My HW coils are looking rough after summer in damp basement

Looks like I'll be busy doing BEFORE-the-season cleaning! Holy crap!! Didn't expect them to be this bad looking! Stuff should come right off with a wire brush, but it's looking like I may have to open it up & remove the coils for a good wire-wheeling.

Condensation caused all this mess. I thought about letting hot water slowly circulate throughout the summer to keep 'em dry, but I figured the cost in oil would outweigh any elbow-grease savings there. I think next year I'll be doing the light bulb trick.



You can see where the drips of condensation landed on the grates....

Hey Smitty, I feel your pain!

Just another reminder that we need to clean the coal burning appliance IMMEDIATELY after shut down and give everything a quick coat of paint and or rust preventative like LPS 3 OR CRC SP 400. I have my boiler shut down right now for some maintenance and am violating my own rule, has been down for a week, hate to look in there since we have had all these humid days!

Yep, was being lazy -- didn't want to open the system up to remove coils & clean them the right way....

Those were sprayed heavily with WD-40 too. Goes to show the quality of that stuff these days ....

Guess it's time to spring for the good stuff! ............EDIT: Just bought two cans of LPS 3 on Amazon $31 & change shipped.

Shuda', coulda', woulda' It was all the trauma this week that shook you back to your senses. What's a little corrosion amongst friends. We are from the "don't ask, don't tell" group, but 'thanks for sharing' just how 'human' you really are!

You might be banned from the 'Coal Burner's Hall' of Fame now, but hold you head high, you live in a very repressive State, and thankfully you have escaped the indoctrination of financial torture and excessivism!

yeah poor Smitty, first he lost Ted then this!

Are your rusted coils stainless steel coils? I was thinking about getting a coil from HILKOIL. There made out of stainless.

Stainless needs oxygen to remain stainless,the stainless stanchions on my sailboat are beautiful still(1966 model)but the bolts that are encased in material do corrode,nice shiny heads but if you pull them out the shafts can have serious corrosion.RichB

Matthaus wrote:yeah poor Smitty, first he lost Ted then this!

davkots wrote:Are your rusted coils stainless steel coils? I was thinking about getting a coil from HILKOIL. There made out of stainless.

That's exactly what these are -- from Hilkoil too. Wet basement & lack of cleaning = pics above.

Luckily I spent the extra cash on some quick-connect fittings, so there will be no de-soldering of joints. I'm pretty sure once I take the coils out & make a few passes across the wire wheel, they'll clean right up as new. All that junk is just residue welded on there, for the most part. When I wiped it with my finger it seemed to come right off.

Still trying to gather motivation, as the motorcycle & fishing seasons are still in full swing!

EDIT: just wanted to add that these coils are so thick-walled, that even if that was genuine rust on there they would still last for years. It's some pretty heavy-duty stuff. That's reflected in the price, as you'll see.

Smitty, if you clean off the loose rust and fly ash you can spray the coils down with Rust Kill (avail at HD) or Ospho brand rust removal spray (is basically diluted phosphoric acid), works beautifully with stainless. Simply rinse off after agitating the stuff on there. We used it on the stainless vapor scrubbing towers that were right on the ocean, even though they were 316 SS the rust would be terrible after a few months, once we sprayed on the phosphoric acid and agitated it with a nylon brush the rust would simply hose off.

This way you will have plenty of time to use up that yamalube!

Another great tip! Thank you sir!

I found a good way to clean my Hilcoil by accident. I struggled every year to get the crud off my coil. One day while cleaning out the garage I found a bottle of Nutra-Sol which is used to clean spray rigs, for farming, I believe. Anyway it reads that it neutralizes acidic chemicals and after all, the residue from burning coal is acidic - so I gave it a try. Now its the only way I clean the coil. Just mix it with some water, soak the coil, and all the crud comes off with some light scrubbing.

The label states that it contains Sodium Silicates and isn't harmful by itself, but I wear gloves when using it just in case.

I think I saw it advertised at Agway or Tractor supply. The bottle I have is 32 oz. and the price tag says $5.59 but who knows how old it is!

Hope that might help someone out.

Well things are worse than I ever imagined....

Finally got around to removing the coils for cleaning. Have a look at this........




Looks like $500 might have just went down the toilet. Going to pressure test & see how many leaks I have. Might be able to weld some of them, but never welded to stainless ... so we'll see what happens. Have no choice at this point.

Had a feeling this was going to be a bad day the second I posted in the political forum!!

Holy crap Batman...
Just burn coal year round...
Maybe keep that Koi pond of your a bit drier.
On the bright side...
The holes are already drilled.

How old is the coil, Smitty? Do you have a suitable grave-site just in case? We must convince you to get a boiler and a coil or indirect. The reality is that in your state, unless you are hooked up with Whitey Bulger, you may not be able to free yourself financially for the ging of a boiler. I don't think a few weeks in the basement finished off the SS, but probably didn't help it.

PS: You could save it as a sprinkler device for the flowers or garden next spring! Hope is not lost!