Last night, while working on my new (to me) Eko 40 (2008 build date), I pulled the turbulators out as I had all of the panels off of the boiler already and want to go through it before staring to install it or tackling the bad controller aspect.
Granted, it was my first time doing it, and the previous owner didn't seem great about maintenance, and left it sit in a barn for almost a decade after moving (uncleaned), but at least it seems that they batch-burned with it as they had a 500 gallon thermal storage tank. That said, it took me the better part of an HOUR to get the damn things out of the tubes (took at lot of prying/pounding even AFTER I got the upper portion clear of obstructions), even though I had a decent amount of access to play with. Are these REALLY supposed to be pulled out and cleaned every two weeks during the burn season??? The turbulators themselves don't seem to have much buil-up, but the center one (longer than the rest), looks a little sketchy, which may have contributed to the issues of getting them out. (I'll post a picture in a reply below).
The HX tubes were pretty packed, and I'm still working on a solution to clean them. I bought a piece of 3/8" all thread and double-nutted several 1 1/2" fender washers on it at various heights, to run in my 20V Dewalt drill, but it didn't do a stellar job. I have a 36" long brush arriving tomorrow, but I bought it in 1 1/2" (based on the width of the turbulators), but I'm thinking that's going to be too small to be effective.
Main Questions:
--Do the "chain" modifications work well? If so, what size chain link works?
--What size brush diameter would work best on these?
--Any other cleaning advice? (Tips/tricks/frequency other than no burning wet wood)
--The previous owner also had three furnace bricks placed between the rear of the factory supplied refractory pieces and the HX tubes in the center--any idea why (maybe because of the warped/melted/longer tubulator in the picture in the next post?
Thanks!
Granted, it was my first time doing it, and the previous owner didn't seem great about maintenance, and left it sit in a barn for almost a decade after moving (uncleaned), but at least it seems that they batch-burned with it as they had a 500 gallon thermal storage tank. That said, it took me the better part of an HOUR to get the damn things out of the tubes (took at lot of prying/pounding even AFTER I got the upper portion clear of obstructions), even though I had a decent amount of access to play with. Are these REALLY supposed to be pulled out and cleaned every two weeks during the burn season??? The turbulators themselves don't seem to have much buil-up, but the center one (longer than the rest), looks a little sketchy, which may have contributed to the issues of getting them out. (I'll post a picture in a reply below).
The HX tubes were pretty packed, and I'm still working on a solution to clean them. I bought a piece of 3/8" all thread and double-nutted several 1 1/2" fender washers on it at various heights, to run in my 20V Dewalt drill, but it didn't do a stellar job. I have a 36" long brush arriving tomorrow, but I bought it in 1 1/2" (based on the width of the turbulators), but I'm thinking that's going to be too small to be effective.
Main Questions:
--Do the "chain" modifications work well? If so, what size chain link works?
--What size brush diameter would work best on these?
--Any other cleaning advice? (Tips/tricks/frequency other than no burning wet wood)
--The previous owner also had three furnace bricks placed between the rear of the factory supplied refractory pieces and the HX tubes in the center--any idea why (maybe because of the warped/melted/longer tubulator in the picture in the next post?
Thanks!
