one of the many -20* nights in February)
We walked into the the boiler room and Drew asked what the funky noise was. Being about 50% deaf I could hardly hear it but when I got down on the floor and put my ear by the lower flue tubes I heard what could best be described as "gargling".
We pulled the cleanout cover and about 5 gallons of liquid ran out on the floor. Really black, really stinky, really ugly liquid, plus some chunks of tar.

The owner had run out of seasoned wood and was burning stuff cut this past fall. In addition to that, his schedule kept him from firing the Garn on a regular basis and after talking with him he informed us that a lot of time the water temp was down below 90* before he could refire. This of course in combination with the green wood made for buckets of condensation in the flue tubes and the bottom two were literally filled with water.

No sir, a brush is not going to get through this junk. Wouldn't even touch it. At all. His Garn is now drained and he's running on LP for the rest of the winter.

Not knocking garn, but that kinda makes me glad I didn't buy one. I often run my storage gown to 90 or 100 degrees and burn less than perfect wood. No build up in the tubes though. Guess thats the only real disadvantage of having the storage on board.

 

[heaterman]

Not knocking garn, but that kinda makes me glad I didn't buy one. I often run my storage gown to 90 or 100 degrees and burn less than perfect wood. No build up in the tubes though. Guess thats the only real disadvantage of having the storage on board.

Normally there is no problem with those temps in a Garn but there were some other extenuating circumstances involved on this one that compounded things. Number 1 being that it's a vertical discharge model that has never been cleaned in it's 5 years of operation. The internal 90* bend going up at the end of the 5th pass on the heat exchanger was almost completely plugged with built up ash residue. This of course pretty much shut combustion down completely. Now compound that drastically reduced combustion air factor with the cold water and wet,frozen wood and you have a mess. Totally caused by lack of maintenance. Sad to see a fine piece of equipment abused so badly.
BTW.......regarding water temps below 90*.....they were often in the 60-70* range. There is no boiler that will handle those temps.