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[Roger2561]

The guy I hired to weld the seam closed of the primary air channel, in the back corner of my E-Classic 1400 called me earlier this week saying he will no longer be doing anymore welding job on OWB's.  I guess he was hired sometime a couple of weeks ago to patch one for a guy a few towns down.  A few days later he received a phone call from the guy claiming his welding made the leak worse.  Being the honorable business man he is, he went down with all of his gear to fix what he supposedly broke.  After inspecting the water jacket, the leak was on the opposite wall of the OWB, nowhere close to where he was welding.  The customer claims the hole was due to he not doing a good enough job welding.  Because he never touched that side of the OWB, he feels he's not responsible for the leak.  If the guy wants it fixed, he has to pay for it.  I agree with him.  But, the guy now refuses to pay the welder for services rendered.  Off to small claims court they go.  So, due to the hassles of dealing with the guy, he's no longer welding for the general public, he's only going to do what he been doing all along; weld for businesses.  I have a feeling this was the straw that broke the camels back.  So, back to the drawing board to see if I can line up another welder for the just in case scenario.  Trying to locate a welder that does house calls is becoming more and more difficult. 

Enjoy your weekend everyone!  Roger   

[Corneroffice]

15k into the OWB and we need to have a welder on standby... priceless

[willieG]

I have welded on a lot of "junk" over the years, trying to get  "one more season" out of it (not just stoves but crap tanks, fuel tanks, all kinds of things) and I have found with OWB its a hit and miss (50/50) you might find a stove that had some slag trapped in a weld or a seam that the welder didn't get right on and drifted a little off to the side and it let go, these are patched up and the stove may go for years with never another problem. (good news)
Then there are the real junkers that pop a hole out in the middle of no where, chances are you will chase this hole for a day, or put one big patch over it, but there is also a very good chance another hole will pop up next week, is it bad steel, corrosive water? I don't know but it can sure discourage a good welder when it happens and the owner does not understand or will not admit that the welder is not at fault. I have welded a few but I refuse to weld one for anyone other than friends that know the risks. (of course for friends I weld for rum)

[slimjim]

Let me guess, the rum is to steady the hand and improve the eyesight?

[willieG]

Let me guess, the rum is to steady the hand and improve the eyesight?

at my age...need all the help I can get Slim

[slimjim]

I know the feeling, depth perception gets harder every time I pick up a stick welder!

[Roger2561]

15k into the OWB and we need to have a welder on standby... priceless

As my late dad used to say, if it's man-made, it'll break, at the worse possible moment NOT when it's NOT being used.  I'm starting my 5th season operating my OWB.  I have been meticulously babying this thing due to the price tag.  Heck, even the welder I hired to close the gap in the air channel said I'm doing a great job maintaining it.  But I also know that it may spring a leak anytime it desires to do so. 

Corneroffice - I hope that's all I ever need from the welder, just standby for the "just in case" scenario.  Oh, that reminds me; test the water to be sure the treatment is up to snuff.         

[willieG]

I know the feeling, depth perception gets harder every time I pick up a stick welder!

I'm like Fred Sanford, special glasses for everything..bi-focals to walk and see normal but still use a larger than  needed set of dime store cheaters for welding, I got a drawer full of them from 1.5 to 3.5

[Corneroffice]

15k into the OWB and we need to have a welder on standby... priceless

Corneroffice - I hope that's all I ever need from the welder, just standby for the "just in case" scenario.  Oh, that reminds me; test the water to be sure the treatment is up to snuff.       

So I get home last night and I hear a beep beep coming from the boiler... o no... the display is showing 000, o no, low water. The boiler has been running well for my second season (I got it used, its a 2008). So I check the sight class and sure enough its low. I check the basement first for a blown pipe, nothing, inspect around the boiler and it all looks good... but im thinking this is not good... I decide to fill the boiler to see if I can see whats going on.  With the fire box door open I see a strange build up of creosote on the right wall about 3/4 the way up. I scrape a bit of it away and instantly a pin hole of water is shooting into the firebox. I then scrape a bit around it to see how bad this is and another hole opens up. Continue to clean around the area and no more holes but the area the size of a 1/2 dollar is very soft to the touch. I bet a soft tap of the hammer would go right through.

I have never had to add water, the PH and nitrate tests are right on the money.

Im sure based on what I have read on this site that CB is not going to give me any love, Im not the original owner (although the unit is only 8 years old) and I have had to do a slight mod to the air channels as they were riddled with cracks and not working any longer. I do have a call into them, so fingers crossed.

Plan B is what Im planning for now.

1 - looks like folks have success patching the infected areas. I have a few good friends that weld so I have access to that.
Also sounds like if Im going to patch this area I should clean and thoroughly inspect the entire jacket to ensure there are no additional weak spots developing.

2 - Dump the CB and look for a new one...

IF there is a silver lining in any of this, its the end of the season and I was planning on a shut down in a few weeks.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or comments.
Jody

[mlappin]

Mild steel can do weird things, I’ve replaced pieces in other applications that was more like swiss cheese than metal, cut the bad area out and the rest looked like new. I’ve welded numerous fuel tanks on heavy trucks as well that would just pop a hole in the middle of no where for no good reason.

On farm repairs, if I’ve done it before and it rotted out again, it gets replaced with stainless. Botton of augers, fertilizer spreaders, conveyors, bottom of the grain leg etc. Some things no matter how meticulously maintained like to be a pain in the butt.

[mlappin]

The guy I hired to weld the seam closed of the primary air channel, in the back corner of my E-Classic 1400 called me earlier this week saying he will no longer be doing anymore welding job on OWB's.  I guess he was hired sometime a couple of weeks ago to patch one for a guy a few towns down.  A few days later he received a phone call from the guy claiming his welding made the leak worse.  Being the honorable business man he is, he went down with all of his gear to fix what he supposedly broke.  After inspecting the water jacket, the leak was on the opposite wall of the OWB, nowhere close to where he was welding.  The customer claims the hole was due to he not doing a good enough job welding.  Because he never touched that side of the OWB, he feels he's not responsible for the leak.  If the guy wants it fixed, he has to pay for it.  I agree with him.  But, the guy now refuses to pay the welder for services rendered.  Off to small claims court they go.  So, due to the hassles of dealing with the guy, he's no longer welding for the general public, he's only going to do what he been doing all along; weld for businesses.  I have a feeling this was the straw that broke the camels back.  So, back to the drawing board to see if I can line up another welder for the just in case scenario.  Trying to locate a welder that does house calls is becoming more and more difficult. 

Enjoy your weekend everyone!  Roger   

Some people were certainly placed on this earth to try everyone else’s patience.

Several years back our county decided that all septics had to be installed by licensed and bonded contractors, so Dad got into that for awhile as we already had a mini excavator, tracked skid steer, laser, and a dump truck, also did it to keep the hired man busy in the summer.

Had a lawyer draw up a contract for when he did inspections before a closing on a house. Even had a line about “current condition of the system is no guarantee of future performance” and a line next to it to be initialed by whoever orders the inspection.

He did one in the drought of 2012, saying it was dryer than a popcorn fart in that area was the understatement of the century, hadn’t rained in at least month in that part of the county.

He does the inspection, everything works as it should, he signs off on it, new owners take possession. The next year is the exact opposite with several record setting rainfalls, system gets water logged and fails, owners sue Dad as it’s his fault it rained too much.

Didn’t goto small claims either as they came up with some obscene number to replace the system and of course included “mental anguish”. Went to court, judge seen the initialed line and tossed it out right there after ordering them to pay for dads time and lawyer.

A few other things like that and he got out of that business even though it was very lucrative as once the licensed and bonded thing went into effect a lot of fly by night guys disappeared and the price of a system doubled.

[schoppy]

You're not alone on problems with CB units. I welded in a new floor for a friend of mine on his 11 year old CB. He was not religious about cleaning out the ashes every year and it finally ate through the floor at the back left corner in the middle of the heating season last year. Came home and found water running out his loading door. His had no warranty left on it and it is a big old plain jane model. The factory said to get a new unit or weld in a new bottom. I cut large holes in the old floor for the water to circulate up to the new floor as I had to raise the new floor up about 2 inches to get to good metal on the sides to weld to. The original floor was one piece with 2 bends in it. I had to replace it in 3 pieces and a lot of weld rod.

Been working good for 2 seasons now but he knows he is on borrowed time. 

[Corneroffice]

Update on the situation.

Had a welder come by to see what he could do
we cut out the leak (4"x4" area) to make sure we got it all.
We were both surprised on how thin the water jacket was (he felt it was 20ga).

upon attempting to weld a patch in, he was unsuccessful largely do to the patch was too thick and the existing water jacket too thin.
He needed to get new stock and a Mig to finish the job.

I feel like this is only the beginning - ugh

[Corneroffice]

continuing to work on the patch. 2nd attempt has failed. the water jacket keeps splitting at the weld because its such thin crapty metal.
Welder has 1 more idea of a patch, next option is to plate the entire side of the water jacket with something thicker then the tin foil Central thought would be a good idea
Im only 500 into the "fix", wtf right??

Honestly, not sure im comfortable at this point, having an issue pop up in Feb will put me over the edge.

Im ready to crap can this thing and buy anything but a CB, time is ticking so I need to do something within the month....

Folks local to NH, what options for boilers are out there? 1800k sqft house and a future garage is what I heat.
100% wood

[slimjim]

I'm specializing in boiler swap outs, come see us at the Lancaster NH fair!