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[teburman]

To make a long story short:

I was able to use sheet metal screws and metal epoxy to do a quick fix to my leaking Aspen 175 last evening – so far so good.

Or to make a short story long:

My Aspen started to leak the Friday before Christmas. I shut the boiler down, drained it and switched over to oil. I didn’t have time to deal with it during the Christmas & New Year holidays. Luckily I have a friend with welding skills who was able to bring his welder over and fix the leak. However, do to constraints on both of our schedules we weren’t able to fix the leak until Saturday January 12th. 

When I did the repair I expected to find ¼ inch boiler plate but I soon found out the water jacket and primary firebox is made of sheet metal 14 or maybe 12 gauge – not exactly sure and it doesn’t matter. Also during inspection via the overflow I could see rust spots in other wise clean metal. The hole was directly under the overflow.

Yes I was diligent with the water treatment but I did not get it documented. Like I said what I could see of the interior of the water jacket was nice and clean except for the ‘rust pox’. It looked to me like the material used had impurities imbedded within it – it was not appropriate for the application.

Then on Tuesday January 15th the unit sprung another leak during the evening. Not good!!

I had a brainstorm during the day yesterday to use sheet metal screws and metal epoxy to repair the boiler.   

So last night I picked up a small package of the shortest #8 and #10 sheet metal screws I could find. I also picked up some QuickSteel epoxy made by Bluemagic – I found this in the auto parts store. I mixed the epoxy as per instructions and put it on the screw threads. I used an end brush in my drill to clean the area. This worked great as the angle of the brush on the metal was such that it did not fling debris into my face or on me at all.  The epoxy is supposed to set in 5 minutes, set under water and is suitable for use in 500 degree F. The repair was done last evening around 7:30 while water was dripping from the leak. I re-lit the boiler 5 minutes after completing the repair – so far the repair has held up.

I don’t think the epoxy really contributed to the repair the way I used it here. The idea was the epoxy would help build a seal around the threads similar to pipe dope but most, if not all of the epoxy fell off while I drove the screw in with my impact driver. 

The beauty is that you don’t have to shut down and drain the boiler to do the repair, depending on the location of the leak that is. In my case it was close to the loading door on top of the fire box. It took longer to get dressed in work clothing than it did to fix the leak!

The next time I have to do a repair I will brush the area then apply epoxy to stop the water. This should prevent the hot water from dripping on my hands thus making it easier to set a screw. I’ll keep you posted.

[Scott7m]

There has been some changes since they built stoves "Greenwood Aspen". However your leak sure is in a strange place, it's at the overflow? 

I'm curious to hear more about this and see what happened.  What kind of boiler treatment were you using?  How were you testing it?

[Scott7m]

I feel that Certified Labs makes the best water treatment available on the market.  It's more cost up front but much cheaper in the long run.

Starting with a good source of clean water is great.  I've had people collect water from steams and rain water you name it.  If you have good municipal water, use it.  As far as the folks collecting the water, organics in the water settle out and over time can create a film on the bottom of the stove, that keeps the treatment from being able to protect the metal. 

So here is my thoughts:

Certified labs treatment
Test it annually, and not with darn pool kits!!!!  Have a lab or someone who has bought the proper equipment to do it.  98% of dealers do not have a lab quality kit, I've got Over $500 in mine
Once a season, in the spring, drain a 5 gallon bucket full, look at it, look for discoloration, sediments, then take a magnet on a stick and swirl it around in the bucket, pull it out, if there appears to be strings hanging on it, further steps are needed... 

If all looks well, I'd drain my tank and start over every 3-5 years, just in case there was sediments I wasn't seeing or something, playing it safe I guess

[teburman]

So far so good both the weld and the sheet metal screw are holding up fine!!

I’m not really concerned about how they make ‘em now. I have to deal with the unit I bought. I wanted to offer a possible solution to fellow Aspen owners who may find themselves in the same situation. If you own one of these make sure you have some #8 and #10 sheet metal screws and keep your drill/impact driver batteries charged!

Neither ProFab nor Greenwood USA will take full responsibility for it. At least Greenwood USA has it on their web site as a legacy unit and will take questions and offer advice. The Greenwood USA rep for my area says they are having problems with this unit all over the place. I own one of the many leaking Aspen 175s and there is no real pattern of where the leaks are except it is where sheet metal is used instead of boiler plate. His comment was “do whatever you can to keep it running.”

What happened was that they should never have used mill run sheet metal to build the water jacket. My Aspen is only one of many leakers. But for the record I used whatever Greenwood recommend at the time of the install after that I used Certified Labs water treatment. I did not test but measured water as I added it and added water treatment as appropriate for the amount of water that I added. This is the fifth year with this boiler it was not abused and should not be leaking especially at the price I paid for it. I also have a coal pail that I use to catch the hot wood ash when I clean the ash chamber it is also in its fifth year it has spent its life in the elements yet it is solid and holds water well. A friend of mine has a first generation outdoor wood heater for the last eight years – he put water treatment in when it was installed and never added any more despite adding water several times over the last eight years his unit is still solid – no leaks. The Aspen is too new to be leaking regardless of treatment….

When I inspected the interior of the tank what I could see was shiny clean except for some rust pox marks, I believe that is testimony to sufficient water treatment. The rust pox marks look to be caused by impurities in the metal.

The leak(s) are on the top of the primary combustion chamber and located directly beneath the overflow tube such that you can see the leak from the overflow tube. At first I thought that I caused the leak by filling via the overflow tube. I thought maybe there was a surface treatment on the inside of the water jacket and that by filling via the overflow tube I may have eroded the treatment. This is NOT the case.

The Greenwood USA rep said there is NO surface treatment on the tank interior and that filling via the overflow is NOT a problem.

This unit has many problems including failed blower motor, failed solenoid, failed loading door gasket, air distribution ports plugged with insulation due to manufacturing problems, and secondary combustion chamber air distribution ports clogged with ash. I know of all these problems first hand. I hope not to learn of any more!!!

[Scott7m]

Can you see the outer part of the fire box from your vantage point? 

I'm curious as to whether there is rust on that surface as well

I'm kinda curious as to whether the firebox could be rusting from the inside out.

Do you have any type of boiler protection on your unit? 

How many things are you heating?  Is it all on one loop?


Sorry to ask so many questions, looking to learn something here and maybe find something to help folks out

It sounds like you did your part as far as treatment...

[teburman]

This morning I had two leaks to deal with! They were both in the same locale as the previous leaks. At the top of the fire box almost dead center(side to side) and close to the loading door, directly under the overflow. I was able to fix them without using the epoxy. I brushed them and put a #8 sheet metal screw in each hole.

The tally so far:
Welds          1
#8 screws      3
Boiler shutdown    2 events, 22 days & 2 days.

I discovered the leaks when I went to load the boiler this morning. The boiler temperature was 160F and it only had coals in it. I shoveled the coals and creosote residue to the back of the boiler. I removed the door baffle and connection arm to allow me to move the chimney damper to the closed position. This allowed for easier access to the leaks. When I power brushed each leak the drip turned into a steady stream. This was actually helpful as it was easier to see where the hole was and where exactly to put the screw. It took about two minutes to do both repairs – forty minutes to do the entire job from discovery to repair completed. The boiler temp was 150F when I finished the repairs, loaded the fire box and turned the unit back on. I will top off the water level this afternoon when ambient temperature warms a bit. The water level is ¼ of the way between FULL and ADD.

Most of the forty minutes was spent fetching tools and waiting for smoke to clear. Reaching into the boiler exposed part of my wrist and forearm to the heat of the fire. I got a pair of welding gloves that covered my wrist and part of my forearm and was able to tuck the sleeve of my canvass jacket into the glove and protect my wrist and forearm from the heat. The screw fell from the driver tip so I tried to find some silicone to put on the end of the driver tip to hold the screw in place – this was a waste of time. I do think this would work, but, I wasn’t able to find useable silicone for the task. However, the gloves did provide enough protection so I could take my time to carefully place the screws. I will have a tube of usable silicone available for the next event.

The inside of the fire box is covered in creosote, when brushed it is shiny with rust pox with the rust covered in oil look. Maybe next time I will get a picture. It was -15F this morning when I did the repairs and I was in a hurry to finish.

[boilerman]

I like Scott's quetions here. Is this a corrosion problem from the firebox side into the waterjacket?
Or is it the waterjacket side corroding back into the firebox?
Have you maintained water treatment in the waterjacket side throughout its use?
Have you tested water nitrite and ph recently and more importantly regularly?
Either way, sounds like metal in that area must be extremely thin and you may be fighting to hold it to together, plugged up and keep water in it.
Hope you can make it through the remainder of this heating season, but sounds to me like it may be a challenge.

[teburman]

The war is over! I capitulated this morning at 11:45.

There is a huge leak in the top right corner of the firebox along the seam about in the middle measuring from front to back and another substantial leak about 10 inches  below that one. Three of the heat exchanger tubes on the right are wet and water is running out of one of them. At least two heat exchangers on the left are wet and my brush came up wet on one of the vertical heat exchangers. I am guessing the heat exchangers are wet from leaks and not condensation.

[Scott7m]

So the leaks were inside the firebox? 

That def raises my questions over boiler protection and how many applications were on the loop?