Boiling my wood boiler....Bad ?

[Marley5]

I've done quite a bit of lurking in the past and many Google searches lead me straight here....great site.

Simple question here,
I do a hefty burn off of my wood boiler each spring for cleaning purposes and recently saw on this site what appeared to be a knowledgeable fellow recommend not boiling the water as it promoted internal rust.

Did i misunderstand ?

 

[greendohn]

Following.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

I've done quite a bit of lurking in the past and many Google searches lead me straight here....great site.

Simple question here,
I do a hefty burn off of my wood boiler each spring for cleaning purposes and recently saw on this site what appeared to be a knowledgeable fellow recommend not boiling the water as it promoted internal rust.

Did i misunderstand ?

Do you turn off water pump and close valves? Pipe is not rated for that temp. Friend had a runaway fire and I replaced several ruptured sections of pex. Use a pot torch to burn off creosote if needed.

 

[Marshy]

Well if you are boiling the water you are making mineral and scale on the boiler internals which will reduce heat transfer. You end up boiling out your water and have to replace it with fresh water. You do that over and over and the minerals become concentrated in the water. Dont believe me, boil a lot of water on a stove top and see what happens to the inside.

Are you doing this to burn out the creosote in the firebox? If you could do it and not boil the water it would be better in the long run for the boiker. You just need a heat dump.

 

[greendohn]

Do you turn off water pump and close valves? Pipe is not rated for that temp. Friend had a runaway fire and I replaced several ruptured sections of pex. Use a pot torch to burn off creosote if needed.

I use a cheep garden sprayer with kero/K-1 to burn my boiler off @ spring shutdown.

 

[Marley5]

Yes, doing the high temp burn for cleaning the firebox.....perhaps a long burn at 185* will sufice.

I did fill with soft water and wife's pots stay free of deposits but i do understand the concept from year's of woodstove use.....i remember those huge calcium deposits in the pots place on top of stove in my younger years.

Thankyou

 

[cantoo]

I can't see a long boiling burn being real helpful for anything. I would clean mine down as best I could and then maybe burn some nice dry softwood to "clean things out. I don't get too excited about creosote buildup though, I have a steel roof on my house so not much danger of a fire there. Last year was the 1st year I didn't run my owb all summer, I did a good job of cleaning it all out including spending an hour inside of it scraping everything down with a chisel. It's stainless if that makes a difference. I still think the reason my owb has lasted so long is that I try to keep the temperature as even as possible. I think expansion and contraction is bad for an owb so I'm burning year round and if and when I do shut it down to clean it I let it cool down over several days and then bring it back up to temp the same way, slowly.

 

[Guswhit]

I had a CB5036 years ago(don't bash me) and that thing was terrible in some spots for creosote build up. What I did was save just card board from all of the weeks regular garbage, nothing that had any kind of residue or wetness and once a week I would grab that stack and throw it in the stove and let it burn off before adding the nights worth of wood. That little bit would flash off very hot, very fast and kept all of the crevices dried up, burnt off and then in the spring it only took about 15 minutes to scrap the inside down.

 

[Mustang71]

From a non wood boiler point of view. Boiling water in a boiler is bad. That's a closed system and you are building a lot of pressure when you boil the water and also putting air into the system.

 

[Marshy]

From a non wood boiler point of view. Boiling water in a boiler is bad. That's a closed system and you are building a lot of pressure when you boil the water and also putting air into the system.

You should have stopped at your first period. There are open and closed boiler systems. Most outdoor boilers are open.

 

[Mustang71]

I said from a non outdoor wood boiler point of view. I don't know much about the outdoor wood boiler part. Just chiming in.

 

[Marley5]

I had a CB5036 years ago(don't bash me) and that thing was terrible in some spots for creosote build up. What I did was save just card board from all of the weeks regular garbage, nothing that had any kind of residue or wetness and once a week I would grab that stack and throw it in the stove and let it burn off before adding the nights worth of wood. That little bit would flash off very hot, very fast and kept all of the crevices dried up, burnt off and then in the spring it only took about 15 minutes to scrap the inside down.

Hmmm.....i have the CB5036.
Not sure i wanna hear your review. Lol

I'm considered by many to be OCD about preventative maintenance hence the reason i posed the question.
I'll do a flash fire then some scraping and call it a day......after i soak the firebox with synthetic oil .

 

[Guswhit]

Hmmm.....i have the CB5036.
Not sure i wanna hear your review. Lol
.

Well, I got what I paid for so I can't complain about that. I'm much better educated now. I would go with a gasser now probably or maybe even a Garn.