Whats causing water in range?

johney

Helllo folks,


Bought a house recently and it has a stanley 90. It had so much thick wet creosote that I took it apart to clean it. I thought the reason for it may have been that the previous owner was using wet turf or timber. Wheres before flue was out the back to a chimney, I remodeled piping to come off top of range and up through roof.
However after the first few firings, there appears to be a lot of moisture and dampness in the range. Water appeared in the oven but later cleared up. There is black runny soot on all the inside firebox already. I thought initially there was a leak in the boiler but now I don't think so. The oven water disappeared as soon as I left the oven door open a while and I cannot see running water anywhere now, but still I have this runny watery soot in the firebox. Only on the sides with the boiler mind you. The end result is similar to the state it was run in before. Could condensation do this? The fuel I am using is very dry and seasoned timber so it cannot be that. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

demanufactured

Could be condensate,
Is the circulation pump running constanlty?

my3cents

Burn any timber and you'll get some water coming off. Normally that goes straight up the chimney but in a range there is a lot of cold cast iron until it gets heated up. Some stoves you wouldn't notice it as the water never drains to the front but some it does after the stove has been running for an hour or so it should just evaporate apart from the black ooze that sometimes comes out just below the oven door.

Happens with wood all the time with our Erigal which is just a modern rebranded version of the 90. Doesn't happen if we just burn coal.

andyd12

Could be a very small pinhole that is only appearing when heat is on or when the metal changes temp. slightly

Seen it once before like that, used Oxypic, an additive put into central heating systems that can stop small leaks. Doesnt always work but is good stuff and could be worth a shot if it is a leak

johney

thanks a lot for replies folks.

pump not on all the time.
Timber used were old rafters so are very dry.
will have to check out this additive.

my3cents

johney wrote: »

thanks a lot for replies folks.

pump not on all the time.
Timber used were old rafters so are very dry.
will have to check out this additive.

20% of those old rafters will be water. If you start from cold and have a wrap around boiler (one that goes from front to back of the fire box) then it will be even worse when cold than our small DHW only boiler. Once you have the slightest amount of residual heat in the stove it should stop. tbh I wouldn't worry about it.

gctest50

You'd need to get a pipe gauge, clip it on to the return pipe and keep an eye on it

If the water coming back is very cold, you need to fix it or you'll get condensation in around the boiler - the condensation is a bit acidic afaik and will eat away at the boiler


http://ie.farnell.com/brannan/33-401-0/thermometer-pipe/dp/5053845

my3cents

Another point OP about that old stanley, if it has the full wrap around boiler (about 47 kbtu or nearly 14kw) it won't do much just on wood or turf. You simply can't burn enough of it fast enough to heat the boiler. The other boiler that used to be put in that stove iirc was 21k btu. In both cases there's going to be another 10k btu being lost in heating the room and the oven.

Stanleys own figures for fuel heat output.

Anthracite 25-50mm C.V.: 8.2 kW/Kg = 14,000 Btu’s/lb
House Coal 25-75mm C.V.: 7.2 kW/Kg = 12,300 Btu’s/lb
Timber - Firebox Size C.V.: 5.0 kW/Kg = 8,600 Btu’s/lb
Peat Briquettes C.V.: 4.8 kW/Kg = 8,300 Btu’s/lb
Bog Peat C.V.: 3.4 kW/Kg = 6,000 Btu’s/lb