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1
Central Boiler / Re: "Sometimes" disease.
« on: December 14, 2016, 11:06:56 AM »Quote
a "high" temp condition, maybe include an audible alarm in my house for the night time when I'm sleeping. Roger
My mechanical room with my indoor boiler is next to my bedroom. I bought a $10 grill thermometer with an audible alarm and strapped the probe to the outdoor boiler line. I set the "done temperature" to 190 degrees. If my boiler lines ever get to 190 the alarm will go off which I can hear from most places in the house and is loud enough to wake my wife (maybe not me) if it happens at night. It was a cheap and easy solution that works for me.
2
Central Boiler / Re: Gotta find a new welder
« on: October 28, 2016, 07:04:36 AM »
Yeah, I am not sure how much life is left in mine. I am going to use it until I can't, but I have been eyeing up those G series units lately.
3
Central Boiler / Re: Gotta find a new welder
« on: October 27, 2016, 08:22:34 AM »Quote
20 year old CB? Didnt know they made them for that long...
They have been making furnaces since the mid 1980's according to their website. Mine was manufactured in 1996, I cant complain about it's longevity.
4
Central Boiler / Re: Gotta find a new welder
« on: October 26, 2016, 02:05:28 PM »Quote
day 3 and its all good - so far...
You should be good if it's still holding. I had almost the same issues last winter. My CB started leaking on the inside of the firebox. My brother in law is a pretty good welder but, we had many of the same problems you describe in getting a weld that didn't leak. My brother in law was embarrassed of the final product, it wasn't pretty but, it is still holding. I know that I didn't sleep for many nights wondering if it was going to start leaking again.
I can't complain though. This furnace is over 20 yrs old now and is still going strong.
5
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Snow fell today ..its a coming folks !
« on: October 26, 2016, 01:48:45 PM »
I fired mine up on the 10/21. My wife thinks it's a little weird that every time I come back in from fixing the fire I am smiling. I tell her that the best way to describe the feeling is "satisfaction". She just doesn't understand.
7
General Discussion / Re: Sanded and Finished Floor Project
« on: February 22, 2016, 09:00:05 AM »
I thought I was going to have a project like this with the first house my wife and I purchased. We purchased it from the kids of a gentleman who had just passed way in his 80's. He had built the house himself in the 1940's. The house had green shag carpeting in it that we were told was installed over the hard wood floors in the 70's. I planned on pulling up the carpeting and repairing and re-finishing the hard wood floors but when I pulled up the carpeting the floors were spotless. I simply had to mop them and they looked like the day the were installed. I found out later that the mother used to make the kids put old socks on their hands and buff the floor with wax every month until they decided to cover them up with carpeting.
8
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Temp display in the house
« on: February 22, 2016, 08:50:17 AM »
Just a word of caution on the Maverick idea. The transmitter and receiver have to have line of sight, I have a dual probe maverick strapped to both the supply and return at my stove but I has unable to find anywhere in my house that the receiver can pick up the signal from the transmitter. I am still glad I purchased it because I can see both my supply and return temps at the stove every time I go outside but I am not able to put the Maverick transmitter inside and pick up a signal. I ended up buying a cheap $5 digital cooking thermometer with a probe but that doesn't have the wireless function like the Maverick and strapping it to the supply line where it enters the house in the laundry room so I can see what the temp is from inside the house.
I strapped the probes to the pex with metal tape and then wrapped them in pipe insulation and they read within one degree of the gauge on my boiler.
I strapped the probes to the pex with metal tape and then wrapped them in pipe insulation and they read within one degree of the gauge on my boiler.
9
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: What is your heat loss from OWB?
« on: February 15, 2016, 07:28:43 AM »
You said the water temp at your indoor boiler is only 140 deg., correct? Do you know what the temp is on the outdoor boiler line at the supply and return of the heat exchanger? How many plates is your heat exchanger, maybe it is too small?
10
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: what could have been done?
« on: February 12, 2016, 10:44:09 AM »
Burning only seasoned wood and not trash or any of the other things that have been thrown in conventional boilers would have been a start but, ultimately I think it would have happened at some point anyway.
11
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: CB 5648
« on: February 09, 2016, 07:04:03 AM »
That would be pretty high for my area. I looked at a CB 5648 last year that was only 9 years old with new pumps that they were asking $2500 for. I passed on it because I decided to weld mine but it ended up selling for $1500. You can pick up conventional boilers around here pretty regularly for $2500.
12
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Removing Ash from Conventional Boiler
« on: February 05, 2016, 10:54:32 AM »
The only time I have that problem is when I over fill the stove for the time period between fixings. For example if I put 24 hours worth of wood in it and then try to fix it 12 hours later the coal bed is above the bottom of the door and coals will try to fall out. I try to load the stove for 12 hour burns, that way when I go out to fix it 12 hours later the water temp is still 180 but the coal bed is burnt down below the door and there is just enough coals left to ignite the wood I throw on.
13
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Removing Ash from Conventional Boiler
« on: February 02, 2016, 06:59:49 AM »
I'm not sure how big your fire box is but this is what I do: All of my wood is cut to 20-24". I keep my fire at the very front of my fire box and every time I fix the fire I pull all of the coals and ash to the front of the fire box with a garden hoe. I try to keep an ash bed about 24" from front to back and it usually stays level with the bottom of my door as far as depth goes. This leaves the back half of my fire box clean. When it is time to remove some ash I use the hoe to push the top layer of coals and hot ash to the back, clean part of the fire box. Then I shovel out all of the ash that was on the bottom of the ash bed. The constant pulling of the coals to the front and top means the ash on the bottom is usually fine ash. After I remove fine ash I reach in to the back of the fire box and pull all of the hot ash and coals back to the front and toss on some wood. I also remove 5-6 shovels every 10-14 days depending on the temps. One thing that seems to help is not fixing your fire too often, the more you let the coal bed burn down in between fixings, the finer the ash will become.
14
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: CB 5036 LEAK question
« on: November 19, 2015, 07:06:49 AM »
Central Boilers have "stay bolts" welded between the inside of the water jacket and the outside of the fire box for support. It is somewhat common for older CB's to start leaking at these welds. They are located near the middle of the fire box walls, it appears that is what has happened to yours. I had the same thing happen to my 1996 model last year. I actually had leaks develop on both side of the firebox at the same time last year and they were both at the stay bolt locations. I am not sure that I would advise cutting out the area because most likely its not a case of an area being rotten but instead its a leaking weld. You cant see the welds because they are on the outside of the wall. I fixed mine by welding a 4"x4" patch over each area.
I would recommend getting a welder that has experience welding on boilers. I had my brother in law weld mine, and although he has been a welder his entire life and is considered pretty good at it, he struggled getting his welds to be water tight.
I would recommend getting a welder that has experience welding on boilers. I had my brother in law weld mine, and although he has been a welder his entire life and is considered pretty good at it, he struggled getting his welds to be water tight.
15
Fire Wood / Re: Got wood
« on: October 29, 2015, 06:48:27 AM »
Funny story that highlights how different regions have different prices for firewood. When I was in college I had a roommate that would cut firewood on weekends. He lived about 1 hour away from were we went to school. Our college landlord lived in the house beside us and my roommate noticed that he had a wood stove as a secondary heat source. He asked our landlord if he would be interested in trading firewood for rent, and he quoted the landlord a price of $100 a cord. The landlord said he would take as much firewood as he could bring and to just dump it in the back yard.
So after bringing trailer load after trailer load my roommate asks me " I have brought this guy about 8 cords of wood, why does he want so much, and where is he putting it, It keeps disappearing and I can barely keep up?" My response was didn't you see the sign in his front yard that says "Fire Wood in back yard - $200 a cord- you load yourself"?
So after bringing trailer load after trailer load my roommate asks me " I have brought this guy about 8 cords of wood, why does he want so much, and where is he putting it, It keeps disappearing and I can barely keep up?" My response was didn't you see the sign in his front yard that says "Fire Wood in back yard - $200 a cord- you load yourself"?