backfill firebox

Dave Palmer

Question,I have a GOOD commerial customer with crap equipment,a 60 year old Weil/Mclain fires 2.50gph can't afford the abatement and boiler replacement about 14 grand.If I backfill the firebox lay down a k-wool blanket and fire it thru the door and add bricks into the passages and down size the flue (10" now) will I see much savings?I've done it with residiantal boilers with good results. thanks

Steamhead

Not all old boilers are over the hill

I'm not the world's greatest combustion man, but I think it would be a good idea to start with a heat-loss calculation (or radiation survey if it's a steam system). That glorious old W-M was probably oversized to get a bigger firebox and grate so they wouldn't have to shovel coal as often. Find out how much heat you actually need to produce and go from there.

I've seen backfilling taken to ridiculous extremes- if you cover any part of the boiler that has water on the other side, you're blocking heat transfer. This obviously reduces the boiler's efficiency.

We recently installed one of those round Kaowool fIreboxes in an old Ideal Water Tube hot-water boiler with the usual Beckett AF burner. This firebox, by its design, directs the hot flue gases up to the various heat-transfer surfaces. I'm sure that was part of the reason we finally got heat (gravity circulation) in the master bedroom! I'll be interested to see how it does this winter.

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