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Author Topic: pressurizing outdoor furnace  (Read 4650 times)

shepherd boy

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pressurizing outdoor furnace
« on: March 07, 2017, 10:03:59 AM »

Elsewhere in this forum there was a discussion about pressurizing an outdoor furnace. this unit was and almost blew up. Pex water line blew in house and flooded basement. Made a round water jacket out of a square one, bulging the sides and pulling the roof down. I am told the Insurance was told it was a faulty water line and paid for damages as well as a new furnace.
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mlappin

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2017, 10:24:37 AM »

WOW!!

Can’t recall off the top of my head, but most pex is rated at what at 180?
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RSI

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2017, 10:33:53 AM »

WOW!!

Can’t recall off the top of my head, but most pex is rated at what at 180?
100PSI at 180°

I would bet the temp was quite a bit higher than that when it blew and the pressure probably was much lower.
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E Yoder

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2017, 10:58:11 AM »

That's funny except it's not!  :D
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shepherd boy

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2017, 10:58:58 AM »

He must of got some serous pressure. I guess that is how they blow up steam engines.

Your right, bet temps were well over 200.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2017, 11:01:59 AM by shepherd boy »
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slimjim

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2017, 12:10:47 PM »

When I pressure test our used refaced stuff, I never go over about 5 pounds and at that you can hear the stress on the walls!
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RSI

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2017, 02:44:33 PM »

Was the pump near where the pipe blew?
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shepherd boy

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2017, 02:57:45 PM »

I did not see the job but was told it was near the hot water heat exchanger where it blew.  Finished basement. It had to be a mess. I heard of someone else that was convinced his stove was leaking ( just condensation ) and pressurized it to 40lbs, got part way inside to spray soapy water to find leak and about killed himself when it caved in.
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mlappin

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2017, 08:05:53 PM »

I did not see the job but was told it was near the hot water heat exchanger where it blew.  Finished basement. It had to be a mess. I heard of someone else that was convinced his stove was leaking ( just condensation ) and pressurized it to 40lbs, got part way inside to spray soapy water to find leak and about killed himself when it caved in.

Huh? Unless my reading comprehension has totally failed, I take it he was climbing into the firebox when things went south?

From personal experience I can tell you it takes less than 3lbs of pressure to make a fifty-five gallon drum go boing.

When I built my original boiler I used 5/16” steel on the firebox, pressurized just the firebox before cutting the door opening to about 15lbs while standing outside the shop, pressure tested at 10lbs and was leary of that. Might have only been 10 PSI but had a lot of square inches for that air to be pushing against.

Had someone locally die last year from over inflating a rear tractor tire and when it let loose the rim gave so he got hit by that as well as the tire.
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RSI

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2017, 08:16:29 PM »

Probably hooked a garden hose to it and turned it on then climbed in.
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shepherd boy

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2017, 03:44:29 AM »

Was told he put a air hose to it and caped or valved off all openings and was at least partially in the firebox.
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hoardac

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2017, 05:57:06 AM »

Yes we had a genius at work hook up some thin 4ft x 6ft stainless steel heat exchangers to 120lb plus air to see if he could find a leak one of the guys gave him a scholarly beat down on the reasons not to do that.
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E Yoder

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2017, 06:47:15 AM »

There's a lot more engineering in so many things than it looks like on the surface. We get so used to it that we don't realize how easily we could get ourselves very dead! :)
That's why building a homemade furnace is so terribly complicated sometimes. Expansion, stress, corrosion, heat exchange, condensation, ..   .... It's a long list.
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mlappin

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2017, 07:21:24 AM »

Sometimes people just don’t think….

Have a friend in high school who’d clean a ball bearing then take an air hose to it and spin it, I took several steps back and sideways, sometimes you just have to let people learn the hard away but the shop teacher came completely unglued. Some would never give it a second thought, but 120PSi coming out the end of a nozzle spinning  a bearing that now has no support for the outer race and since it was used could have had micro fractures in the outer race as well, could be a recipe for disaster.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2017, 07:23:58 AM by mlappin »
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RSI

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Re: pressurizing outdoor furnace
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2017, 10:31:39 AM »

Was told he put a air hose to it and caped or valved off all openings and was at least partially in the firebox.
I was just guessing domestic water from the 40psi.
I don't see that it would have held 40psi long enough for him to get inside. He probably set a regulator to 40 psi and hooked up the hose then went to check for leaks as it filled.
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