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[duramax]

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.

[Carm]

Similar issue for me last year. I had buildup in the air tube downstream of the solenoid.  Removed the elbow and solenoid and cleaned it out .  Worked just fine again.

[boilerman]

Confirm that your thermocouple probe is fully extended into the reaction chamber and has not been pushed back up the feeder conduit in the back of the chamber. Should be able to grab it with a glove on and pull until it bottoms out. It only extends about 1/2 inch or so beyond the tube. If not at full extension, it will not read very high reaction chamber temps or get into stage 2 and stage 3. If thermocouple is fully extended, then there has to be an air flow blockage somewhere in the air passage tubes or channels. If you have verified that the fan is running and the primary air intake cover is open, you might want to check to make sure the primary cover gap when solenoid is open meets the specs shown in the owners manual.

[duramax]

I did blow it out with air in both directions and fired it back up. I could tell the air was blowing better from the start. With my pile of coals I shoveled out I was able to get it up to temp in no time. Not sure what was blocking it but I could guess it was a chunk of creosote that blew out and was burning down in the reaction chamber causing a short smoke out while cleaning it..