IThis is my second burn.... I had smoke leakage at the door. I fixed that. I still have smoke leakage at teh flat plate taht covers the hx tubes. It is leaking at both ends just a wisp.. but enough to be a problem. I am assuming that no smoke should be coming out at all. When i thought i had gotten rid of as much smoke as i could i took it off and checked to see if there was a small bb of stuff protruding up, I felt the rim area and teh plate.. nothing. should I run a file carefully around the rim? I am currently waiting for the smoke to leave again so I can do a more thorough check. Help anyone?
Tarm smoking at plate HELP
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hello myself. I just went and checked it all again. This time better. No solution. Teh smoke is coming from beneath the plate and coming out near the place where the handle moves. There is a square palte attached on teh inside of the handle unit... it looks like somethin is amiss in this area? It does not look like it will be air tight there? Smoke is alos gently coming from the plate on teh opposite side too.... along the edge across form teh handle side. Time to shut it down again. Ideas anyone?
Metal bolt down plate covering hx tubes: check for weld BB's or other deformation on rim of boiler or cover plate that prevent it from laying flat on the top of the boiler. File them off. You need flat to flat contact to prevent smoke leakage.
Square (rectangular) plate attached to handle unit: this is the bypass damper. Do the same check and remedy. You can pull the hairpin on the handle unit to remove the damper plate to check for flat/flat contact.
Future maintenance: when you clean the hx tubes, also check for minimal creosote buildup on the cover plate. Scrape that off to insure flat/flat contact when you bolt down the cover plate.
Square (rectangular) plate attached to handle unit: this is the bypass damper. Do the same check and remedy. You can pull the hairpin on the handle unit to remove the damper plate to check for flat/flat contact.
Future maintenance: when you clean the hx tubes, also check for minimal creosote buildup on the cover plate. Scrape that off to insure flat/flat contact when you bolt down the cover plate.
Are you closing the damper to soon? I only had smoke from where you describe for the first 5 minutes of my first burn, that's when I realized the damper shouldn't be closed until you have a nice hot fire. I closed mine almost immediately after starting a fire and essentially smothered the fire and the smoke wasn't even close to being drawn up the chimney yet - once I got the fire going properly, I've never had any smoke since then. My problem was defintely operator error - hopefully yours is too.
Good point. Once you get a good draft established, you should have negative pressure at both the plate covering the hx tubes and the closed damper plate, and even if there is a minimal gap, no smoke should be able to get through.
Thank you for the help. I went at it a few times last night. I looked up at one point and checked the clock... ( 11:45 ) and finally gave up. I did notice on the plate where the smoke was escaping. It was the small square plate on the inside that the handle is attached to. It was sticking up slightly and I could see the place where the smole was getting around it by the color on the plate. I noticed it does not quite fit in there nicley. I took off the pin to the handle and began to play with it... turning it to another position. I noticed there is a weld in the corner that prevents it from being flush against the inside. I filed it a tiny bit and got a better fit for it. I then put it all back together. I must agree that it is partly my starting error as was said. There is too much smoke when I first begin and it does come pouring out of the 2 edges when I begin. It did happen on my initial startup. However will this happen all the time when I make an error in start up? It seems to me that this spot should be 100 percent sealed so it never happens... no matter how much smoke there is. After I completely checked the seal with the little plate being the major problem.. I then proceeded to build a fire again. The same thing happened. As the temp increeased... the smoke coming out around the plate began to decrease ( over a 15 minute period ). When i filled it up some more with wood and achieved gasification... it was minimal. Then it disappeared.... However.... did it really stop? Am i still getting some sort of exhaust coming out of this area?... but i just can;t see it? I am not sure. I will attempt to do a fix on it again tonight.
I encountered another new issue last night as well. As the system was coming up to temp... about 140 and getting hotter.. I turned the thermostat up in one zone to start getting heat. All was working fine.... the heat came through the zone. The system was still gaining temp 145. I turned on another thermostat... more heat for that zone cam on. Then my hot Hot water tank automatically came on... and still all was fine. Everything ran fine. Then when my Tarm got to its high limit about 196?... The fan turned off. At around the same time... I noticed the low limit on the oil boiler getting lower... and lower.. and lower... which should not happpen... ( I had it set at 100 ). Then... the zones that were heating began to cool down... and the oil burner came on... The temp on the Tarm stayed at the high temp.... It was like the the zones did not want to use the heat from the tarm. ?
Is this due to air in the system somehow during use? If so .. how do it bleed it?
I encountered another new issue last night as well. As the system was coming up to temp... about 140 and getting hotter.. I turned the thermostat up in one zone to start getting heat. All was working fine.... the heat came through the zone. The system was still gaining temp 145. I turned on another thermostat... more heat for that zone cam on. Then my hot Hot water tank automatically came on... and still all was fine. Everything ran fine. Then when my Tarm got to its high limit about 196?... The fan turned off. At around the same time... I noticed the low limit on the oil boiler getting lower... and lower.. and lower... which should not happpen... ( I had it set at 100 ). Then... the zones that were heating began to cool down... and the oil burner came on... The temp on the Tarm stayed at the high temp.... It was like the the zones did not want to use the heat from the tarm. ?
Is this due to air in the system somehow during use? If so .. how do it bleed it?
I need to take a second look at my Tarm before answering further as to smoke leakage. Others can address your other issues.
Rest assured, you will work the bugs out of the system and you will attain a very high level of satisfaction. Also, I suspect that if there really is mfr problem with the Tarm, they will satisfy you too. I went through lots of early frustrations, all do to my inexperience and sometimes incompetence, but now all is at a "light it and forget it" stage.
Rest assured, you will work the bugs out of the system and you will attain a very high level of satisfaction. Also, I suspect that if there really is mfr problem with the Tarm, they will satisfy you too. I went through lots of early frustrations, all do to my inexperience and sometimes incompetence, but now all is at a "light it and forget it" stage.
Birdman said:
How is your system plumbed? Is it possible that when you oil burner kicked on, another circ started pumping and it prevented flow thru the tarm? That would be my guess w/out knowing how you are plumbed.
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