First cleaning in 9 years.

STEVEusaPA

Can't believe this boiler was installed 9 years ago and never cleaned. First time at this house.
Chamber collapsed, full of kibbles and bits. Flue pipe rotted out. Chimney base over 1/2 blocked. Heat exchanger...well you see the pics. Usually only see a Riello able to power thru that blockage.
5 hours (1.5 to run and get chamber kit).
Can't believe Crown boiler charges 4x for their kit over a Lynn kit for practically any other boiler. No one carries them but at least they were close by.
Glad they have heat, the bill was pretty huge. Hope they don't try to go another 9 years...lol

What fun did you have today?

kcopp

Wow... Since you asked. We pulled out this Weil 66-6 section oil boiler converted to gas. Installed about 1978.. cracked last week. Been after the owners to replace for 5 years. Had a Wayne conversion burner. Bottom on the boiler was plugged 80%.

SuperTech

I've had three worse than that in the past week. The worst being a hallmark furnace that almost filled the soot vacuum twice. Wrong nozzle, wrong pump pressure, wrong burner head! Producing 400+ PPM CO upon arrival for a "tune up" that took me six hours and left me looking like a chimney sweeper.
I should really start taking pictures, at least then one good thing will come from it. It will make for good story telling.

The Hallmark furnace was seven years old, blocked chimney, rotten flue pipe. The air filter looked like it could have been from the original installation, plugged and sucked on to the blower assembly.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Back when I used to do residential stuff like that if I ran into a bad one like that I would do the same as you guys did, suck soot, replace parts fix it up good. But that was it. I told the owner they had to maintain it.

If they didn't call me to maintain it properly after 2 years was my limit. I was done they could get someone else. I only suck soot one time /job if they made no effort to maintain it

delta T

Ran into this one last week....that was fun. I am so sick of clothes dryers being installed in mechanical rooms. Don't care how well it's vented, still will screw with boilers, especially when no tune ups are done in 20 years.....

STEVEusaPA

So were all having fun.
My absolute worse was an oil fired furnace hanging from the ceiling in an auto repair shop. The mechanic/owner used to try to clean it and tune it up himself. Very wealthy cheapskate.

Completely sooted up to the point it was blowing black snow flakes out the flue all over the lot.
Had to work on a pallet up on a fork lift.
I was so dirty I took my pants and sweatshirt off and thru them in the trash. Drove back to the shop in my T-shirt and boxers.
Unlike @delta T , no pic of that, luckily...

The footnote to that is after the guy paid the bill, he was mf'ing me all over town about how I over charged him. I was delivering oil and taking care of his shop, house, the boatyard he owned and his rental property. And I gave him better pricing due to the volume of business.
Few weeks later I saw him sitting at the bar in the yacht club where he’s a member (service call for their boiler). Told him off and embarrassed him in front of everyone there and told him he’s fired as a customer, to go find someone else.
For about 2 years he'd see my father and try to apologize and want him to talk to me about being a customer again.

HVACNUT

Last Friday.
EK -1 Frontier. Agreement lapsed after the first year, 8 years ago. Hasn't been touched since. Pulled the chamber, brush and vac. Down fired. New chamber, Pac Man and amulet on order.
The Soot God has unleashed its wrath on us. Customer sacrifice?

SuperTech

@delta T That's a real good one you got. I didn't realise how severe it was until I scrolled down and saw it was gas. I'm surprised you are dirtier! Gas soot is the absolute worst.

@HVACNUT I've never seen an EK soot up like that. Other than owner neglect what was the primary cause of the mess? Cracked amulet? Plugged nozzle/strainer?

Customer sacrifice is a good idea. I think Steve posted a perfect example of how it's done 😀

Steamhead

These are only the latest in a long, long, LONG line..........

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/146509/quot-serviced-every-year-quot-we-were-speechless

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/132567/one-of-the-worst-maintained-oil-fired-boilers-weve-seen

.... ad nauseum.

@kcopp , I know that burner. Betcha that poor old 6-66 was wayyyyy overfired. This would explain the soot, and possibly the crack too.

kcopp

@Steamhead You are probably correct. The end cone was partially melted off. The burner was installed in 1980. I took one look at the pilot a couple years back and was petrified about the long pilot it had. 6" long. I told them I knew nothing about it and didn't dare touch it.
This is the largest steam install I have done.
Im just a small system guy.

HVACNUT

> @SuperTech said:

> @HVACNUT I've never seen an EK soot up like that. Other than owner neglect what was the primary cause of the mess? Cracked amulet? Plugged nozzle/strainer?
>
>
I've never seen this on an EK either.
As of now, I have no idea what the cause is but I can say it's not the fuel pump. First thing I checked. I have it down fired and I'm safe with my numbers until the repair. Puff switch works and I have one in the van if needed. Another good vac, put back a .75 and then see what's what.

SuperTech

I'm glad for the homeowners sake that the puff switch works! Keep me posted on what you find out. I'm guessing that it was a combination of issues causing that mess.

Roger

Thank you for you post and photo, @HVACNUT .

The chamber is a near perfect burning environment that incinerates the fuel so it is extremely clean burning. To have the results you showed, something most likely interfered with the burner nozzle atomization or spray pattern and caused it to burn extremely poorly (possibly some blockage in the nozzle orifice or some impingement or build up on the burner head/nozzle that occurred over time, etc.).

After your quality cleaning and tune-up as you described, I'm sure that system will be restored to efficient and reliable operation for the long term. This is a good example of why customers should insist on an annual tune-up, even on the best equipment.

Thank you for restoring this boiler to good working order and all your positive work to keep people warm and happy!

Roger

Intplm.

Maybe it's time for another "UGLIEST BOILER" contest.

STEVEusaPA

Wasn’t ugly when I was finished!

Intplm.

No doubt☺︎

Jean-David Beyer

This is a good example of why customers should insist on an annual tune-up, even on the best equipment.

The first year after my new mod-con was installed, my heating contractor sent a "techie" to do the annual service. When he got here he had to ask me if it was oil or gas. (Did you ever see a drip-leg on an oil supply pipe to an oil burner?} He did not have a combustion analyzer, nor the necessary gasket kit and igniter. He said he did not have time to read the manual and was only scheduled 15 minutes to do an annual service. He protested that gas boilers did not need to be serviced anyway. I am just a home-owner, but I had read the installation and service manual on that boiler before it was installed. I sent him away. In the past, that had been a very good heating contracting company, but they merged with one competitor after another, and I imagine the size of the company got too big to manage properly.

Then I got a new heating contractor.

Steve Minnich

This thread makes me glad my time in the trenches is done.

rick in Alaska

hopefully this came through. This was still running. I took the entire boiler outside as we had to replace a large chunk of the floor that was also saturated in fuel oil.
I thought this looked pretty cool though.
Rick

rick in Alaska

This was a Weil Mclain 68 series with a Riello on it. The homeowner worked on it, which had fuel oil all over the floor, the entire room
blackened with soot from 5 feet up, and the primary control did not shut it down. It was an awesome sight.
Rick

HVACNUT

That's awesome. Are you installing a new boiler?

STEVEusaPA

That one should earn you enough money to get to Wetstock and back!
LOL, a Riello on a 68. Goes to show you that Riello with its high static pressure will keep running until it's a mess.
I wonder if the Riello is too forgiving in its maximum ohm range to lock a burner out.

rick in Alaska

HVACNUT said:

That's awesome. Are you installing a new boiler?

Actually just cleaned this one out. Homeowner did not have the money for a new one, but he did build a little bumpout on the side of the house and we reinstalled it in there. The soot was so dry it actually cleaned out very well. I did replace the chamber and blanket though.

STEVEusaPA said:

That one should earn you enough money to get to Wetstock and back!
LOL, a Riello on a 68. Goes to show you that Riello with its high static pressure will keep running until it's a mess.
I wonder if the Riello is too forgiving in its maximum ohm range to lock a burner out.

I was shocked to realize that it had kept running. You should have seen the room it was in. The only reason I was called in from the beginning was because of a fuel smell. The room was just nasty. In addition to the ceiling and walls absolutely black from the soot, there was about a 5 foot ring on the floor from the leaking diesel. I don't know why the place didn't burn.
That was only the third Riello primary that I have changed out on oil. The first two got under water. Now a gas primary on a Riello, that is another story. Not sure what went wrong with that design.
Rick

loran5582

Solid_Fuel_Man

Cant solder? No problem!

What is going on with the smoke pipe above the damper? Is it reduced in size to add more fun?

Edit: I see the power venter now!

Leonard

Black soot room------ sounds like inside of black oil tank, sucks up all the light from even powerful flood lights

brandonf

Boilers are supposed to be cleaned? 🤔

Dave0176

loran5582 said:

And that’s why I wish supply houses wouldn’t sell to DA jack of all tradesmen.

bob eck

In the original photos on this tread there is a oil boiler and a gas water heater. Are they being vented into the same chimney?
Is it ok to vet oil and gas into the same chimney?

SootBoy

Hi Folks. just came across this page, Still a licensed oil burner tech in Boston area.. i left the job because of a fall off wall when doing an oil delivery back in 2004 had two operations and ACL replacement..i did boiler/burner work for 24 years.. I started in 1979 i can relate to all the awesome photo's in here. Did night call to for a company that had over 6 thousand accounts was always a challenge .. The plugged chimney bases and collapsed chambers were my specialty lol.. i love when plumbers would install a boiler then pipe the return across the swinging boiler door. I'm doing X Ray now i am still working in dark places..

SootBoy

bob eck said:

In the original photos on this tread there is a oil boiler and a gas water heater. Are they being vented into the same chimney?
Is it ok to vet oil and gas into the same chimney?

Gas flues were always suppose to be above the oil in my area but wasn't always the case

SootBoy

Dave0176 said:

loran5582 said:

And that’s why I wish supply houses wouldn’t sell to DA jack of all tradesmen.

That is BAD ! they probaly charged the home owner a fortune too then changed contact number

SootBoy

So that boiler with the red Rex on it . Some people have no pride in their work.. So what is limit for temp on Pex? i believe the Red is for Hot water and the bursting pressure is high enough for a closed system like a heating system but what if the boiler makes 180 degree water? Isn't it suppose to be for domestic HW? i am just asking Thanks~

SootBoy

Solid_Fuel_Man said:

Cant solder? No problem!

What is going on with the smoke pipe above the damper? Is it reduced in size to add more fun?

Edit: I see the power venter now!

I saw that Draft Inducer after my second look too at that mess.! So it has a motorized damper and a draft inducer. They probably left the chimney base plugged too~