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[BNice89]

I have a mahoning conventional owb that I plan on shutting down for the season. This is my first year taking care of it but it has been used for many years and I know has not been cleaned out for many years. I was just wondering what you guys typically do for cleaning and maintenance from year to year especially if it has not been done in awhile. What do you clean and how do you clean it. I plan on replacing the door seals and a temp gauge but as far as cleaning the creosote out what is the best and easiest way to do this? Do you drain the system and replenish with new water? I read about treating the water?

[E Yoder]

A few ideas-
Scraping the ash out, then burning a hot fire can help clean up creosote at the ash line. Cap the chimney when done.
Open the drain valve and see if there's sludge. If so it probably should be flushed, then filled and treated.
Woodboilersolutions.com has good info.
Once it's treated right I could test yearly and not drain as the water is stable and is better than fresh.
But I'd like to hear other folks ideas.

[wreckit87]

I replied to the thread on Facebook this morning, but mostly agree with Yoder. I'd put a coating of oil on the inside of the firebox to prevent corrosion and fill the water level to the top as well, to avoid rust in the open "steam" space above the cooled water level.

[BNice89]

Thanks everyone. When I burn the “hot fire” to clean it how do I keep it from boiling over during it? Just open the valve during it to keep the water level up?

[E Yoder]

Turn the heat on in the house or run hot water. You want to put a heavy load on it.

[CountryBoyJohn]

This is how I do mine:  https://youtu.be/nS_gXEpW--E

[juddspaintballs]

I'll be shutting down potentially tomorrow.  10 cords of wood this year.  I'm simply burning until the last of the wood is gone, which could be tomorrow or Friday.  I'll let the fire burn out, turn the pump off, and clean it out sometime next week.  Cleaning it out for me is scooping all of the ashes out that don't fall down the grates, refilling the sand in the bottom of the firebox (Heatmor), vacuuming out the space around the blower and lubing the hinge, shutting off all valves, opening the horizontal portion of the chimney and scraping/vacuuming it out, and capping the chimney.  I cut the end off of a small air compressor tank years ago that has a small handle already welded to it for dragging the compressor around the garage.  It was already black, even.  It's domed, round, fairly thick steel, and doesn't blow off in the wind.  Works perfectly for a chimney cap. 

[RSI]

If you end up with a lot of charcoal left after shutting down, it might be worth putting it in a cardboard box and putting back in the stove once clean. Probably be good to put some blocks under it to make sure no moisture builds up under it.
Then when you go to restart it next season, just light the box and you will have a ready made coal bed.

[E Yoder]

Just a reminder to check fittings and pump flanges for leaks when you shut down. Just worked on this one (been running for years) today and the O-rings were hard and not sealing. Imagine when it cooled off was when it really started to leak.

[wreckit87]

Jeepers Eldon, looks like that one may have been leaking for awhile!

[E Yoder]

Yeah, I went to swap a fan and was glad I had spare gaskets along. I bet it leaked every summer, might have evaporated when hot? Looked pretty bad. Folks are busy, go for years without checking things.