30 yo AO smith boiler pluged with carbon - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Dr Heat · 01-27-2009, 11:59 PM

I was hoping one of you may have a trick for cleaning the carbon (soot) out of an AO Smith boiler. This is a round boiler with what looks like a car radiator on the top.

Is there a spray to remove soot?

Just hoping an old school boiler man will help me out. The customer can't afford a new boiler.

Static Design · 01-28-2009, 12:24 AM

carb or brake cleaner?

hf05 · 01-28-2009, 06:46 PM

hacksaw blade very carefully. hope its a time and mat job

Dr Heat · 01-28-2009, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hf05

hacksaw blade very carefully. hope its a time and mat job

Good call, on the hacksaw blade. spent two hours with a coat hanger still too plugged going tomorrow with an air compressor a shop vac and a hacksaw blade. What a mess I'm

going to make.

This is a tm

but I am not going to charge full bore

.

MechAcc · 01-31-2009, 07:56 PM

Fire it up get it warm.

Shut it down.

Remove the burners.

Use a garden sprayer filled with hot water and spray it down from the top. Granted there will be a mess but this method does give good results.

Verbal · 02-07-2009, 02:32 AM

i cleaned a few with some stuff from R.E. Micheal called "soot remover". spray it on, hose it out, works fine.

hvaclover · 02-07-2009, 03:30 PM

You use a shop vac you might be sorry. Soot is so fine it will pass thru a shop vac filer and out the vac's exhaust.

Soot Buster vacs are designed for that kinda mess. When I have a sooter I rent a soot buster from a local wholesaler.