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1

Shaver Furnace / This boiler is absolute garbage!!!

« on: February 15, 2014, 09:11:36 PM »

Hi all,

     I posted on this forum early in the season looking for ways to improve the efficiency of my boiler.  I found some methods including the damper assembly, additional insulation, Ranco thermostat and a few others.  After running it for the last several months there is one universal truth that I had hoped to prove wrong..."You can't polish a turd!"  Simply put...There are too many shortcomings on this OWB to overcome.  To heat my 2500 square foot home in southern PA I am burning easily 1 cord every 10 days or so.  My house is barely able to get past 68 F.  I need to feed this monster every 8 hours!  The door is so dang small that you can hardly put more than one good chunk in the box before it is rendered inaccessible.  The fact that I needed to sink $500 into this machine just to get it running at an unacceptable level is ridiculous.  Tonight I am heating with oil again.  I simply can not tolerate the idea of wasting more good firewood just to have the vast majority of the heat go right up the chimney!  Funny how they claim the 1/2" firebox as a selling point isn't it??  Monday morning I am buying a coal stove.  I will be selling the Shaver for $1000 which should buy me enough rice coal to last me through next winter.  Sorry for the tone of my post...I am simply tired of being cold and pissed off.   

2

Shaver Furnace / fan upgrade and damper on shaver 165

« on: October 28, 2013, 06:22:35 PM »

I just got done installing a 75 cfm blower on my 165 replacing the stock 50 cfm.  I did this for two reasons.  The stock 50 cfm bearings were sounding bad and I installed altheatingsupply.com damper kit which supposedly only works with the 75 cfm blower.  After installation I loaded up the firebox and about 10 minutes later I had a blowtorch coming out the chimney.  I watched the chimney looking like a roman candle for about 10 minutes until I blocked off about 2/3 of the fan opening with duct tape.  It wasn't creosote burning just wood.  I measured the stack temp at 450.  Has anyone else experienced this with the fan upgrade?  If so what did you do?  Leaving it as it was is not going to happen.  Too many embers were going up in the air too close to my wood framed summer kitchen.   

3

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Is this normal?

« on: October 09, 2013, 08:47:03 PM »

I have posted a couple other questions earlier about a Shaver that was part of a property I purchased this summer.  Being a foreclosure I am unable to ask the previous owner how it worked for him...so I am kind of winging it.  Today I did my first test fire.  I got the temp up to 165 fairly easily.  I installed the Ranco mod so I am confident that temp is accurate.  I then turned on the indoor system and started the circulator.  Being as I just repressurized the indoor radiators the temp had to come way up.  Looking at my indoor boiler the temp raised at a good pace until it hit 110 then it just kind of stalled there and the outdoor unit ate up the wood pretty quick (4 hours).  Is it normal to have a 55 degree differential between the two sides of the heat exchanger?  The unit is 50' from my house and today it was 60 outside so there was not a large demand.  I am new to having a baseboard hot water system but it seems to me that my boiler/radiator temps should be closer to 150?

Rod

4

Shaver Furnace / Questions about a new to me shaver

« on: September 16, 2013, 08:34:26 AM »

Hello...
Recently I came to own a house with a shaver 165.  One interesting thing I noticed is that this boiler has a front mounted fan that attaches to the door in addition to the normal fan on the back of the machine.  The welds on the door for the fan flange appear to have come from the factory.  Was this an option at one time?  I am looking to do the flapper mod and am planning on going back to the original configuration, however, I wanted to check with you experts first.  If I go this route I will plug the door flange and remove that assembly.  Also...Do you folks recommend any treatment for this particular boiler?

Thanks,
   Rod

5

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Severe scaling

« on: September 16, 2013, 08:27:53 AM »

Hi everybody!  This summer we purchased a foreclosed property that came equipped with a shaver boiler.  The house was vacant for several years but fortunately someone decided to drain the boiler before winter came.  The boiler does hold water so everything else should be repairable if need be.  The most noticeable problem is a layer of scale about 3/16" thick everywhere inside the tank.  When I first tested the circulator pump it would not rotate due to extreme mineral deposits.  To repair this I dumped some muriatic acide down the throat of the pump when it was removed to dissolve the deposits.  This fixed that issue.  My plan for the extreme scaling inside the tank is to dump 1 gallon of muriatic acid in the water and circulate the pump for a couple hours.  I will also take ph measurements throughout the process.  I bought 3 gallons of acid to do this process.  Initially I will bypass the plate heat exchanger.  How does this plan sound???  Any further advice or suggestions?  What would you suggest to avoid this issue in the future?  Additives?  Distilled water? 

Thanks...
  Rod