Harmon SF260 Draft Door Problems?/ Over Heating

 
djones
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Post by djones » Wed. Nov. 02, 2016 11:50 am

any fix for the draft door sticking?

this happens often to me on my 360 model. imagine same part on all three model sizes.

i have to consistently clean hinge and lube.

anyone have a long term fix, the door just doesn't close all the way. it will stay open just enough to cause overtemp issues.

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Thu. Nov. 03, 2016 11:53 am

You may need new loading and ash pit doors as they may be warped and would be causing your control issues a new American Made triple gauge is also needed for your system Holly.

I kept my old hand fed boiler at summer temperature settings the year round 140 low 160 high and it was well controlled.

As your unit can burn wood and coal it should have a barometric damper. The other issue is you need the fire box reducer to better control your fire.

Your Harman dealer can order the firebox reducer for you. He or she may have one in stock also. it will pay you big dividends to invest in a firebox reducer as you will only need a smaller fire that will burn hotter and cleaner.
In my case as an example I just filled my firebox half full of firebrick to the flue breech and it ran very well until I stopped burning wood.

Before you do anything purchase the firebox reducer, a barometric damper, new flue piping, and a new ash door and a new fire box door from your Harman dealer and have it all shipped to you directly for your boiler and you will see that you have fewer overshoots and the temperatures will stabilize quickly due to the smaller fire.

I have been there and done all this/that Holly so trust me you need to buy these parts and you will be fine.

I would strongly suggest that you replace your current gauge for your own safety as it was pegged to 260 degrees so it is now suspect and can no longer be trusted to monitor your boilers operating condition.

You can purchase an American made Marsh Instruments Triple Gauge from ACI Controls.
They have many sales offices in the northeastern states.

Based on my personal experience the 4 inch round Chinese gauges are suspect and inadequate and do not provide correct temperature readings. The packing boxes they come in do not even have the manufacturers name and Chinese postal address on them so that is why I removed them from my boiler.

 
lzaharis
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Coal Size/Type: rice
Other Heating: kerosene for dual fuel Keystoker/unused

Post by lzaharis » Thu. Nov. 03, 2016 4:46 pm

djones wrote:any fix for the draft door sticking?

this happens often to me on my 360 model. imagine same part on all three model sizes.

i have to consistently clean hinge and lube.

anyone have a long term fix, the door just doesn't close all the way. it will stay open just enough to cause overtemp issues.
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If you have the manual temperature control is it sticking on you?

Do you have the hand operated temperature adjustment wheel with the long bar attached to the chain?

Or do you have the shutter motor that lifts and lowers the chain?? The shutter motors need a drop or two of oil every year by removing the rubber plug on top of the shutter motor.

You may have a build up of caked ashes in and around the fire box manual draft air inlets too as the ashes go everywhere and you may need to sand the mating parts to make them seal properly.
Last edited by lzaharis on Fri. Nov. 04, 2016 10:27 am, edited 1 time in total.


 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Fri. Nov. 04, 2016 6:50 am

It was stated earlier on that they burn wood. Wrong advise to install a barometric damper. In the event of chimney fire the baro will just feed lots of air to the chimney fire. Standing rule of the thumb and all 8 fingers is no baro when burning wood.

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Fri. Nov. 04, 2016 7:16 am

With these damper controls it would be wise to shut off the 120 volt power during the off season. As with the power remaining left on and with a cold boiler this damper motor will be continuosly powered and calling for heat. This makes for the damper motor to be continuosly "stalled" and therefore it never gets a cool down period.
These may be intermittently "stalled", but continuously for the entire "off season" is not good, as users here are finding out.

 
lzaharis
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Joined: Sun. Mar. 25, 2007 8:41 pm
Location: Ithaca, New York
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: former switzer CWW100-sold
Coal Size/Type: rice
Other Heating: kerosene for dual fuel Keystoker/unused

Post by lzaharis » Fri. Nov. 04, 2016 9:40 am

blrman07 wrote:It was stated earlier on that they burn wood. Wrong advise to install a barometric damper. In the event of chimney fire the baro will just feed lots of air to the chimney fire. Standing rule of the thumb and all 8 fingers is no baro when burning wood.
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Hello Reverend Larry,

I burned wood and coal both in the same boiler. The Harman SF260 and SF360 were designed to burn wood and coal.

They lack the following

1. manual damper
2. FIREBOX REDUCER
3. dump zone
4. a new gauge American Made Gauge
5. perhaps new fire and ash pit doors and gaskets on the boiler

After all this and if it were ME I would want to change all three of the aquastats mounted on the boiler just in general principle as the over temp single aquastat is not activating the circulator to dump the heat from what she has explained.

I would also be concerned if the aquastat wells were also the wrong size which was the case in my initial installation.
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My 8 by 12 tile lined chimney had two clay thimbles cemented in place , one 8 inch clay thimble and one seven inch clay thimble that entered the tile lined 8 by 12 inch block chimney.

The Switzer hand fed used an 8 inch flue pipe and flue breech and the buderus oil boiler used a 6 inch flue breech that used an 6 inch automatic weighted barometric damper that transitioned to a 6 to 7 inch increaser/decreaser adapter that mated with the 7 inch clay thimble that was above the 8 inch clay thimble that was used for the Switzer hand fed that was piped directly in line to the 8 inch thimble.

If their retailer does not have a firebox reducer in stock they can quickly buy standard fire brick and a piece of channel iron the width of the fire box and half its length like I did by filling the firebox volume half full fire brick to the flue breech like I did and I had excellent results and the firebrick held heat in the boiler longer and shed heat back into the firebox to keep the fire hotter and smaller with little smoke while burning.




My thoughts anyway.

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