Shut the boiler down, with temps in the upper 50's I cleaned out the boiler and will use my propane backup. 1st time using it. I can now focus on stacking the 10 cord log load I've been working on. I'd say I am over half way through it, stacked out 5 cord so far.
I'm gettin ready to do the same thing. I think we just had the last snow so our over anxious "town" guys should be done spreading (waaay too much) salt sand on the roads, and I can give the vehicles a good hot water underside rinsing. Then that's it for the season. I usually use about 8 cord, I honestly think I'm stretching a bit to say I used 3 this "el-nino" year.
Yeah, my useage is down considerably this year also. Heating three houses out of the wood shed, well two houses and a condo, we average approximately 13 cord/year going up in smoke. Without actually measuring the section of shed we're burning out of this year, by eyeball it looks to be less than 9 cords useage so far....may even be less than that. Now you got me a wondering how much we've really burned.
I shut my boiler down Sunday, but that's because I was out of town all week for work and my wife HATES dealing with a fire every day. Not that it mattered, the highs were in the 70's all week and it looks like it's going to stay in that temp range for another week. I might fire it back up next Thursday if the lows dip into the 30's, I've already moved enough wood into the basement to burn another 3 weeks or so.
I've been thinking about shutting mine done also. Propane is cheap around here so it may not be worth burning much longer. Just curious what you all do after shut down. I usually scrape the sides well and empty the ash out. Last year I wire wheeled the entire inside to remove any creosote, but it sounds like not too many do that. What do you do?
The little bit of research that I've done, it's somewhat of a common theme to not use WD40 but rather new or used motor oil. I'm not sure of the consequences, but I've heard it from a few different sources. I didn't coat the inside last year, but I guess it's not a horrible idea.
Most of what I heard that it is more of a penetrant than a protectant. BUT, WD stands for water displacement so I'm really not sure why. It does seem to be a popular theme though in most message boards I searched. I also can't see why it would hurt anything. I've even found a couple manufacturers that recommend oil. Go figure
This is all well and good, but what about the stainless boilers like my cozeburn empire? Seeing as a few do nothing with what I'm assuming mild steel boilers, is there anything I should do with the stainless? Also while on the subject if preventative maintenance, any additives to the water anyone recommends? Or anything else for the matter?
