Need Replacement Parts for Wickes Furnace

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

I have a Wickes W62 hot water boiler that needs a few replacement parts.

Most important, is a new firebox. The ceramic fiber firebox might be manufactured 'generic' and come in different sizes to fit applications, but I don't know of any manufacturers.

The other thing I need is a new fire door. Mine's cracked diagonally across most of the door.

If anyone can point me to sources for these things, much appreciated.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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[HeatMan]

If the fire door is cracked, it may be time for a new boiler.....

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

Not an option, from a financial aspect. And the rest of the boiler is in beautiful shape. It's cast iron throughout. If it cracked and started leaking, I would probably have to move to FL and move in with relatives. As long as it doesn't leak water and it heats the house, I'll try to repair it. If I had the money to replace my boiler, I wouldn't be asking for free advice here, now would I? :-)

I can live with the firedoor situation, as it's not in front of the flame, nor is it leaking flame. I DO need the vacuum-formed ceramic fiber firebox though. The original is completely disintigrated and was removed in small pieces during cleaning of the chamber yesterday.

I've looked into buying some type of fiber ceramic insulation and contacted ThermalCeramics.com, but I don't hold much hope, as they deal in bulk to manufacturers of industrial furnaces.

Doesn't anybody make replacement fireboxes for these furnaces? Wickes is out of the boiler business as of 7 years ago, so they were unable to help me.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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[HeatMan]

applications,

Call a service company. They can tell you if there is a chamber available for replacing the bad one. If there's not, I guess you can move to Florida, because the boiler is a goner.

Just because the cracked door isn't leaking 'flame' doesn't mean it isn't leaking Carbon Monoxide.

How old is the boiler?

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

I contacted a plumbing supply house locally. Funny, they had in stock what I could not find on the net except as a bulk wholesale item--Kaowool ceramic fiber wet blanket. This lines the fire chamber and hardens after the burner has fired it a few times.

As for the door, I'm going to have a welder repair it.

It's a mere 31 years ago that I installed it. Relatively young, compared to a lot of boilers dating back to the the 1920s.

I did look at a Slant-Fin Liberty II oil fired cast iron boiler while shopping for insulation at Home Depot. Took a closer look and noted that the design used a relatively new concept in heat transfer -- 'pin fins' --a technology developed for improving heatsink efficiency in electronic applications, and a close spacing of plates. The specifications showed that the rated output was equivalent to my old burner and that the GPH fuel consumption was 28% less. I use 750 gallons every 12 months to run the furnace and the hot water heater (separate Bock 32E installed 7 years ago). It looks like I could cut my usage to 500 gallons every 12 months by replacing the furnace. I spoke with a friend of mine who recently had his furnace replaced. The actual unit cost him $1000, but the labor was $2800. I'm going to enquire the cost of the furnace I saw at Home Depot and see if it's in that range. I've been quoted $4,000 by oil professionals to replace my boiler. OTOH, if the boiler can be had for $1000, I will do the installation myself, possibly next year. I have to catch up on overdue real estate taxes first.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

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[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

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.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION ? FILM SCANNING ? DVD MASTERING ? AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

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[Red Neckerson]

"Mark & Mary Ann Weiss" wrote

Sounds like you need to have someone come out and do a clean and service on it on a regular basis. Should be at least once a year.

Turn the intake all the way up??!! You COULD be O.K. with that, but, see my comment above.

No offence: I'm happy you go the thing fixed, but it probably broke in the first place due to improper maintenance and settings.

[HeatMan]

You really need to get someone out there that has a combustion analyzer. That way you can tell if the system is running correctly.

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

The furnace had gone as much as 15 years without anyone looking at it, mostly due to family turmoil and much more devastating misfortunes and illnesses. Now that things are under my control, I will be doing the maintenance from now on. As for the flame setting, I may get a pyrometer and measure the temperature. I seek the hottest flame possible for the volume of fuel used. Next optimization project is to install a Delavan ProTek nozzle, which shuts off when the oil pressure drops, as in the burner shutting off, stopping the drizzling and afterburn that conventional nozzles suffer from. That may save some more oil and slow down the dirtying of the boiler over time. I'm rebuilding much more than just the furnace. I'm rebuilding the whole house, a room at a time, in what I refer to as "surgical demolition", where I knock down an exterior wall (didn't take much, as the wall was completely rotted and the only things holding it up were the sheetrock on the inside and the asbestos exterior siding on the outside), and build a new wall section on the floor and raise it into position, prefab style. The whole house is a picture of neglect, but now that it's under my ownership, I'm fixing it up, little by little. Was going to hire a contractor, but all contractors gave absurd estimates up to six figures for renovation/repair. There are times when you just have to do it yourself, because of money, scheduling and quality issues. I'm actually glad I didn't find contractors to do the above, else I'd be looking at a mortgage again. No thanks. My tax bill alone is as big as a hefty mortgage now. ;-}

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION ? FILM SCANNING ? DVD MASTERING ? AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

sites at:

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