Its been a warm couple of days here in Northern Indiana with the temperatures reaching the mid 60's yesterday. The E Classic 2300 has been running great for the past two weeks since I fired it up.
Well with the weather being so warm I went out yesterday early afternoon to see how my fire if any was doing. I noticed a small glow in the back corner so I knew I had at least something. I decided to just crack the door open just to give it some air to stoke it up a bit. As one thing led to another, I proceeded to start hanging Christmas decorations in the front of the house.
About 30 minutes later my son comes running into the front yard "dad, theres something wrong with the OWB". As I turned the corner my unit was spitting water out the top and the temperature reading on the guage was 213. I immediately shut the door and after a few minutes the water had stopped and just some steam was coming out. This was not my first boilover over the last four years so I really thought nothing of it. I checked the water level and it looked like it was still up to full and I didn't lose much. After taking many, many hours to get back down to the 190 level things seemed to be back to normal, so I thought.
On October 13th I installed a new high efficiency gas water heater. I noticed that the control panel was blinking and had an error code on it. After reading thru the manual I finally realized what had happened, I'm assuming from the boilover.
My high temperature limit switch had reached over its limit of 195 degrees and shut down my water heater. As my manual states "if activated, requires complete replacement of the entire gas control valve/thermostat". These are single use switches only. I'll make some calls this morning just to see how costly my boilover will be. In the mean time, our hot water supply still seems to be sufficient for showers, laundry, etc. Not a good day for my mistake.
Just like a car that's overheating, you can turn on the heat in your house to dissipate the heat from your OWB much quicker. Open the windows and crank up the thermostat. Then you would not have to wait hours to get the problem settled.
doctorb
That was actually my first thought but since the house was already at 72 I was in no real hurry to crank up the heat. Still awaiting the call back for my part. Thanks
My Heatmor got hot one time due to the fan flapper getting a piece of something stuck in it. I turned on the air conditioner so I had cool air blowing across the exchangers. It will cool it down quick that way.
Info probably doesn't apply here but I've got a overtemp thermostat on Ol' Smokey that turns on a circulator to dissipate the heat into the house. It's a modified water heater thermostat that has been "tweaked" up to about 202 degrees. Smokes is a closed system under pressure so boiling temp is higher and goes higher with increased pressure from temperature climb. I start out at 10# and reach about 15# at 200 degrees. Also have a bit of glycol in the system that helps some more. A warning horn for overtemp could be useful also.
Another totally useless tidbit of trivia: Each pound of pressure on a closed system elevates the boiling point 3.44 degrees F. 10# = 246 degrees boiling and 15# = 263.6.
I had that in my other house with my indoor boiler. I could kinda hear the water really start to move thorugh the lines and knew it was close to a boil over. But my own fault,I would try to burn some dead stuff in it. Just could not smother the fire out the way the Heatmor does.
Finally talked to the manufacturer today. Told them over the phone I needed a new gas control valve/thermostat for my water heater. She asked for my serial number and told me they would ship a new part to me overnight and would have delivered to my house by tomorrow, no questions asked. Just a matter of me popping out the old and replacing with the new. For my mistake, think I lucked out on this one but a good lesson learned anyway.
That's some great news. :)
A heat dump circuit can be installed on an outdoor boiler as well. If you are plagued by repeated or costly boil overs it may be something to consider. In 4 years I have had one due to a malfunction. I considered it then but money is tight so I did not even price it out.
Yes,that is good news!!
Do these boilovers cause any damage to the OWB. I have never had one and hope i never do.
I only had one with my Heatmor and that was my first time with something getting stuck in the flapper as NWP said. I just happened to walk by it and saw water coming out of the top. I think this was in early fall. Did not need all that much heat. I turned on all of the zones and that brought it down fast. I think I only had one on at the time. But I saw more smoke than normal coming out of the stack when it was on idle and did not realize what was going on. Even though I was told this by the dealer and was shown what to do. ::) With my model no damage would be done,as long as I re-filled it with water. I did not lose much water. I doubt 10 gallons. The ground was not soaking wet around it.
Many years ago we had a pressurized Indoor wood fired boiler that hooked up to the oil boiler just like our OWB and one day the control went bad and kept blowing air while the pressure relief was blowing steam. The wife came out looking for me and said the stove was going crazy so I shut off the power and carried a few pieces of wood out the door with a shovel, she was so scared and upset that that was the last fire in that stove. I explained that the steam blowing out was a safety device and there was no danger but she was scared of the stove and didn't like the smell anyway so now we have the OUTDOOR boiler.
This is my 4th year with my OWB and had a boilover the very first time I fiiled it with water due to the fact I had over filled it somewhat. Have not had any problems until my flub this past weekend.
Stopped at home this morning around 10:30 and sitting on the front porch was the replacement valve. Since my OWB is providing enough hot water for all 5 of us, I'll probably wait til the weekend to replace the valve.
my boil over
I worry about my stove when the electricity goes off
the circulator wont work so I worry about it freezing
I could drain it but such a pain
so..........I rigged a half extension cord wired into the stove and plugged into my tacomas outlet in the bed
I keep a small fire going and go out and start the tacoma to circulate the heated water every few hours
also get warm in the tacoma since no heat in the house with elec off
:D fell asleep in the warm tacoma and dang near boiled the stove dry
can you run the circulator off the truck as well?