DIY ModCon Cleaning

Brian R

I'm embarassed to say that I let my Peerless Pinnacle PI-140 (nat. gas) go 2 1/2 seasons without cleaning the combustion chamber HX. It's one of those things that I always say I have ALL summer to do it, but never do, and never think about it until heating season arrives. So, I was kinda apprehensive, thinking about the horrors I would find, partly based on some of the posts here in the past. To my astonishment, it was remarkably clean. I dry brushed & vacuumed as much of the "coffee grounds", or "mini-mouse turd" material as possible. Then went after it with CLR and a nylon parts cleaning brush. Pulled the condensate drain trap, and flushed into a bucket with warm water until clear. attached before & after photos. I'm a DIY guy, and installed this boiler myself (exactly to mfg. instructions), including combustion testing. There's so much hatred for these boilers on this forum, that I want to say that this boiler performs very well for me, and I PROMISE to give it annual cleaning from now on.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Looks good Brian. The accumulation in mod-cons (variously described here as "coffee ground" and "mouse turds") seems quite variable and of unknown origin. Nobody seems to know if it's coming from the combustion air, the fuel, a combination or something else.

Andy_17

another DIY cleaning

After chasing the installer all summer & had some time & clean my Knight, Surprised at the amount of Crud/ Turds on the exchanger. most came off easily w/ water & a credit card scraper. Have to say I really like the boiler but lousy design, there are bolts mounted behind the air/gas arm that you can only get to w/ an allen wrench & 1/4 turns. If something is supposed to be disassembled annually, you would think they would make it service friendly.