Best Of

Call them back. EK has a very good rep on here. they seem to be fairly responsive on here.

Sometimes its not the boiler that's the issue. That's just what malfunctions due to extenuating circumstances. like I suggested check the liner. You can get your cap blown off and next thing you know birds fall down there or nest on the top. i've seen it done. Do you have enough combustion air in the room. lack of combustion/dilution air will prevent drafting. Room enters into a negative zone. The longer the boiler runs the worse the condition. And there are other causes.

i'm not saying that this definitely the issue but sometimes you need to step back and think. sometimes the problem is so obvious that you cant see it.

how big is the room that the boiler is in?

The backdraft started after the adjustments the tech made on Wednesday. We can smell it. Immediate concern is CO.

check the rain cap on top of the chimney liner if your back drafting. If the products of combustion cant go up the chimney they will Back draft into the boiler room. not to mention all the other stuff that's gonna foul.

how did you determine backdraft when the tech, who have the equipment, didn't see it

Ascent EK1T update- Would love some help!

Hello again,

Thanks everyone who weighed in on this. I reached out to the manufacturer and a tech from our installer as well as Ascent came out on Wednesday. They increased the pre-purge to one minute, the post-purge to two minutes, reduced the GPH (I'm not sure from what to what- I think it started at the factory .85) and adjusted the combustion/air intake to fit with the new settings. Now at the beginning of the cycle we are getting a very loud rumbling like a plane is taking off in our flue pipe. It's rattling the house. Then exhaust back draft. What is going on?

@Roger from EK sometimes posts here. He's been very helpful to us.

@Budgie , where are you located?

If you happen to be in the Hudson Valley NY area my company is trained on Energy Kinetics boilers and would be happy to assist you with this problem.

Please call EK at 908-735-2066 We can help you. or dm me

Thanks all!

A clarification and update: We have called the installer four times to come and fix this and each time they say they can't find anything. We have sent two additional emails which have been ignored! And we have had several regular service appointments.

Like the fine gentlemen stated, like all heating equipment annual service and a tune up are needed to keep the equipment running safely and efficiently. That being said, Theres an air box cover designed to keep burner noise to a minimum and this chamber is usually piped to the exterior of the home to use outside air for combustion. This would be for efficiency. If this is the case, you should not have any air exchange into the basement or room in which the equipment is installed.

My recommendation would be to run the equipment with the air box cover in place as it was designed, hopefully the fresh air inlet is installed and call your service provider for an annual tune up and cleaning

This isn't DIY. Call your EK service provider. Today.