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1

Central Boiler / thermocouple replacement

« on: March 12, 2023, 05:22:53 AM »

Thermocouple has been giving some low temps, ie 190 . the reaction chamber has no ash and the fire is strong with a good bed of coals. So to take out the thermocouple do I remove the refractory in the fire box to get at it? I didn't see the mastic tape in the air box cover mentioned in the manual .

2

Central Boiler / CIRCLATOR PUMP REPLACEMENT

« on: April 07, 2022, 02:34:46 PM »

After 8 years the Taco 009 circulator died. I am looking to find an energy efficient replacement. The height it has to pump is around 14 feet, boiler to the basement. I use a heat exchanger so I don't need to pump up three stories. Anyone know of a good pump for this?

3

Central Boiler / Taco 007e

« on: December 10, 2018, 05:16:50 PM »

Anyone try this out yet or know someone who does? It looks to be an energy saving pump, variable speed on demand. My electric bill goes up $30 or more every month when the boiler is on.

4

Central Boiler / FALL OPENER CLEAN OUT, READY TO START UP

« on: September 10, 2018, 06:57:11 AM »

I did my seasonal complete clean out again. I pull out everything including the fire brick, clean out all the air vents and the solenoid tube. Tested the solenoids to make sure they were all pulling 20 ohms. The only thing that I replaced were a few fire bricks. Lowes sells them but they had a heck of a time finding them. I even dug a 5' deep dry well that i stuffed a left over drain pipe in and back filled with some trap rock. I dug out a hill for a spot for my boiler pad and water always collected in the back where the clean out door is on a 1450. This year we have a 10-20 lean to filled with mainly oak split into small pieces. I think I'm ready for the heating season.

5

Fire Wood / 10' -20' METAL ROOF LEAN TO

« on: August 26, 2018, 04:08:19 PM »

Finally built  a real lean to for my boiler wood to season and store. Got real sick of tarps and skids. Now I have 9.3 cord of mainly oak with more to split and toss up top. The wood is a scrounge from a neighbor who had his land logged. They left lots of good stuff behind. Tops and the not pretty stuff that processors don't like.

6

General Discussion / INSULATING A BASEMENT KNEE WALL IN WINTER

« on: December 29, 2017, 04:21:55 PM »

I have a walk out basement with a knee wall along the front . I can feel the cold air coming in. The  construction is 2-4 framing with T 111 exterior, the inside has  r 13 kraft faced insulation with 2" of foam insulation board with the rest of the basement with 1" foam board on the walls. Air is still coming in and cooling the basement down. I have an outdoor wood boiler and the water comes in the house around 180* and cools down to 172 at the heat exchanger. The water then goes into the indoor boiler system at 162 and comes back at 150*.  The pex pipe runs the length of the basement, 30 feet.  The heat off the pex lines used to make the basement the warmest place in the house. The rest of the house is  well insulated with newer windows. Now in 15* days and 2* nights the heat can't get above 60*  and that's with the circulator  pump running 24/7.

I want to spray foam insulation in all the knee walls but it is too cold for that. Any other thoughts for now? I hate to tear down the insulation board that's there now but I may have no choice.  Any thoughts on getting a kit to spray it on my own or is it just as well to hire it out. I used to work with 2 part spray insulation, I know the part a stuff is a mess and that it needs to have the tanks at or above 70* to spray well.

7

Plumbing / Smaller pump to save electricity

« on: December 02, 2017, 08:33:03 AM »

I have a Central Boiler E 1450. I have a 10' or so rise to the house and it is 20' from the house so call it a 50 ft run to go to a heat exchanger in the basement.  I have a taco 009 f5 pump at the boiler pushing into ThermoPex with 1" pex in the house. I am wondering if I could get a smaller pump to save on electricity. I had tried to use the wood boiler  pump to circulate in the whole house system but with a walk out basement and a 2 story house that was really 3 floors to pump up to. It worked unless the boiler ran out of wood and then the CB thermostatic valve the water would not circulate and air would get  in and then no heat upstairs.  So I put in a heat exchanger to separate the Owb from the house hydronic set up and it's been fine. But I hat to see the electric bill every winter, it jumps up by 90 kw due to the circulating pump on 24/7.  What are the options?

8

Fire Wood / LOG LOAD OF PINE

« on: February 28, 2017, 05:31:32 PM »

I may have a chance to get a logging truck load of pine for free. All I have to do is pay $200-250 for trucking. It sounds great but I have never burned lots of pine. I assume that I could use it for early late  season wood or mix it in with hard wood. Any thoughts?

9

General Discussion / DUMB MOVE OF THE DAY

« on: December 28, 2016, 02:49:51 PM »

OK I can start this off with my cleaning out my boiler yesterday when the weather was good. I got my ash vac out and sucked out ash from the fire box of my Boiler. Didn't let it cool long enough and got some hot coals stuck in the wand. The inner is steel but the outer melts quite well. Gave up and shoveled it out from the back.

10

Central Boiler / 1450 WITH A LOW REACTION CHAMBER TEMP

« on: November 24, 2016, 06:51:40 PM »

I cleaned out my 1450 last week to get it ready for a longer season run.I even pulled my solenoids and my primary had creosote build up in it so I cleaned it out. Fired it up with no problems but the water temp got hot, 198 vs 190 set. The next day went out to a HI alarm, no boil over. this happened again but it was running fine otherwise and I had no time for it. After reading some posts here I checked my solenoids and they were all opening and closing as they should. Next I cleaned the door better, had some build up in corners. Now I fire it up with some good starter wood and leave it, came back and it hit 180* the new set water temp and went to idle. I thought all my troubles were over. I then set the water for 190* and I had a good bed of coals and good dry wood but the fire was smokey and when I tried to shut it down it never got over 350* in the reaction chamber. I tried again with a door open roaring fire, lots of coals but when I shut it it smokes me out again . I checked and the primary air solenoid was open as it should be . Today I shoveled out enough coals to check the air tube and it was blowing air but maybe not as hard as in the past? The problem was that before I fixed the door it would run normal reaction chamber temps with no smoke I am at a loss, I might try to blow compressed air through the chamber and see if I had a chunk of creosote stuck in there. I checked my wood moisture level and it is 16% surface and 20% if I cu it in half. This is the same wood I have been using with no problems until now.

11

Central Boiler / Water Test kit

« on: November 01, 2016, 06:48:56 AM »

Yesterday I took out the water test kit from the basement and checked the water. The PH was perfect but the drop test was off. I filled it with 250 ml of water and added the25 drops of the sulfuric acid. I then start to add the drops in and I notice the drops look black and not the pink I remember. I gave up at 50 drops because the color was never staying. Could the test drops be off? I did this last year with no problem, no reason to think anything has happened it's just a regular check.

12

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / WHAT DO YOU SRAPE YOUR FIRE BOX WITH?

« on: October 31, 2016, 01:45:03 PM »

I am looking for a better tool to scrape creosote from my fire box. right now it's an ice chipper that I put a sharp edge on the blade. Someone must have something good for this.

13

Electronics / Add on aqua stat

« on: November 26, 2015, 09:43:13 AM »

I need to add an aqua stat to my system. M current set up has a Central Boiler  1450 that goes to a heat exchanger in the house. My indoor boiler is on the other side of the heat exchanger. I have three zones in the house one  is priority hot water and two heat zones. The problem is my indoor boiler has an aqua stat on the return line that fires the boiler if retuning water is below 140*  So when the call for heat comes in the water goes below 140* and the boiler fires . The heat coming in from the furnace is 190* so the heat is there but the indoor boiler does not know this. I want to place an aqua stat on the furnace water line coming in and wire it to the other aqua stat. Will any strap on aqua stat do or is there a specific one I need. I also want a strap on one to go on the Pex.