Portage & Main Outdoor Water Furnace Brick Lined BL Ultimizer Series—Wood Burning-- January 2013
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Corrosion in the burn chamber, heat exchanger and water side is preventable and is usually not a
warranty issue. Please do not neglect your furnace maintenance and ask for warranty. Warranty
covers workmanship and materials (i.e. welds that fail are usually repaired with no cost to the
furnace owner.) Corrosion below the ash line is neglect and will not be covered. A hole in the
side wall above the ash line would be consider material defect and would be covered under
warranty. Keep current with water chemical and testing to ensure that the water side remains
corrosion free.
Of Special Note
To Portage & Main
Outdoor Water Furnace
Owners:
You may have heard it before and now you read it again—only because it is noteworthy for the success and
long-term relationship in heating with an outdoor wood hydronic furnace. Keep it clean and dry to protect your
investment.
When cleaning your furnace, pay extra attention to each end of the fire pot at ash level and below ash level
where ashes can build up. If the ashes have been allowed to build up and get moist, they become acidic and
corrosive, causing pitting of the steel.
Clean regularly and burn dry seasoned wood. (For example: properly seasoned firewood with a moisture
content of 25% or less can produce 40% more useable heating energy that firewood that has a moisture
content of 40%.) Burning dry seasoned wood is especially important, in an efficiently designed furnace such as
the Portage & Main.
Wood is a type of hydrocarbon. Common properties of hydrocarbons are the facts that they produce steam,
carbon dioxide, and heat during combustion and that oxygen is required for combustion to take place.
It is important to remember, burning hydro carbon makes moisture, which wets the ashes, which in turn
causes corrosion. The heat-exchanger and fire-pot tend to be an area of neglect. They must be cleaned.
You may require a wire brush, wire wheel, or a wire wheel on a grinder to clean totally to satisfactory
inspection.
Access the heat-exchanger and fire-pot to see if a repair is required before the next heating
season.
We highly recommend that a
very thorough cleaning be performed
before
the furnace is shut down for
the season. The cleaning process is easier while the furnace is hot; otherwise creosote hardens becoming very
difficult to remove. Apply a protective coating of 50/50 transmission oil/diesel fuel mixture.
As a reminder, when or if you are concerned about your furnace’s operation, we invite you to call your dealer
or distributor. We want your heating with wood to be a pleasant experience. Any concerns you have, we
appreciate the opportunity to troubleshoot and correct, before they become a problem.
