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[DeerMeadowFarm]

I've had this CB boiler since 2011 (Installed in November, plumbed and on-line in January 2012). After the first (half) season of use, I developed cracks along the sides where the air enters through the holes in the burning chamber. I contacted my dealer in December od 2012 as soon as I noticed it and he said that CB wanted him to send a welder out to repair it, but the boiler needed to be shut down. Since it was the middle of the burning season, he told me it could wait until spring shut-down.
Once spring arrived I got busy with hay, and everything else and didn't contact him again until August of 2013. At that point, the dealer changed their tune and told me that it didn't hurt anything; that it "actually allows more airflow" into the burn area. The boiler was working fine, so I took his advice and forgot about it.
The problem, as it turns out, is not only does it let air in better, it allows creosote to get into the air chambers easier and eventually clog everything up! The problem is, it's near impossible to clean these areas out. I see that CB makes a kit that (to my understanding) replaces these areas with removable plates which would allow you to clean the areas easier and (assuming they warp/crack again) replace them...? The "kit" is "Kit, Air Channel Repair" P/N 2500006, but none of the sites I've visited have a picture of it and my dealer doesn't seem to have heard of it.
Has anyone here:
1. Had the same problem?
2. Repaired it with the CB kit?
3. Come up with a better repair?

Any information and photos (I know Photobucket sucks at the moment) it would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
Rich

[mlappin]

Common problem with the E series, hopefully somebody already has experience with this.

[E Yoder]

If you could post a few pics I'll bet some guys can come up with a solution.

 So far I've been able to post pictures if I downsize them first.

[Roger2561]

Rich - In the next month or so a welder is going to make some removable panels for my E-Classic 1400, CB doesn't have a kit available for the 1400's.  When the welder is done with the job, I'll post pics for everyone to view.  Where I work I access to a metallurgist so I described to him that my air channels cracked, warped and falling apart.  He mentioned that I may have had the coal bed too deep.  He said that if was too deep, it acted like a forge, heating the steel to the point of red hot and then it was allowed to cool.  He said that if too many of these heating/cooling cycles happen a lot during the day, it'll lead to metal failure.  If the problem isn't rectified (lowering the coal depth) it will lead to the metal failing (i.e. cracking, warping, coming apart, etc...).  I'll admit that during the spring time the coal depth was too deep to point of being at level with the air channels.  For some reason I have always had problems with regulating the coal depth in the spring time, it's always been too deep.  Roger       

[DeerMeadowFarm]

Hi Roger,
That's interesting. I think I normally run my coal bed too high as well. I think I'm always afraid I'll come home from work and find the fire burned out...

I am very interested to see the photos you take of your repair.

Rich

[Roger2561]

Hi Roger,
That's interesting. I think I normally run my coal bed too high as well. I think I'm always afraid I'll come home from work and find the fire burned out...

I am very interested to see the photos you take of your repair.

Rich

Rich - Deep down, I too am always afraid of coming home to no fire... You'd think that after 6 years of operating it, I would have learned by now to trust it.  Human nature not to I guess. 

Roger 

[DeerMeadowFarm]

So I stopped by my dealer on the way home from work last night. Currently, he has no boilers in stock; they will still sell them but he said the sales were very low and to stock them no longer makes sense. Their parts department was fairly depleted as well.

The good news is he went over the problem with me and showed me a retrofit kit for a different model than mine, but the idea was similar. He also printed out the instructions for my model and based on what I saw and the directions I have, I think I can facilitate a repair myself and possibly even make it batter. Their kit comes with stainless steel plates but he said that they tend to warp over time as well and their cost for the kit was $120.

He did confirm that having the coal bed too high is what causes the issue I have and I admit that I am guilty of letting that happen. I was on a 24 hour fill schedule; I would have been better off to do at least 12 hour fills.

[DeerMeadowFarm]

Well, I got about 18" of the left air chamber panels cut out yesterday before calling it quits. The channels are packed so solid with creosote I am chiseling it our with a masonry chisel. I don't know if it's the metal or what but I ate up three 4" cut-off wheels removing what I did and those were the easy ones. What a crappy job to have to do...

[slimjim]

Hmmm, I once had a manufacturer tell me that creosote would not affect cut off wheels, I sent him pictures and you guessed it, he had never seen that before! Can you burn it out with a torch?

[DeerMeadowFarm]

Hmmm, I once had a manufacturer tell me that creosote would not affect cut off wheels, I sent him pictures and you guessed it, he had never seen that before! Can you burn it out with a torch?

If it tried the creosote would burn and that would not be that great to breathe in. As it was the cut-off wheels generated enough heat to get it smoking a little....

[slimjim]

Been there, done that more than a few times

[mlappin]

I know rust effects cut off wheels, eats em right up. Wonder if the creosote plugs the pores of the cut off wheel causing them to over heat or something?

[slimjim]

Yea it was a pretty nasty job when I cut a bunch of the rails on a particular brand, it couldn't have been creosote because I was told it never develops there and couldn't have been rust because it's a stainless steel boiler.

[mlappin]

Yea it was a pretty nasty job when I cut a bunch of the rails on a particular brand, it couldn't have been creosote because I was told it never develops there and couldn't have been rust because it's a stainless steel boiler.

Well thats weird as I did the same and it was a piece of cake compared to cutting thru a quarter inch of rust like what can form with mild steel.

I once had to cut a heavy truck frame in half, took longer with a sledge hammer beating the rust out between the layers of mild steel frame so it could be cut than it did to cut it and weld a donor rear half frame back in.

[slimjim]

yup, I had an old C70 dump truck, I think a 1969, we had to replace the outer frame in about 2000, nasty job but I thought it held up pretty well considering the loads that were put on it for so many years!
How come you had to cut your rails Marty?