It rained in my new OWB.....

[Johnny Ringo]

This year I put in a central 6048. This was all new to me, burned inside for years but never with a owb. Anyway I got it all set, just had to fill it with water, don't know why it was 88 degrees but it was Friday night and I had to fill it. Put the corrosion inhibitor in, started filling... (water softening cartridge attached, nothings too good for my new baby!) Well I filled and filled, turned on the pump, drank a few more beers and quite a while later it's finally visible in the check glass. Water was starting to condense inside....boiler showed 47degrees. Well I couldn't have that so I started a little fire to dry it out.....then it started raining inside the boiler. So I added more wood, a wheelburrows worth....more rain.....more wood...more rain.....finally started to dry up after a small lake had accumulated in the bottom. Oh and that strangly familiar smell I smelt was my burned hair and eyebrows I must have got a little close checking on it. (wife got a kick out of that.) Well it finally made 180 degrees and the damper slamed shut right on schedule and I had free hot water till Wednesday....So the big ??? is how do you fire up and avoid the water condensation or don't you get it when it's cold and not so humid...... I guess a could let the water heater temper the OWb but that would be a waste of electricity...so whats up?????

 

[bore_pig]

 

[bore_pig]

I do not know much about OWB's but it sounds like it was just because of the really cold water.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

The 47 degree water and storage tank caused condensation inside the firebox on a warm humid day..

One of the byproducts of burning hydrocarbons is H2O or water. This caused more condensation till the water in the storage tank reached outside temperature. All that was left was for the firebox to dry out from what had accumulated.

As long as water didnt continue to show up after the damper shut it should be holding water.

 

[Johnny Ringo]

I know it's holding water, I charged it prior and it was good. I'm sure it was the cold water in the tank I just wasn't sure if I was going to get it again and if I did if there was anything I could do about it. I supose I will find out when I refire in about a month.........never seen that before but I never had a firebox surrounded by cold water either. But that baby held it's temp at 180 for five days!!!!!! Oh Oh gotta go, I'm a packer backer and that turn coat Favre is playing at 5:30. LOL

 

[oneoldbanjo]

The cold surface inside the OWB caused by the cold water was just allowing the warm/moist air to condense on the metal surface. The way to prevent the problem was not to allow any airflow through the OWB. If your stack and door was open I imagine warm air would be entering the stack and getting cooled inside the OWB and then the cold air would flow out whatever damper opening your OWB has.....it was just backward convection. If the stack was closed and you left the OWB door closed it probably would not have had enough moisture to make much water - however the 47 degree water would have taken weeks to warm up in your insulated OWB.

I didn't notice the problem when we filled mine. We already had the firebox full of old barn siding and filled the OWB - then lit the fire and never looked inside.