Clean carbonized gas boiler or replace? Lots of CO

Joseph_4

I have a customer with a 50 yr old Gibralter R30, 85k btu boiler with a liberty combustion gas burner model 225sc. It has never been cleaned in 50 yrs. carbon monoxide detectors went off. I checked it with my digital combustion analyzer and I'm getting numbers in the 2000 ppm range. Chimney is clear. I know its the boiler.  I see  loads of soot . Its carbonized as well. A colleague told me that he heard if you have a carbonized gas boiler and you clean it, it just will carbonize in a year or so again. Is this true? Does it pay to get it cleaned or just replace.

Steamhead

It depends

With something that old I'd favor replacing it. But if the burner is plugged with dirt or something similar, you might be able to get it to burn clean, and not carbonize. I would wonder if you could get parts for such a burner though.



Is this a steam or hot-water system?

Tim McElwain

Joseph as I said when I talked to

you today  on the phone it depends on how much work is required to get the boiler (FHW) back up to standards as it has been converted and that Liberty burner to the best of my knowledge is not around anymore. It comes down to labor and parts to clean, refurbish and do a combustion test. That versus perhaps taking that money and applying it toward a new unit.



The fact that the chimney is also unlined means that for a new boiler the chimney will have to be lined. the alternative is to use the old chimney as a chase.



The other option is a wall hung side wall vented unit.