Bought a neglected CB 1400

[Farmhouse OWB]

Hey All,
Will be posting pics soon of the unit. Like the subject said I bought a neglected CB 1400 and I don't know the extent of all the damage yet but from what I can see there is a hole in the top of the firebox that the last owner tried to plug with what looks like furnace tape so that is an obvious fix. The air channels on the sides of the fire box will need cut out and redone, I have seen one post on here regarding this so will be looking at doing something similar. A good clean out will be needed, and the door gasket looks as if it has been leaking above the door with some discoloration. Other than that I will need a serious clean out to view any more damage. So if you folks have any experience with this unit or OWBs in general since this is my first unit please stay tuned for the pre-cleanout pictures.

[mitchstockdale]

Hey All,
Will be posting pics soon of the unit. Like the subject said I bought a neglected CB 1400 and I don't know the extent of all the damage yet but from what I can see there is a hole in the top of the firebox that the last owner tried to plug with what looks like furnace tape so that is an obvious fix. The air channels on the sides of the fire box will need cut out and redone, I have seen one post on here regarding this so will be looking at doing something similar. A good clean out will be needed, and the door gasket looks as if it has been leaking above the door with some discoloration. Other than that I will need a serious clean out to view any more damage. So if you folks have any experience with this unit or OWBs in general since this is my first unit please stay tuned for the pre-cleanout pictures.

hey welcome to the forum.  Cant wait to see your pics. I have been looking for a used boiler lately as well.
Are those Central Boilers just regular steel construction on the inside?  Do you plan on doing the welding yourself?

[Farmhouse OWB]

Thanks for the welcome, as far as I can tell the construction is just plain carbon steel. The firebox walls only look to be 16 ga metal or so. This will probably be a lot of work to get going, not even sure if the controller works correctly, I've heard that they can go haywire and need replacing. As far as that goes it is rather difficult to find a site where there are mostly positive reviews on any Central Boiler product. I am hoping that there are just as many satisfied customers out there that don't feel the need to post because their system is working great, and it only set me back $800 so I believe its worth the risk.

I will be performing most the work myself, I am a proficient enough welder but for the firebox patch I may enlist the help of a friend. I don't want to be blowing a bigger hole through the box trying to fix it.

So here are the pics, a lot of these are what I expected to see as far as possible repairs however in the 6th picture of the primary air elbow it looks as though the propane auto light feature is right beside it. I probably won't be using this feature but it looks as though the insulation is pulling away from it, not sure if that is the case or if that is from the factory that way.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hedgerow]

Welcome Farmhouse OWB to the forum. I hope when you get into repairing the leak you have something to work with. Depending on what the quality of the water was that ran threw the unit you may find a fair amount of corrosion. Good luck on the repair and keep us posted.