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[unaslob]

anybody in the northeast part of the country get pommelled by wind yesterday.. we had gust of 69mph!!!  the reason I bring this up is the excessive draft and reasonably warm temps and my current natural drafting method created the perfect storm for an overfire....early this am when I went to check the fire I noticed that the house was warmer then expected...  I  get out to the boiler and the cap on the water gauge was exploded off (when the water heats up and expands the guage often will pop out the cap and I find them nearby on the ground) there was steam coming out.. I checked the temp 200F.  the coal fire heavily burned out  and not raging to hard in fact...   I turned up heat in a few places to dump heat off and that got the temp down to around 185 .  but I did loose a fair amount of water to boiling off I have a feeling as I had to had alot more water then I ever had.    maybe when wind is predicted in the forcast I should switch back to the forced air draft regulated by the thermostat, eh?   has anyone out there ever damaged or heard of damage to a boiler as a result of overfiring???

[willieG]

i have heard of severe damage from boil off due to warpage and over expansion of metal causing cracked and split welds on some nakes of stoves. In my area a fellow left his door open a bit to get the fire going good after cleaning his firebox. he walked away with a full load of wood in it and boiled the thing dry. it was a stainless firebox and it was ruined. this was a maked of stove that is (i think) no longer on the market.