January 11th, 2010 at 3:35 am
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Gas Heater Cleaning, Heat
Exchanger
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Previous
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Note
that the purpose of this section is to show you how to clean a gas
heater that has a dirty or clogged heat exchanger. This condition will
normally be found on gas heaters that are more than 5-8 years old,
however, depending on environmental conditions, can happen more often.
SafetyWarnings!
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Remove Power
from the spa/hot tub, AND
the gas heater(if powered from outside sources), BEFORE performing this
procedure. Failure to comply with this requirement, can lead
to electrical shock and/orelectrocution!
Turn OFF the GAS SUPPLY to the heater! Failure to comply withthis
safety requirement may create a fire or EXPLOSIONHAZARD!
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Disclaimer
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The instructions here are intendedfor general reference only.
Many gas heaters are
different from the onedepicted here, and may require more or less
mechanical effort or knowledge inorder to achieve the desired results.
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READ FIRST BEFORE YOUCONTINUE
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This is a typical gas heater installation. While it does work, and has
worked well for many years, you can see that there is a safety problem
with running the gas line over the top of the heater.
In order to maintain
continuity, we will only address the heat exchanger cleaning. Usually,
the only tools required for this job are a 1/4" and/or 5/16" nut
driver.
This particular heat exchanger is clogged very heavily, and does not
allow for the proper flow of heat from the burners to escape to the
ventilator.
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This
is typical heat damage due to a clogged heat exchanger.
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Determine which tool is required to remove the top of the heater, and
remove the screws that attach the top vent to the main heater housing.
Typically, there will be 8 screws. Be careful with the sheet metal, it
can cut you!
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With all of the screws
removed, carefully lift up the ventilation unit it separates from the
base. On certain heaters, it may require a bit of force to get it off.
If all else fails, recheck to see if there are any screws that you may
have missed.
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With the top off of the heater, you'll probably encounter something
that looks like this... There may or may not be screws attaching it to
the top of the heat exchanger. If so, then remove them to gain access
to the entire heat exchanger.
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This is what you should see, the top of the heat exchanger with the
heat containment shields on top. There is usually a wire that holds
them in place, (used primarily for shipping reasons), that you can
probably just pull off with your fingers or cut with a pair of wire
cutters. Once the wire is removed, take note of where the shields are
located (for replacement), remove them and put them aside.
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Look very closely at the grids (fins) of the heat exchanger, and you'll
probably see quite a bit of built up "gunk" inside them. This is what
causes the heater to over-heat... it literally chokes itself.
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Using a directed
pressure stream of water, clean the exchanger thoroughly. This normally
will only require about 30 seconds to do. DO NOT USE A PRESSURE WASHER!
You could permanently damage the heat exchanger!
Also, keep the stream
directed straight DOWN... so to prevent the saturation of the
insulation inside the heater. This is quite critical, particularly in
older heaters that use conventional hard fire-brick.
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Reassembly
Reassembly is simply the
reverse of disassembly.
For safety reasons
, you should let the heater "dry out" for about 24 hours before putting
it back into operation. Because of the possibility of water entering
the burners, it can create a fire hazard because the gas will be
blocked from its normal path. It is recommended that you use some type
of air blower to blow out all water and other foreign matter from the
burner area before igniting the heater and pilot light (if equipped)
again.
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Tags:
cleaning,
gas heater
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