what is it? where does it go?

CapZ

I opened up the fire door to my Utica sfh-3100s and found this rectangle piece of foam insulation sitting there loose. Not sure how it should be situated. The picture is taken right at the mouth of the fire door.

CapZ

and this?

This was also in there loose at the bottom. Found it stuck to the end of the dry vac

Pughie1

Target wall

The first picture is the "target wall", it goes up against the face of the rear section in the combustion chamber area. You can get a replacement kit - Part #5611508  

called target wall & insulation blanket kit

The second picture is the observation door plug, that goes in the small round opening behind the swing door where you look at the fire. There is a kit available part#2552901 - mounting door insulation & observation door plug. They don't show the plug alone although it may be available.

Back in my day Utica used to tell you if you were using the Reillo burner to remove the target wall, if you were using the Beckett burner leave it in.

If you go on line & look up Utica Boilers/products you can see a parts list. Hope this helps.

John Pughe

CapZ

Thank you

Thanks for that. I assumed it went against the back wall somehow. I'm just not sure what makes it stay there. It's not a tight fit. Iit might be clearer when I get the kit. I'll need it anyway as it broke in places while I was playing with it. Is there any danger running the boiler temporarily without it?

Steamhead

Don't run the boiler

until the new chamber kit is installed. Part of the reason it's there is to keep the flame from overheating the cast-iron at the rear of the boiler. Another part is that it keeps the flame temperature high enough to help prevent sooting. 

Pughie1

SFH 3100

Following up on Steamhead's comments - If the target wall has been lying in the bottom of the combustion area there is a good chance that the boiler flues will require brushing & vacuuming prior to your installing the kit.Also, I don't think I would purchase the mounting door insulation kit if yours is in acceptable condition just to get the observation door plug. If the one you have will not stay in place just leave it out. Next you should have your boiler properly "set Up" by someone with a combustion analyzer - very critical for clean efficient & safe operation.

I checked with my good friends at Utica tech support. They tell me the door "Plug" by itself is not available. Also with regard to which burner you may have, I assume a Beckett AFG II, they tell me that with a Reillo or Beckett AF-2  they recommend removing the target wall. Hope this may help.

John Pughe

CapZ

Target wall

John I just finished the job and then saw your post and comment about the AFG 2. The model number on the sticker says A/AF/AFG/ etc.....I'm assuming it would clearly say AFG 2 if that's what it is?

Anyway it wasn't too tough a job. I did get a brush up the fins and got lots of carbon junk out of there, cleaned up the channels going up the sides. The target wall was a pretty good fit. No waterglass came with the kit so I assumed it's not necessary. The blanket seemed enough to push it tight. The mounting door insulation was intact but there were long cracks in it so I replaced that as well as the swing door insulation, which was just about gone.

I also got a fuel pressure gauge and found the pressure was way too high. The previous owner must have played with it so I brought that back down to the factory 140 psi. A combustion test is definitely in order.

The system seems to be running fine. One question mark I have is the 0-30 pressure gauge never moves at all. I don't remember it ever going anywhere. I took all the lines off, cleaned them, flushed the low water cutoff and took the gauge off. The hole in the bottom was clear. When I blew real hard into it the needle climbed a bit so I assume it's working. Is it possible the system is just running well balanced and the pressure is just rising in ounces, not registering at all on the gauge?

Pughie1

Nice job

Capz,

Good thorough work. I'm sure you have an AFG burner, Utica uses the AFG-II for their direct vent application. Most of the guys here would reccommend you replace your 0 to 30# gauge with a 0 - 3# one, that will give you a more accurate reading of your system pressure. You need very little  pressure to make your system function, probably 11/2# max.

Don't delay the combustion test too long, it's amazing how quick you boiler could soot up if everything is not right. All that great work you did could require repeating.

John Pughe

Hap_Hazzard

Pressure gauge

A 0-3 psi gauge will definitely tell you more about how the boiler is working, but the 0-30 psi gauge is required by code, so we usually recommend adding on a low pressure gauge rather than replacing the 0-30 psi gauge.



If the needle deflects and the gauge doesn't leak pressure, it's working. Make sure the port it screws into isn't plugged. If you add a low pressure gauge you'll be able to tell if the pressure the system is developing is simply too low to register on the high pressure gauge.