To the basement, or to the scrapyard? My attempt to resurrect a Tarm Excel 2200 Wood Gasification boiler

[aczlan]

Soak it down with either PBlaster or a mix of ATF and acetone and let it sit for a while before trying to remove it. Little heat helps too. I see you need a new door gasket too. TSC will have that most likely in stock. Comes in various lengths. Whomever had it really neglected it but I'll still come and get it if you decide not to restore it...

Given how eroded that one was, I don't know that it would have helped. Has PB blaster on it now.
Actually picked up rope gasket the other day, was 50% off at Lowe's #score.

The model I had, which I can't remember right now, did not have steel plates on the doors. They were each covered with a masonry piece. The bottom door had a pyrex sight glass in it that let you see how the fire was burning which it looks like you have too.

This has a 1/4" steel plate on the top door and masonry on the bottom with a sight glass (I assume something like Pyrex)
It had some kind of insulation behind the steel plate on thebuoper door and everything behind the insulation is rusted and corroded.

Aaron Z

 

[mikester]

If you try talking with your insurance first you will never buy anything. Tell them you are doing your own uncertified repairs on heating appliances and watch your coverage disappear...and good luck getting off the black list

 

[5030]

Maybe in Canada but not here in Michigan. Our insurance carrier knows we heat with biomass and there in no issue so long as the biomass appliance is Warnock-Hershey certified and installed with 'approved' components. The exception to that is rental properties (which I own). No solid fuel appliance allowed in rental properties, only NG or propane furnaces.

 

[mrmikey]

Tell them you are doing your own uncertified repairs on heating appliances and watch your coverage disappear...and good luck getting off the black list

Yup you're right. Although saying that, when I bought the place I'm in it had a woodstove already but it wasn't a WETT certified/inspected install. I just had to get it inspected and all was good.
I was going to put one in my garage,...that was a different matter. Had to have bollards around it, so far from the wall (understandable), not near a door, no gasoline storage on site and I think it may have had to have a concrete curb around it. Needless to say, no wood stove as it would have made the garage a big open space with no ability to put anything in it.

 

[aczlan]

Pressure tested it today, found 4 leaks in the back wall.
Top right is the one that was leaking when I saw it, the others are pinholes:

I am going to bet that the gasification part did NOT work properly after they replaced the firebricks, the nozzle brick was installed backwards so they had no flow through the nozzles.
This end was towards the door:

Instead of this one (they're supposed to be one unit, but it broke in the middle and now there's two halves):

The backside of one of the nozzle bricks:

The outer bricks look ok:

Some closer pictures of the back wall after taking a wire wheel to the leak points:

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

Tarm gave three different cleaning brushes for those tubes and to clean the firebox.
Since this is so bad a shape, I imagine the original owners lost them or threw them out.

I don't think I replied to this, but it came with a straight "poker" a rectangle brush and a tool to clean out below the firebox (like a straight poker, but with a piece of flat steel welded on the end).
That matches what the manual says was shipped with it.

Aaron Z

 

[dstig1]

With that many leaks (...so far...) aren't you more concerned that you should replace the whole back plate? I would expect that this is a sign that it is getting thin and is just going to keep springing new leaks as time and use go on.

Now getting back in there to weld a new plate is another whole story!

 

[dougtrr2]

I had an HS Tarm with natural gas backup. I bought it in 1993 and replaced it with a Woodgun in 2016. I also started springing leaks on the reinforcing stays. If you look, you can tell that they were robotically welded. I had several that started weeping, all in the same place. They leak where the weld starts and finishes. I hired a welder to attempt to fix them. He also worked on commercial boilers so he wasn't a stranger to boilers. He had a very difficult time and as I remember he had better luck with stick welding rather that wire feed. He would make the welds and then it would leak around the new weld. He chased it for quite a while.

One word of caution. As you know it is very difficult to access the place you need to weld. You have to squeeze upper body in through the door to have a good view of what you are doing. He had issues with his self darkening helmet going back to clear because the sensor would get blocked.

I would have replaced with an HS Tarm, but at the time they were not offering a dual fuel option anymore. The WoodGun is a better fit for me as it has a forced draft, and I need that it my situation.

I am heating over 2500 square feet with radiant floor and love it. I plumbed in and additional water storage tank. As I recall it is 119 gallons. If I recall correctly, if you go over 120 gallons then they have to meet pressure standards and the price goes up astromomically. As you know radiant flooring systems are not running much pressure.

Good luck,

Doug in SW IA

 

[aczlan]

Curiosity got the better of me, so I went out and drilled out the worst of the leak points with a 3/16" drill bit.

It looks like I was incorrect in my assumption, I was thinking that these were dimples stamped into flat plate, in actuality it was a flat plate that had slots cut into it and these are reinforcing slats or stays that are welded from one wall to the other to keep the walls from spreading apart. Thanks @dougtrr2 for pointing that out.

If my HF micrometer is accurate, the metal has not eroded, it is still 1/4" thick.

The leak is a crack at the point where the stay is welded into the wall plate.

A couple of pictures:

Also found a couple more leaking stays on the sides, one on each side.
Right side:

Left side:

So I guess the question is, do I weld these up with the stick (and if so which rod), or with a MIG...
From what @dougtrr2 said of his it sounds like stick may be better and I may be chasing my tail with leaks on this.
I am thinking that if I can get it to weld up that I may want to hit all the stays in the firebox as a precautionary measure...

Aaron Z

 

[mrmikey]

Me, I'd go with stick, stainless steel, 308 or 312 type. Get it clean with a grinder, all the flakes and rust off, V it out a bit. Don't end the weld right at the point where you think the crack ends, run it past onto good metal