Need help

[RobbieH]

Hello all. I'm new to this forum. Joined because I thought maybe I could get some help.
I have an empyre 250 wood boiler. My father bought it about 11 years ago and since his passing a few years back, I've moved into the house.
The boiler has always worked great. It's always been cleaned and maintained. I've never had any problems until this season. What's happening is the water temperature is too high, yet the thermometer on the stack pipe is reading cold.
I have the temp set for 160F. I went out this morning to check on it and it was 210. Smoke comes out the pipe but like I said, it reads cold (50F) and cold to the touch as well.
There's what looks like watery creosote dripping from where the pipes connect.
Do you think the pipe is so dirty that it's preventing a proper draft?
By the way, the aquastat and blower work fine.
Thanks for any advice. Here are some pics of the "creosote leak".

 

[TheRambler]

Welcome to Hearth.com Robbie. Hopefully a moderator will be by shortly to move this post to the boiler room section of the forum. The guys over there should be able to help you out.

 

[RobbieH]

Welcome to Hearth.com Robbie. Hopefully a moderator will be by shortly to move this post to the boiler room section of the forum. The guys over there should be able to help you out.

Thanks. Apologies for posting in the wrong section.

 

[DAKSY]

Moved to Boiler Room

 

[Karl_northwind]

how's your wood? in a gasser, creosote is typically a sign that the wood is too wet, with the latent heat of vaporization of the water in the wood keeping the fire from getting hot enough to burn all the volatiles, and then condensing into creosote.
the wateriness of the creosote/ drainage makes me thing it's just water vapor condensing, and dragging dust from the flue down the pipe.

is there any return protection in the boiler loop? has anything changed in the heating system that would change the temperature of the water going back to the boiler?
I would also check your circulators to make sure they're all running, and check any dampers on the stove to make sure they're opening/closing how they should. haven't worked on one of those in a while, but I think they're just blowers, no damper.

 

[hondaracer2oo4]

I agree with burning unseasoned wood.

 

[RobbieH]

Thanks for the replies. The wood has been stacked for 4-5 months now, and is under a roof. No different than any other year.
But if it is too unseasoned, what can I do?
The circulators all work fine as far as I can tell. I'll take a closer look at them though.
Would burning unseasoned wood cause the water temp to be too high? And the condensation in the stack would prevent the stack from getting hot?

 

[JTWALL]

Any possibility of getting some well-seasoned firewood to burn for a few days. If the problem goes away, you know what caused it. If not, then you'll need to keep investigating.

 

[stee6043]

I would wager a guess that the quality of wood is not the root cause of the temperature problem being described. If you've got your max temp set at 160 and the boiler is reaching 210 you've got something else going on. I'd personally rather trouble shoot "too much heat" vs "not enough" any day with these things.

Is the boiler getting 210 degree water to your heating system in the house? Are your circ pumps working correctly? Are your pipes/pex runs hot?

I would think that your boiler would not be running over temp if your flue was clogged or if you were suffering from really, really bad wood conditions. Producing "too much" heat would possibly suggest you're not moving water away quickly enough. Or possibly a failed aquastat?

The cool flue seems a bit unusual but if your circ pumps aren't moving heat away like they should the boiler may be in a perpetual idle mode.

 

[BoiledOver]

What type of thermometer is on your stack? Is your stack insulated? Even a smoldering fire will have more than 50F running out the flue.