Well, 90+ degrees this weekend, so I decided to stay in the house with the A/C and get the Ultima ready for the fall:
Pulled all the refractory panels out of the Ultima; as I mentioned in a past thread, they were starting to corrode this year. The side ones were mostly affected at the thickest point, so the were still structurally sound. The back piece, though, had cracked through, although the metal bits in the cast were holding it together. So I took all the pieces out and hosed them off, and then got out the furnace cement and a grout float and put down a nice thick coat on the panels. Not sure how well it will hold up, but I had to try something.
Removed the 4 burn tubes; on the Ultima this is done by removing two screws from a plate on the right inside wall which has 4 prongs, each of which hold a tube in place. Cleaned off and out the tubes, although they were pretty clean. They had various slight amounts of warpage, so I shuffled the order to even it out. (Identical tubes.)
With the refractory, tubes, and baffles out, brushed down all the inside surfaces. Then the "fun" part - sweeping the chimney from the bottom. (I don't do heights.) It takes 9 3' sections to get all the way up (about 25'), and it's a real pain to get past the joint each 4' of chimney. Only netted a few fireplace-shovels of fine black and brown powder; pretty good for an air-cooled chimney. (Got a lot on me.) Looked up the chimney and saw plenty of daylight through the cap. Shop-vac-ed everything up, including sucking out the lower air intake.
Still to do: The ends of the tubes go through the firebox walls into metal boxes on either side. These boxes are both furnace-cemented and riveted to the outside of the firebox, but much of the cement fell out this year, leaving air gaps. Probably not a problem since the boxes clearly get air from somewhere anyway, but I'll jam some fresh cement in there just in case. I also need to rebuild my blowers, I think they need new bearings. I previously took them apart and re-oiled the felt pad in the bearings (bushings), but that didn't last very long.
Pulled all the refractory panels out of the Ultima; as I mentioned in a past thread, they were starting to corrode this year. The side ones were mostly affected at the thickest point, so the were still structurally sound. The back piece, though, had cracked through, although the metal bits in the cast were holding it together. So I took all the pieces out and hosed them off, and then got out the furnace cement and a grout float and put down a nice thick coat on the panels. Not sure how well it will hold up, but I had to try something.
Removed the 4 burn tubes; on the Ultima this is done by removing two screws from a plate on the right inside wall which has 4 prongs, each of which hold a tube in place. Cleaned off and out the tubes, although they were pretty clean. They had various slight amounts of warpage, so I shuffled the order to even it out. (Identical tubes.)
With the refractory, tubes, and baffles out, brushed down all the inside surfaces. Then the "fun" part - sweeping the chimney from the bottom. (I don't do heights.) It takes 9 3' sections to get all the way up (about 25'), and it's a real pain to get past the joint each 4' of chimney. Only netted a few fireplace-shovels of fine black and brown powder; pretty good for an air-cooled chimney. (Got a lot on me.) Looked up the chimney and saw plenty of daylight through the cap. Shop-vac-ed everything up, including sucking out the lower air intake.
Still to do: The ends of the tubes go through the firebox walls into metal boxes on either side. These boxes are both furnace-cemented and riveted to the outside of the firebox, but much of the cement fell out this year, leaving air gaps. Probably not a problem since the boxes clearly get air from somewhere anyway, but I'll jam some fresh cement in there just in case. I also need to rebuild my blowers, I think they need new bearings. I previously took them apart and re-oiled the felt pad in the bearings (bushings), but that didn't last very long.
