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[Roger2561]

Wow!  I shut down the Eclassic 1400 Saturday.  Cleaning the OWB for the summer has got to be one of the dirtiest jobs I have ever done.  Scraping the built up creosote from winter use is the hardest part, especially the roof.  I have about another hour to hour and a half before I'm cleaning it and closing it up for the season.  I think I'll tackle what remains to be cleaned this evening when I get home from work.  Thank God for soap and water!    If anyone has any suggestions to ease the cleaning process, please share it with us.  I may use it.  Roger
 

[DaveWertz]

I just cleaned mine yesterday, took me 5hrs!!! Mine hasnt been cleaned in about 5yrs. I was literally pulling softball size pcs of soot out of the bottom. I did however manage to crawl inside, im 5 10 and 205lbs. That was a chore itself. This is something that WILL not be neglected that long again. The soot on top was the worse for me also. I took a putty knife and put a nice edge on it and just lightly chisled with a hammer along all the sides and top. Man was I black when I was done!!! I even blewup my new shopvac sucking all that garbage out of the stove. A good coat of new motor oil and she is done. Now just need to get my iinsulated underground pex and im ready for next yr

[johnybcold]

I suit up and use the leaf blower and compressor to blow out everything, and some scrapping, I like the diesel oil mix you guy mentioned works great

[Roger2561]

When I removed the refractory panels off the floor, they came out in 5 pieces instead of the 2 pieces they were made from.  As long I close the seams as tight as I can when I put them back in it should operate without any trouble.  The reason I remove them is to clean the fusion chamber.  It's amazing how much stuff gathers under there in just one season.  I'll coat the unprotected metal with diesel and motor oil mix before putting the fusion chamber and panels back.  I'll take compressed air and clear all of the fine dust before I coat the firebox and reaction chamber.  I have already covered the top of the chimney with a plastic bucket to keep rain out of the OWB.  I almost felt sorry for the shower after I got done cleaning my OWB.  The water color was rather pretty when mixed with shampoo and soap.   

[slimjim]

Wow are you guys really having that much trouble with the creosote, I just get a ripping fire going with dry kindling to burn out any residual creosote in the primary firebox, let it go out, hit anything left with a torch then give it it's regular cleaning and then spray it down with fuel oil and transmission oil, done. I'm going to go and get some fresh wood chips today and fire up my new demonstation wood chip boiler. Running it beside the state highway right out in front of my home sure does attract a lot of interest, my show trailer is almost ready for the Bangor Maine logging expo. I will run it at about 20 shows this year ,shut it down between the shows and at the end of the season just scrape out the ash,( NO CREOSOTE ) it is impressive. I can't wait until next heating season as I will be burning wood chips next year instead of firewood, cleaning is simple, brush out the tubes and empty the ash pan, loading is once every 3 to 7 days and it's done with a small tractor instead of my back, almost as easy as burning oil or gas without the feeling of guilt

[Roger2561]

Wow are you guys really having that much trouble with the creosote, I just get a ripping fire going with dry kindling to burn out any residual creosote in the primary firebox, let it go out, hit anything left with a torch then give it it's regular cleaning and then spray it down with fuel oil and transmission oil, done. I'm going to go and get some fresh wood chips today and fire up my new demonstation wood chip boiler. Running it beside the state highway right out in front of my home sure does attract a lot of interest, my show trailer is almost ready for the Bangor Maine logging expo. I will run it at about 20 shows this year ,shut it down between the shows and at the end of the season just scrape out the ash,( NO CREOSOTE ) it is impressive. I can't wait until next heating season as I will be burning wood chips next year instead of firewood, cleaning is simple, brush out the tubes and empty the ash pan, loading is once every 3 to 7 days and it's done with a small tractor instead of my back, almost as easy as burning oil or gas without the feeling of guilt

Is the Optimizer 250 a "gasser" or the older style?  The reason I ask is I'm reluctant to build a roaring fire in mine due to the fear of hurting the seal on the by-pass door.  The by-pass door on the CB Eclassic 1400 (i.e. gasser) is at the top of the back wall of the firebox.  Plus, along each side and across the back of the firebox are air holes for the primary air combustion.  The only way to keep those holes open is to poke them with a very special tool (It's a screwdriver I bent to 90 degrees).  Due to the idle time between cycles creosote collects in those holes, the walls, ceiling, etc...  The firewood I've been using is 2 to 3 years old with about 13% moisture.  I think that's considered rather dry.  Perhaps I'm going a bit overboard cleaning it but that thing cost a hunk of change and I don't have the cash to pay for another one.  If I have to spend 4 to 5 hours once a year to be sure it is nice and clean for the summer, I'll spend a bit of sweat equity to reach that goal.  Who makes the wood pellet boiler?  I don't have the money for one now but if I hear of someone whose looking for an alternative heat source, I'll push them that way.  Roger

[DaveWertz]

The reason I was having trouble is my gram left it go for yrs and yrs until I just bought her house now I got stuck with cleaning it lol. It won't be that bad again, I do the cardboard fire but it was far to dirty for that to even work.

[slimjim]

Wow are you guys really having that much trouble with the creosote, I just get a ripping fire going with dry kindling to burn out any residual creosote in the primary firebox, let it go out, hit anything left with a torch then give it it's regular cleaning and then spray it down with fuel oil and transmission oil, done. I'm going to go and get some fresh wood chips today and fire up my new demonstation wood chip boiler. Running it beside the state highway right out in front of my home sure does attract a lot of interest, my show trailer is almost ready for the Bangor Maine logging expo. I will run it at about 20 shows this year ,shut it down between the shows and at the end of the season just scrape out the ash,( NO CREOSOTE ) it is impressive. I can't wait until next heating season as I will be burning wood chips next year instead of firewood, cleaning is simple, brush out the tubes and empty the ash pan, loading is once every 3 to 7 days and it's done with a small tractor instead of my back, almost as easy as burning oil or gas without the feeling of guilt

Is the Optimizer 250 a "gasser" or the older style?  The reason I ask is I'm reluctant to build a roaring fire in mine due to the fear of hurting the seal on the by-pass door.  The by-pass door on the CB Eclassic 1400 (i.e. gasser) is at the top of the back wall of the firebox.  Plus, along each side and across the back of the firebox are air holes for the primary air combustion.  The only way to keep those holes open is to poke them with a very special tool (It's a screwdriver I bent to 90 degrees).  Due to the idle time between cycles creosote collects in those holes, the walls, ceiling, etc...  The firewood I've been using is 2 to 3 years old with about 13% moisture.  I think that's considered rather dry.  Perhaps I'm going a bit overboard cleaning it but that thing cost a hunk of change and I don't have the cash to pay for another one.  If I have to spend 4 to 5 hours once a year to be sure it is nice and clean for the summer, I'll spend a bit of sweat equity to reach that goal.  Who makes the wood pellet boiler?  I don't have the money for one now but if I hear of someone whose looking for an alternative heat source, I'll push them that way.  Roger

[johnybcold]

Central boiler makes pellet boilers I looked at them when I bought mine, I was leaning toward the pellet, but I figure if I am spending all this money I would hate to be dependent on pellets

[Roger2561]

Central boiler makes pellet boilers I looked at them when I bought mine, I was leaning toward the pellet, but I figure if I am spending all this money I would hate to be dependent on pellets

Johnyb -  I knew that CB made the pellet boilers.  I don't why I forgot - insanity perhaps?    They say as one gets older the mind the 2nd thing to go - don't ask me about the 1st for I cannot remember.   

The hardest parts for me to clean on the OWB was the ceiling and the welded seams.  The ceiling due to a neck problem I've been suffering with for a long time and the seams - well, I wanted to get them as clean as possible before I saturated everything with the diesel/motor oil mix.  I put so much of the mixture in it that it may smoke quite a bit when I fire her up again this fall. 

[SperleFarms]

Rodger,

I too was having a hard time with the welded seams, then the light bulb went on!  I went and got a hold of my handheld angle grinder and attached a wire wheel brush.  I went over every square inch of the firebox and reaction chamber, it shines like new.  Coated everything down with oil and put her back together again.

My main area of concern was that inside of the air channels.  I tried using a shopvac and leaf blower, but I’m still unsure if I got it all.  What do you do to clean your air channels at the end of the year?

[Roger2561]

Rodger,

I too was having a hard time with the welded seams, then the light bulb went on!  I went and got a hold of my handheld angle grinder and attached a wire wheel brush.  I went over every square inch of the firebox and reaction chamber, it shines like new.  Coated everything down with oil and put her back together again.

My main area of concern was that inside of the air channels.  I tried using a shopvac and leaf blower, but I’m still unsure if I got it all.  What do you do to clean your air channels at the end of the year?

I have special tool made for the job;  it's called a screwdriver bent to not quite 90 degrees that fits in the holes and about half way from one hole to it's neighbor.  I simple poke and poke at the creosote.  Once I have done what I could with the screwdriver, I have a piece of still wire that seems to free up more it.  Once I am satisfied that I have removed as much as I could, (I doubt that I got it all)  I take compressed air from my shops air compressor and blow through the holes and where the primary air solenoid is in the rear of my OWB.  You'd be surprised by the amount of lose chunks that come flying out of there.  I keep going from rear to inside of firebox back to the rear blow the compressed air through the hole and solenoid opening until no more pieces come out.

Does anyone know where I can find wire brush approx. 1/2 diameter with a flexible shaft about 8 to 10 inches long?  I'm thinking that if I affix this to my cordless hand drill, I'm hopeful of simply feeding into one hole until I see it at the next hole, remove it from the first hole and repeat the procedure until the channel is as clean as I can get it.  The air channels are by far the hardest part of the cleaning process followed closely by scraping the ceiling and seams.  Roger