1994 Burnham IN5 Steam boiler

Cerberus

Hi Everyone,

I have realized that lately my boiler is taking his sweet time, when my bolier turn on it usually is on for about 35 minutes! Is this normal?
My boiler is rated 140,000 BTU (5 large radiators, 1 medium radiator and 2 small radiators).
Boiler is from 1994 and i wondering if it is the time to change or maybe a have a lot of sludge somewhere?

Jamie Hall

Might be. Might not be. Normal cycle times vary all over the place depending on the structure, outside conditions, thermostat behaviour.... and so on. How does it compare with what it did a year or two ago?

And second -- when was the last time it was thoroughly cleaned (fire side) and the combustion adjusted with instruments?

Cerberus

I have cleaned the pan and nozzles about 2 years ago but i dont think i have ever made adjustments to combustion. I was looking for information how to check my output and how to adjust but someone had told me you are not suppose to make adjustments which sounded really odd to me. i believe couple of years ago it took somewhere around 25 minutes which i thought was normal. I did install 2 new main valves this year.

Jamie Hall

Cerberus said:

I have cleaned the pan and nozzles about 2 years ago but i dont think i have ever made adjustments to combustion. I was looking for information how to check my output and how to adjust but someone had told me you are not suppose to make adjustments which sounded really odd to me. i believe couple of years ago it took somewhere around 25 minutes which i thought was normal. I did install 2 new main valves this year.

It may be that it is time for someone to come in and thoroughly clean the fire side -- even on gas they can get some sooting, and that hurts output -- and check the combustion. It's not quite true that one is not supposed to make adjustments. What is true is that adjustments can't be made by eye, at least not to get really good results. One needs to check the pressures, draught, and CO, CO2, and O2 -- all of which requires test instruments made for the purpose, and the training to use them.

Cerberus

Sorry but what does fire side cleaning entails? i am not sure what is meant by it? I tried googling it but it only shows industrial boilers. Does that mean this is area where fire burn the core of the boiler?

Jamie Hall

Exactly. In every fuel fired boiler -- from the smallest residential unit to, say, the boilers on USS New Jersey -- there is a fire side, separated in one way or another, from the water side. The fire side is exposed to active flame in the combustion chamber, and hot gas for the rest of the way to the exhaust.

And, inevitably, it gets dirty. The dirt reduces the heat transfer from the flame or hot gas to the water, and the efficiency goes down and the available power or heat goes down. So... it needs to be cleaned from time to time. Which is usually just a matter of opening it up and brushing and vacuuming it out.

Cerberus

Jamie Hall said:

Exactly. In every fuel fired boiler -- from the smallest residential unit to, say, the boilers on USS New Jersey -- there is a fire side, separated in one way or another, from the water side. The fire side is exposed to active flame in the combustion chamber, and hot gas for the rest of the way to the exhaust.

And, inevitably, it gets dirty. The dirt reduces the heat transfer from the flame or hot gas to the water, and the efficiency goes down and the available power or heat goes down. So... it needs to be cleaned from time to time. Which is usually just a matter of opening it up and brushing and vacuuming it out.

Thank you. Yeah i have never done that part. Also, my wall insulation has started crumbling and i checked supply house and those insulation blocks seems to be cheap. I might just order them.

Thank you for your help.

JUGHNE

What wall insulation are you referring to?

Cerberus

JUGHNE said:

What wall insulation are you referring to?

Sorry didn't check on follow-up.
Insulation blocks where you have gas coming out of main burner.