Hello,
I just found the forum and am desperately looking for advice.
Last winter, I had a Memco boiler from the 70's. It basicallly ran wide open all the time and did a poor job of heating my house. Since it ran wide open, and had a stack temp of around 700* all the time, i had no creosote issues.
This year I put in a HS Tarm 500. It's about 20 years old but was barely used and pretty much was only used for oil so its very clean and in good shape. Anyways, the boiler is much more efficient and doesnt have a problem heating the house, garage, and still is running with damper closed most of the time.
It has a mechanical damper that is set right now to maintain about 180*. I load up the boiler in the morning, lunch, and then when I go to bed. Since the house is barely using the capacity of the boiler, the boiler maintains the water temp easy and the bottom draft control stays shut most of the time. The issue is that I am having ALOT of creosote buildup. I have a Tee in the chimney for my barometric damper. There is so much gummy creosote in that tee that the damper wont open anymore unless I clean it everyday. I have creosote buildup on the inside of the door, and inside frame. I have to scrape the inside frame with a putty knife a few times a day to clean up the creosote. I have creosote dripping out the door and down the front of the boiler. When I do let it go out and start it up, I run it wide open for about 30 minutes and that seems to keep the chimney dried out and I sweep the chimney once a month due to this buildup.
The boiler is in the garage, with two sections of standard stovepipe going into 8' of 8" of metalbestos that goes straight through the attic and through the roof with about 3' exposed on the exterior. The wood was cut down last January, cut and split this spring, and sat stacked and covered all summer. It is cracked oped on the ends, but does have some moisture in it. Mostly Maple, some yellow birch.
Sorry it's so long, just want to give as much info as possible. really need help.
Thanks
I just found the forum and am desperately looking for advice.
Last winter, I had a Memco boiler from the 70's. It basicallly ran wide open all the time and did a poor job of heating my house. Since it ran wide open, and had a stack temp of around 700* all the time, i had no creosote issues.
This year I put in a HS Tarm 500. It's about 20 years old but was barely used and pretty much was only used for oil so its very clean and in good shape. Anyways, the boiler is much more efficient and doesnt have a problem heating the house, garage, and still is running with damper closed most of the time.
It has a mechanical damper that is set right now to maintain about 180*. I load up the boiler in the morning, lunch, and then when I go to bed. Since the house is barely using the capacity of the boiler, the boiler maintains the water temp easy and the bottom draft control stays shut most of the time. The issue is that I am having ALOT of creosote buildup. I have a Tee in the chimney for my barometric damper. There is so much gummy creosote in that tee that the damper wont open anymore unless I clean it everyday. I have creosote buildup on the inside of the door, and inside frame. I have to scrape the inside frame with a putty knife a few times a day to clean up the creosote. I have creosote dripping out the door and down the front of the boiler. When I do let it go out and start it up, I run it wide open for about 30 minutes and that seems to keep the chimney dried out and I sweep the chimney once a month due to this buildup.
The boiler is in the garage, with two sections of standard stovepipe going into 8' of 8" of metalbestos that goes straight through the attic and through the roof with about 3' exposed on the exterior. The wood was cut down last January, cut and split this spring, and sat stacked and covered all summer. It is cracked oped on the ends, but does have some moisture in it. Mostly Maple, some yellow birch.
Sorry it's so long, just want to give as much info as possible. really need help.
Thanks