Used Woodmaster 434

[Rjones093]

Any help would be appreciated, I’m going to look at a used Woodmaster 434 tonight. I’ve always admired a wood boiler and have fed them on occasion, but I’ve never owned one. The one I’m looking at has power to it, but has not been used in 9 years. The current owner is not the original owner and has not used the stove since he bought the house. Is there any way I can test the components without a fire in it. Any general information would be useful, thanks

 

[maple1]

An OWB that has sat idle for 9 years? That would be a huge risk.

First thing would be determine if it would hold water or not. Second would be get inside & poke around the firebox with say a sharp screwdriver to make sure there aren't any holes that are about to open up - preferable while it is full of water which would make a leak more obvious. Third would be look inside all the ports with a bright light shining inside another port & see how rusty it looks inside the water jacket - kind of hard to do while full of water. Fourth - IMO, even if it all passes your muster, don't pay any more than you could get out of it if you hauled it to the scrapyard for scrap.

My quick spur of the moment thoughts....

 

[Rjones093]

Maple1 I appreciate the response, and I agree I’m very leery, but hopefully it’s worth a look.

 

[Rjones093]

Is there a way to manually kick the fan and pump on

 

[Bad LP]

Is there a way to manually kick the fan and pump on

I'm betting the pump is seized. Boiler water and used pumps on a shelf don't like each other.

 

[maple1]

Should be, by jumping a couple of aquastat connections. But without being there and seeing first hand, can't say what. Basically, if there is power to the unit - find power in the aquastat (take cover off), and jump that power over to where the circ & fan are hooked to. Maybe start by following the fan & pump wires back into its aquastat. (Could also be more than one aquastat).

EDIT: Um yah, seizure a definite possibility. So don't jumper for long if you do - just momentarily. My loading circ stuck once, just from sitting a few summer months.

(A new circ & fan would likely be the least concerning of possible things needing fixed and should count on replacing anyway...)

 

[Rjones093]

Yep more than one aquastat. The stove doesnt appear to have been used much at all. He kicked the breaker on and the draft fan turned on okay. The red water light came on (stove didn’t have water in it). Nothing seemed to be stuck from sitting and if I have to replace the circ pump then so be it. It came with a garage heat exchanger/ blower, furnace heat exchanger, and the “thing” on the hot water heater. Once I get it home I’ll go through everything and hope to using it this time next year.

 

[warno]

I'm with maple on this one. I would definitely check for leaks if it's be sitting for 9 years it would be a miracle if it didn't have at least some pin holes. If they left ash in the firebox you'll have to remove it at least away from the corners to see if there's any erosion from the acidic nature of ash and moisture. I would like to think they drained it down by its hard to say. With no great way to see inside the water jacket it's a pretty big crapshoot.

 

[Rjones093]

The ash was cleaned out, so that’s a plus. I did run a screw driver around the inside in the front and the back of the firebox and shined up the welds, didn’t appear to have any corrosion, but I am planning for leaks, and what I paid, which wasn’t much, reflected that so I thinks it’s work the risk, knowing I could get my money out of the other parts

 

[warno]

Hopefully the water jacket and firebox walls aren't thinned out and you can actually use it with minimal to no repairs.

 

[maple1]

Hope you have also considered what else you will need to spend money on besides the boiler?

Proper underground pipe runs somewhere in the $10-15/foot range. And you want to use proper stuff.

Plus whatever else you need to adapt to the system you have now. And lots of wood.

 

[Rjones093]

Thanks Maple1, I have considered everything else it will take. I currently burn wood 24/7 in an old Timberline that came with the farm house my wife and just bought, it does a fine job, but wouldn’t mind the fire being outside. I have researched the piping a few times and next summer I plan trench it in with spray foam. We already have snow on the ground here in Wisconsin so I’ll wait to summer and do it right verses rushing this year. When I get the Woodmaster home I can go over everything, from what I can tell it wasn’t used hardly at all. It was drained and all cleaned up by the previous owner.

 

[maple1]

OK - sounds good so far then. Just that sometimes some dive right into things like this without seeing all of what they are really jumping into.

So - continued good luck!