Econoburn Gasket Material

[willworkforwood]

.... I don't have creosote like you describe (gooey, stringy) .... I still got the smell ....
Jim

Well, the easy one was the gasket - the next ones get more problematic. As you know, the upper burning chamber gets coated with creosote, which is completely normal and expected for a gasification boiler. However, being sealed, this creosote can never give off an odor to the outside. But, running your boiler like you did (with the damper open for such a long time), could easily have sent a significant amount of creosote into the turbulator linkage area of the boiler, and the flue pipes - the short one that's a part of the EB back plate, all connector flue pipes, and some part of the chimney pipe itself. The creosote may have deposited on some or all of these things. The odor from creosote deposited in the flue pipes would be very likely to find a way out of the pipe seams. Do you have any section of your flue connector that can be disassembled reasonably easily? If you can get one or more sections removed then you can examine the inside of those pieces, and get a light up into some of the rest of it as well. I hope you don't find much, especially in the back plate area of the boiler :sick:

 

[NNYorker]

Have you guys done anything different with the insulation that covers the plates?

I gave feedback to Econoburn that it would be nice to have a more ridged insulation panel that could be taken off to get to the plates.

I really do not like the amount of work it takes to clean the Econoburn.

gg

I placed a custom fit piece of this (broken link removed) on top of the existing insulation---top rear turb access panel. Also placed a piece under the bottom chamber. Easy to work with and does not fall apart with handling. Left over from my scrap heap...........

 

[NNYorker]

@gg - I didn't get your PM, not sure why.

@wwfw I don't have creosote like you describe (gooey, stringy) but I do have some glazed looking and crumbly looking creosote on the beveled parts of the doors which I cleaned off with a scrapper. I still got the smell. When I look at the seal, there is no obvious place where leakage is occurring. I would expect discoloration or creosote build up, but there is nothing like that. Not sure where to go from here.

Jim

Just an idea----------mount,duct tape,fasten......an old white t-shirt/computer paper around the top and bottom doors so it spans across where the door seals against the chamber while you're fired up. Let it run thru a couple of calls for heat. Maybe a tiny leak/discoloration will show up on the material as you pull it off. It doesn't take much of a leak to cause a lot of stink. Grab a couple of cold ones and maintain a watch. Most likely culprit is the upper door with the creosote smell.

 

[goosegunner]

Check your back plate where the round flue pipe is welded to the back plate. The weld separated on mine and was leaking. It looked like the weld didn't penetrate the metal properly.

gg