So when I was cleaning the boiler today I pulled out one of the turbulators and it came up wet. I shot this video after I had it all put back together and I started a fire in it. Pretty much a steady drip. Now, with a full fire going, there is just a little rim of wetness right at the bottom of the boiler tube.

[video]http://www.iburncorn.com/images/stories/videos/MVI_5890.flv[/video]

I thought something was kind of strange because the turbulators were all kind of stuck today. There were like five of the that took considerable work to pull out. What I was doing was clipping a vicegrips onto the top and then either pulling with a great deal of force, or using a short crowbar. I don't think the wet one was one of the ones that was stuck.

I never got around to buying a tube scraper and better bristle brush. So, the only brush I have ever used on this boiler is the stock one that comes with it.

I am thinking this is pretty bad news, eh?

Here is a better link to the video: www.iburncorn.com/videos/33-leaking-boiler-tube

Doesn't look incouraging. Is it leaking between the tube and the tube sheet? If so you might be able to re-roll the tube.
I'd call the mfg and ask about rolling tubes.

catalina0029 wrote:


unfortunately --- This generation had the fire tubes welded in. No re-roll possible.

Hi JA

Sorry for the delayed response - but there are still folks that want me to visit on holiday weekends. Back home and drinking heavily after driving 6 hours today.

now === May I extend my condolences on your sick pal there. I really thought it would be me this year as my injury in spring left baby boiler as is and I never returned to clean and pickle it for summer. It was in sad sad shape this fall.

Yep -- its not good news but its not the end of the world either. Your facing a rather large labor job but for the end its not going to be the worst expense. The fire tube is busted - done - had the bacon - the tube is shot. If this were January I would give you a suggestion to cap each end and continue till season end -- but its only end of NOV.

IF YOU have the time to invest - this will not be expensive - its just going to take a lot of time.

I know you hate me most of the time -- lets see if I can suck up some Karma here.

First off - give up - take the PB150 off line and valve it off from your system - go back to NG

next with your camera document EVERYTHING so you can put this back together because I am going to tell you now that the labor is all in the taking apart and putting it back together - the repair at a certified welder is not going to be too bad. -- In fact Ill ask this coming week if we have a pal that will roll new fire tubes in vs welding for a better repair but - I am getting ahead

unload the bin and take it off the feed cup
pull the pot - van out the inside - unwire the fed cup motors and the combustion fan and the snap switch and remove the feed system as a whole via the four screws to the case

Remove the controls off the front - unwire from the house as necessary but only as necessary - leave as much together as possible - get everything off the case

drain and remove the pipe in as big of pcs as possible so there are only the factory fittings sticking out the case - like it was 7 years ago new

now put on your non toxic particle mask and undo the case screws and take off the outside sheet metal. remove the insulation - set it all aside but mark it for reinstall.

the upper smoke chamber should be off by now and your left with a vessel sitting on the ceramic lined base

That vessel will separate off the base and this is what you need to carry out - get sandblasted and retubed.

Then you just have to reverse the process.

you won't loose anything- it has to come out anyway - contact Pinnacle tomorrow and ask about a replacement vessel -- I suspect repair will be cheaper and faster but???? who knows if you don't ask.

Email if you need a shoulder to cry on -- but this is not the end of days

Kind Regards
Sting


Pictures --- We like pictures of adversity


OH LOOK -- neg ELEVEN ON kARMA ----

Look at the bright side

The boiler off line won't need a dump zone repair now

Hurts to see, JA. Here's wishing you speedy success.

ya know dair hey----

another idea is to sell it on ebay as is and upgrade to one of them fancy EURO jobs

Ah well, it is a touch more complex than all this.
Complexity one, I don't have bypass valves or pipes in place. I have valves in front of and in back of the boiler. No couplers, I will have to cut the copper. I am guessing that was a money savings in the initial install that passed right by my newbie eyes.

Complexity two, the gas boiler is broken down as well. Its trouble is it has a copper finned heat exchanger (www.heatmaker.com/2400-222-Combustion-Ch...-P-M2-p/2400-222.htm)and so it gets copper oxidation all over the fins. The green particles then break free and float down into some sensor that can tell if the fire is lit or not. So, the boiler runs just fine ...for almost 45 seconds then it goes into reset-purge-relight mode. For $200 I have had a guy come to my house a couple of times and vacuum out the little green particles. I have never attempted so myself because he told me once in this condition the coil is extremely fragil and one false step it is toast. A cleaning lasts about two months. No way am I putting $1.4k into this piece of crap boiler.

I have been trying to refinance my house for the past three months -- something was messed up in the title and it took until Friday to get that fixed. With my house payment going down and the timing on all that I was hoping to use the money I get back from escrow to buy a new boiler. ...I just didn't expect it to be happening with the world ending at the same time.

Either way, it looks like I am going to be taking some time off work starting Monday afternoon.

--ja

...And yes, I just poured myself a Jameson.