Adding water to the boiler

[JRemington]

Is creosote buildup inside an outdoor wood boiler a problem? Seems to me like it wouldn’t hurt anything, and might help protect the metal on the inside Of the firebox.

I've seen boilers that have been destroyed by creosote fires. I've been told it can burn at 1500 degrees.

 

[maple1]

I don't think I would consider creosote build up in a firebox as something protective.

It can be quite corrosive actually, especially a buildup of liquidy type stuff that might run down and accumulate under some ashes & stay there. What builds up on firebox walls usually is dry scaly stuff that will only build up so much - seems to burn off a bit each burn, with regular hot operation. But bets are kind of off if it's the thicker gooey stuff you would get from excess smoldering.

 

[larryjbjr]

OK, I have a little of both. Mostly the dry stuff but I also have quite a bit of the gooey stuff on the door and stuff.

 

[SuperSpy]

Creosote build-up is somewhat corrosive, but the big problem is that it traps moisture up against the steel which greatly accelerate corrosion.

 

[JRemington]

Changing my wood boiler to a coal boiler was the best thing I ever did. That ended the creosote issue and I load it once a day. I went from 30 cord of wood to four ton of coal.

 

[Fred61]

Creosote build-up is somewhat corrosive, but the big problem is that it traps moisture up against the steel which greatly accelerate corrosion.

Small hot fires will help to keep the creosote dry and flakey if you can get away with them from time to time. Absence of moisture nearly eliminates the corrosion process.

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

 

[maple1]

Changing my wood boiler to a coal boiler was the best thing I ever did. That ended the creosote issue and I load it once a day. I went from 30 cord of wood to four ton of coal.

30 cords?? Holy moly....

 

[salecker]

Changing my wood boiler to a coal boiler was the best thing I ever did. That ended the creosote issue and I load it once a day. I went from 30 cord of wood to four ton of coal.

Holly crap what are you heating?
I know a guy who goes through at least that much wood up here.He has a CB and poor underground lines.He heats his house and shop.His heat load isn't much more than mine and i use around 8 cords a year.

 

[larryjbjr]

Here’s an update on the original topic.

I added the chemical to clean the boiler, let it circulate for about 10 hours, then flushed it out and added fresh water. Then I added the rust inhibitor to it.

That seems to have done the job. I haven’t had hardly anything in the strainer over the last few days.

I Also have not had a boil over in the last probably two weeks. I think it was that the door was the letting too much air in and that was my problem.

Thank you to all for all the advice.