Print

[ecc_33]

Well....Today I decided to clean the stove for the summer. After taking the blower motor off and the air flap I found what appeared to be the same holes as others. Sucks I spent over 12 grand on a system to find this out after a few months of use Pro fab def has some serious problems with this. As you seen in the other guys post. I heat 1507 sqft  with a full walk out basement 9 ft ceilings. Almost always loaded twice a day. Specially after seeing the 400 do the same thing. Prob a 16 times or so I went more than 14 hours on a burn time. Rant over. Time to turn it up a bit and drink 

[ecc_33]

This is also on the side of the air box. The back of the box were the fan mounts looked like new. So my questons is. If my chinsy azz repair kit looks like the guy with the 400 issue. What do you screw or self tap the metal plate to if the metal under the "repair kit" is junk? Eventually sooner than later that WHOLE piece of metal is going to be trashed and most likely cause a big fire or just fall off from rotting out. Since I have a service truck with all the fixins maybe I should just cut that piece out with a torch and weld in a heavier piece of plate steel?

[Jwood]

Wow I think we should all give pro fab a call on your behalf and others. They need to address this issue and fast!

[slimjim]

I would start by having a good healthy conversation with corporate, threats of lawsuits and lawyers does no good as you can see from the guy in PA, I wish we could have swung by to see him on our way back but with the posts that he made as well as the PM's that I received I thought better of getting involved, this is as you know a great place to come for ideas and answers but constructive conversations will get you much further than lawyers, let's all put our heads together and see if we can come up with a solution to their problem, I think having a beer is a great start then a PM to Scott7m might help, he has some difficult stuff going on right now so please be patient and I'm sure he will be happy to help. What am I looking at in the picture? Is that the air box that we see?

[Jwood]

Could you take a picture further back so we can see where the holes are in relation to the rest of the boiler?

[slimjim]

Great start!

[Scott7m]

Ive already been in contact with him and it will be taken care of...

As far as a heavier piece of steel, not sure it would help much really.  The stainless kits they send out have seemed to work well.  placing some board insulation around the fan box could help alleviate that as well.

I just dont see the heavier steel amounting to anything other than a slight delay, making the patch corrosion resistant will help tho

[slimjim]

What is it that we are looking at Scott, is there a possible better fix?

[Scott7m]

What is it that we are looking at Scott, is there a possible better fix?

Slim thats where the fan attaches to the air duct in the back of stove.  As boiler shuts down the trapped gases go to the cold spot which is near the fan.  Im not sure what can easily be done to correct it, the ideas I spoke to you about the draft would clean those gases out for sure.   But in its current design im not sure.  He said rest of the boiler was clean so, we shall see.  I think when folks take these pics they need to stand back so ppl can actually see where the issue is instead of just a pic of a hole, maybe from folks seeing the whole picture someone may come up with a better idea

[Jwood]

That's exactly what I was saying Scott the hole don't show much except holes

[ecc_33]

Thanks guys . I did call Scott ASAP and he was very helpful as always. It was gettin late and I was in a hurry. When the muddy yard dries out some I'll get more pics. The boiler in itself was very clean. Hardly any creosote build up. Tubes were nice and dry light flakey ash inside. The inside of the air box was horrible though. Lits of very hard creosote

[Belknap]

I went up and checked my pro 400 today just to make sure I didn't miss anything and mine is fine so far. I have shut it down for the season and when I removed the fan to clean it the metal in the air box all looked good and solid.  I have a large load on mine so I think that is what is helping me.  I usually don't get long burn times when real cold only about 8 hours and mine cycles often.

[ecc_33]

I went up and checked my pro 400 today just to make sure I didn't miss anything and mine is fine so far. I have shut it down for the season and when I removed the fan to clean it the metal in the air box all looked good and solid.  I have a large load on mine so I think that is what is helping me.  I usually don't get long burn times when real cold only about 8 hours and mine cycles often.

This maybe most of the problem? When mine does cycle it is often just not on for very long. Maybe 5-8 minutes at a time. Enough to get stuff hot than its out! I have noticed that. Guys this isn't a dig at Scott or pro fab at ANY GIVIN TIME. I just would like to inform people of stuff I have encountered with this boiler. Scott has prob been more than willing than he really should over the phone and through text which I am very greatful about. I am honestly posting all this stuff to hopefully come up with solution or try to figure out a fix for this. I figure im most likely stuck with my investment.

[slimjim]

That's the right attitude ecc, Scott is that portion of the air intake welded to the boiler or is it the bracket that holds the fan, Jwood is trying a couple of chemical treatments for steel, we were talking yesterday about his test, I wonder if it might have a use here, Jwood, could you after doing your experiment try the same stuff using heat and creosote to see what it will take? It seems like such a shame that we can put a space ship on mars but can't ( as an industry ) stop creosote from attacking steel, there has to be a better way!

[Jwood]

Sure I can try, how hot does that part of the stove get?