Knight service ritual

Larry (from OSHA)

Every year in the fall I spend about 2 hours up close and personal with my boiler. It was installed in 2007 if I remember correctly and the amount of stuff at the bottom of the HX has always been about the same. 2 years ago I put a filter in the intake using an idea first heard of from Mark Eatherton (thank you). Vacuum cleaner bag collects the dust and various bugs that used to make their way into the inside of the burner. The burner and fan assembly has stayed much cleaner and that is probably a good thing. This time around I didn't have bags that worked very well so filter version 2 is now in place. Since I had a sheet of polyester aquarium filter material, I cut several circles and now have about six 1 inch layers in the 4 inch filter section. The pressure drop is very low and should work well and is cleanable. I also replaced the fiber insulation at the back and front of the HX since they were getting a bit aged looking. And since I could, I replaced temp sensors for return, hot out and exhaust. Things that can fail in January on a weekend night. The igniter and flame sensor were changed out last year even though they were still good.

Larry

NY_Rob

Love the filter idea.... good project for next spring!

May I ask what is the device between the boiler and the condensate neutralizer tube?

Larry (from OSHA)

Glad you like the filter. It seems to be beneficial. What you are wondering about is an additional neutralizer that I made from a drum trap. I use marble stones and I figure that more is better when it comes to buffering the condensate. The marble is cheap but need to use a fair amount to get the condensate close to neutral.

j a_2

Great job....

j a_2

Take a dollar bill and clean the igniter assembly....u can use a credit card to clean the burner....remove the gas valve and clean the inlet screen...don't forget to put a combustion analyzer on it when all done

Ironman

Great idea with the filter, Larry.

I've never liked the design that connects the intake directly to the gas valve. The only reason that I can see why manufacturers do it is because they don't wanna take the time to seal the cabinet. I've began putting a PVC Y with a clean out plug on models that do it.

I like your idea. Can you post some more pics and info on the details of the filter?

ChrisJ

Interesting idea, I like it.

If it was mine, I'd have to get one of these from a junk yard or ebay and mount it outside.

NY_Rob

Thanks Larry,

I've been running my mod-con since late June- I just 'cleaned' the neutralizer tube over the weekend... probably about 80% of the rock chips remaining... lots of little white balls (same size as the snow melt pellets sold at HD) at the bottom of the tube that weren't there when I first started using it.
With the mild winter we've been having in NY- my boiler runs at or near it's minimum 8K BTU's a lot of the time, so it doesn't really produce much condensate till it fires up to 80K BTU's for DHW.