New to OWBs, have a Taylor 750. Am I getting this clean enough? I clean it once a week. I have some build up in the top and middle tubes that I just cannot get out. I don't think they stay hot enough to burn out the goopy creosote. I scrape all flat surfaces and use the tube brush. Just looking for opinions.....
Probably about as good as its gonna get with a water cooled firebox...kinda hard to keep the flue gasses above 250* when there's 160-180* water in the other side, especially at idle. How long have you had this unit? Do you just load once or twice per day at a certain time? I know my brother said he found that their old CB used less wood and ran a little cleaner if he waited until it was calling for heat to load, and then loaded just enough to make it to the next loading, rather than filling up...my 2 ยข n all that...
The unit is probably 18 years old or so. I've only had it for 6 months. I agree with letting the fire reduce down to just hot embers before re-loading. I try to load just twice a day, AM and PM, but as you know the weather changes how fast it burns, so in order to let it burn down, sometimes I load mid day (I work from home luckily). That nice clean dry burn along with some creosote remover once a week seems to keep the fire box pretty clean, but that back of the stove on the other side of the tubes is a mess to clean, and the 1 inch layer of gooey creosote on the bottom of the tubes cannot be removed as is, I think I'll have to wait till summer to let it harden and remove it by chipping it out.
You could use a propane torch or weed burner to get rid of the hard creosote....it will puff it up and make it crumble. If you had a flail or round wire brush on a rod attached to a drill that would work great.
Are you talking about using the weed burner for the tubes? Will that burn out the sludge creosote? Or are you talking about using it for the side walls?
Just don't go warping stuff with super high heat. I used a torch to clean this goo from a chimney cap and the whole cap got all puckered and distorted. That's a thinner metal but try and heat it up evenly and beware that the goo might start on fire.
That's what I thought too the first time I tried this...was really surprised how hard it is to burn creosote! Especially once it puffs up...almost reminded me of intumescent paint!
Don't give it too much heat in one spot for a long time with the torch and you'll be fine. Move around the same you would welding up sheet metal. Even if it did get carried away, which it won't, just close the door and damper on the boiler and it would be out in seconds.
