A sooted Buderus that needs to be cleaned ??

ScottMP

Found that this Buderus G124 DI converted to L.P. was so sooted up that it was blowing out the pilot hole and shutting down.

I took it apart and found that one side of the boiler was sooted up. The other side was fine. The pilot seemed to be the culprit of the sooting.

What should I look for as to why this happened ?? It obviously is a pilot problem but why ? I have contacted the L.P. company to check the regulator just to be on the safe side.

Tommorow she gets flushed out with a garden hose and wet vac. What Fun !!

Scott

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Dan_15

Sooted boiler

We have reviewed the pictures and have seen this occur when the pilot orifice is not changed to LP (which the boiler is three years old and was fine a year ago - so we don't think that is the cause) or the pilot ferrel was loose.
We have spoken with Scott and offered advice on a cleaning method. The burner tubes show some signs of over heating but appears they don't need to be replaced.

ScottMP

Thanks for the quick responce Joe.

I will check tomorrow the condition of the pilot assembly.

Scott

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Steve_35

Be thankful it's not a W-M, Dunkirk, Peerless or one

of the other many brands that are a bear to clean.

Dale

Great pictures

Given that this is a spark ignition there is alot of extra fuel getting in here. I too would change out the pilot orifice to the correct LP size and I would also check the main orifices since you'll need to remove the burners to clean them. I would also bring my own gauge to check manifold pressure.

clammy

Low pressure switch

Just wondering did the gas line have a low pressure switch so if the lp pressure should drop it cuts the burner off i remenber install them on a few jobs years back i believe it called for by the manufactors on there conversion kits it was most likely a opition,besides your photo i 've only seen a few gas jobs sooted some from lack of combustion air and a few from after burn from the gas valve not completly closing peace clammy

ScottMP

A bottle of Fantastic and a hose

was all I needed. Sorry I forgot the camara. Sprayed the cast iron sections and let it soak for a few minutes. Then washed it down with a garden hose and sucked the water up with a wet vac. We bought a aluminun pan to catch the water and kept the mess to a minimum. Actuall it was a pretty clean job, all things considered.

The only issuie was when I lit her off. I tightened the fiber gasket from the valve to the factory manifold, but I just snugged it. I did'nt want to crush the fiber gasket. Guess I did'nt snug it tight enough because a little L.P. must have slid down the pipe and POW. I got to meet the dragon. Puckered me Right up.

On to the next job.

Scott

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Bob Harper

conversion is your clue

If they left in a NG pilot orifice, it will Vesuvisize. Ditto for a gas leak in the pilot tubing. From the soot patterns and knowing LP's properties, I'd really look hard for a leak. See how the soot wrapped around the burners from below. If it was just the pilot, you'd have sooting at the point of impingement along with some light unilateral soot distributed throughout the combustion chamber. You could have a flashback if the manifold pressure is way low with high primary aeration but again, I vote leak.

Jack_21

Joe, BTW, the pilot conversion

Buderus sent me for my G224 took care of the ignition reliability issue. thanks!

Empire_2

Reply

As pilot burners start burning like crap, The first cell nearest the pilot burner fires alittle more crappy due to the carbon that has built near the pilot burner. As the problem compounds itself due to lack of maintenance the problem gets worse till it starts to affect the next burner cell an so on.and so on till you have a partially plugged heat exchanger or a totally plugged one. Sorry about the non tech talk but I think you know what I mean.