How clean is clean?: Tarm shutdown

[Birdman]

Shut the Tarm down for summer. I cleaned it but not sure i cleaned it properly. My tubes still have some stuff on them. I wire brushed them about 15 times each. Am I supposed to clean them all the way down to the bare metal ? Also.. the fire box... I scraped it down for about 5 minutes and got off the worst of the chunky black stuff... am i supposed to do more than this? I vacuumed it all out. Cleaned the fan fins. stuffed the insulation in the pipe. I took off the chimney pipe. .. which had quite a bit of fly ash.. .and cleaned that all up for next year so it will be ready to go back on next year. I am feeling like I should put the light bulb in it? HOw will I know if i have to do this or not?

 

[sweetheat]

I'll be doing the same soon as I get time. maybe turn off the electrical breaker? sweetheat

 

[Gooserider]

You might want to see if BioHeat has any specific advice, but from what I've seen the generic advice seems to be "get the worst of the crud off, but you don't need to be a fanatic about it" and then possibly spray the interior with some sort of preservative oil - preferably something that will burn off without excessive amounts of noxious fumes, but will act as an air / water barrier in the meantime.

Otherwise sealing it up relatively well to keep air from circulating through the unit, and possibly putting some dessicant, or a low wattage heater / light bulb in the firebox to keep the temps above condensing levels is a good idea...

Gooserider

 

[Piker]

A light bulb in the lower chamber is a great idea to reduce condensation. I would remove as much crud from the heat exchcanger as possible to increase thermal transfer for next season, but mostly it's best to make sure anything that is loose in the boiler is removed. If you do get some condensation in the firebox over the summer, it can mix with the loose stuff and cause corrosion.

cheers