I got the furnace fire door back from the welders today. They did a great
job, despite the age of the iron and it's having been heated and cooled
thousands of times. They did what's called a "V-groove weld", which is to
say that the iron was old and that they had to grind a groove to find some
good iron to weld to. It pays to use a welder who's been in the business 40+
years!

I checked the fit and then removed it and installed the Kaowool ceramic
blanket that I had bought at ASCO Plumbing Supply. That took some effort,
due to pipes and things blocking unobstructed access, and due to the size
and weight of the wet cloth. It did pretty much keep the shape that I formed
it to, so that was a good thing. After I got the shape right, I cut the
opening for the Miller tube (burner blast tube) to go through. Installed
fire door, burner and did the recommended startup procedure (3 min on, 3 min
off for 15 min) to burn off the water content in the Kaowool and harden it.

The furnace runs great now, better than it has in many years. That was
because I had taken it apart to a level where I was able to clean out the
boiler most thoroughly (the scale, rust and soot filled two 16 gallon
industrial vacuums!!!), was able to take apart the burner and spray nozzle
and clean every component in great detail, and check the gaps on the spark
electrodes, clean them, clean the microscreen filter in the nozzle, etc. So
the WHOLE system has been gone through.

Now that the combustion chamber is repaired, I was able to turn the air
intake all the way back up, for a hotter flame (same oil flow, but more air
produces more BTUs of heat) and we should save a significant amount of oil
because of the hotter flame and clean boiler tubing. There was so much
debris in there before that I bet it actually prevented some of the heat
from heating the water!

Anyway, the furnace is running great now. Total cost of repairs: $100 for
parts and welding.
And with the cracked door fixed, and the flue stack properly cemented, the
danger of CO leaking should be alleviated. I was concerned about this
because after rebuilding the cellar wall, it is air-tight. The old wall was
so full of holes that daylight was coming in all over the place, so no
chance of CO buildup. Anyway, the whole house should stay much warmer now
with the leaks eliminated and Amanda's (my daughter's) newly-renovated room
is so well-insulated that a single light bulb will quickly raise the
temperature as if the heater were turned on. I still plan to install heating
convectors, but it's nice to know that a light bulb will increase the room
temperature when the outside is 39ºF.


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Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION • FILM SCANNING • DVD MASTERING • AUDIO RESTORATION
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