Blue Leaker:

icesailor

Someone mentioned recently with an off hand comment about a blue brand of boiler (discontinued) that had a problem with leaking O-rings between the sections.

I went to clean one yesterday that I had never cleaned before. It was installed in 1995 and had been regularly maintained by someone that had a good "eye" for a flame. No holes in the exhaust. It had the white powdery stuff coming out the joints. I figured it was a cold start. No tank less and an indirect. I pulled off the cover on the top and instead of black kibbles and bits, they were white and the sections were mostly plugged with this white powdery stuff. There was a lot of it. It came out easily with a soot saw. In an area on the front section, opposite the tank less port, it was completely plugged but when I sucked the loose stuff off, it was smooth and almost looked like water had been flowing over the crud. As I was "sawing" the crud from between the side section, the soot saw went right through that putty sealant they used. I've never ever had that happen. I had to pull the side off and seal it up with furnace cement.

Before I started cleaning it, I tested it to see how it was running. It wasn't bad and the stack temperature was 420 degrees. Before I left ( to finish it in the AM, I tested it and the stack was 570 and still climbing. I didn't really notice all the other measurements other than the CO2 was at 11.5%.

This boiler ISN'T a cold start.

Is this think leaking slightly and the boiler heat is evaporating the leaking water? 

Thoughts

Paul Fredricks_3

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Maybe someone used soot sticks in previous years, instead of vacuuming it out. I've seen the smooth crusty stuff you're talking about, but never equated it with a leak.



Another possibility is, since your original test showed the stack temp much lower than the final, that it may have flame may have been compromised causing a build up of condensate on start up.



Just a thought.

icesailor

Soot Sticks:

There was a guy who passed years ago who cleaned and serviced oil equipment. He was the #1 user of Soot Sticks with the wholesaler I use. Since he passed, 20 years ago, they stopped carrying Soot Sticks. No one uses them.

What is unusual here is the sealant used between the sections on these old blue boilers. It was a brownish putty like substance. I have cleaned a lot of these blue boilers in my time and never had one where I broke through the sealant between the sections. It was like powder. Where the clean-out cover on the top is, the sealant was missing from underneath the cover. I had to fill the spaces so gases wouldn't leak out from under the cover.

Maybe it is leaking worse than I realized. I just remembered that I hadn't used my Fyrite Insight for a week or so. I ran it before and after I cleaned it. I always pull the probe out and let it suck until the O2 goes to 20.9 and the CO goes to zero (0). While I was waiting, water started running down the probe and was sizzling. Perhaps it was sucking water. I didn't look to see how much water was in the bowl.

Trust me, there was way too much crud to be from a soot stick.

The burner (Riello) was running fine. Just a routine servicing. Whenever I find a blue or a yellow boiler with a Carlin or Riello, and it is a warm start, there is just a fine layer of brown dust after two years of running. I think more and more, it's a leaker. I wish I could find the string about the leaking gaskets. It must have been on the Steam area.