cleaning stokers

Hey eveyone,

Had a question about the yearly maintenance of the stoker stoves. I opened my stove which is on my lower level and aside from alot of coal dust everything seemed like new. I read on the post about the cleaning routines and thought I should do what others do so I vacuumed the stove out and made a solution of baking soda and water and sprayed the entire inside of the stove down ( what a mess) the stove then looked rusty all inside and I was concerned. I put a halogen 500 watt lamp inside and it dried up but looked flakey and nasty. I took a spakle knife and scraped all I could and another run with the shp vac. I read the post about puting lubricant on the inside and sprayed and entire can of dw 40 iside the stove which seemed to make everthing glisten but still with the rusty look. I then let that dry for a day and had an idea to get some all purpose grease that mechanics use so off to the store and i purchased an all purpose marine\auto grease that states it prevent corosion and for wet applications. I took some old rags and dipped away and smeared as much as I could the inside of the stove (magnum stoker) . the consistancey of the "grease" is similar to vaseline but thicker. I hope I didnt do anything that will cause harm but this stuff seems to apply a thick coating. the label said mothing of flamability so I figured it would burn of during the first burn in of the deason.

Can anyone with knowlege comment and let me know if this should be ok.

Thanks

I noticed a pattern with your post. You’d try one thing, then another, and then another. I was wondering, ok “now what did he use”. Entertaining. It all sounds good to me.

Before I'd fire it up, I'd clean that sticky stuff very good. That stuff might stink as it burns, and also have chemicals in it. It should mostly go up the chimney, just be safe.

I use “rem-oil”, made by Remington on my firearms that I keep in my gun cabinet. It sprays on like wd-40, it feels like it too, but its secret is Teflon. This helps the oil film last longer. On my guns, they go months at a time and still have a nice sheen on them when I clean and spray them again.
You can get it at any sporting goods store, like Dicks or Gander Mt. Maybe even Wal-Mart. http://www.remington.com/products/acces ... icants.asp

I am going to use it on my stove if I tear it way down for a super cleaning. So far all I have managed to do was cleaning out all of my ashes, and did a good Shop-Vac(Also made in Williamsport, PA). My dehumidifier in my basement runs right next to my stove. My cast iron is thick, I’m not too worried about it rusting away to nothing.

All I do is sweep mine out and take the stove pipe off. I have done this for 3 years and it doesn't seem to have any rust in it. I think that as long as you get any ash buildup out you are ok but mine is not a stoker so what I do may not apply to our case.

Mine is a hand fired and I do nothing and it is fine. A stoker however would be more apt to have problems with debris and rust so I would think a good cleaning and attention to the moving parts is more important. I would just use a little used motor oil and a brush to keep everything happy in there.
Removing the stovepipe would probably eliminate the rusting issue in almost all cases.

I don't do anything special to my boiler except remove and store my stovepipe. That's primarily because I have only a single chimney shared seasonally with my oil boiler. In winter the coal flue pipe is installed, in summer the oil flue pipe. My boilers are piped and valved so they can be in series or parallel. I summer I change the valving so some heat from the oil boiler also heats the coal boiler. Greatly reduces the potential for rust.

With my Mag stoker, I make sure to vacuum/sweep out as much as possible first, and then physically remove all of the moving parts. All the pieces get vacuumed or wiped down, then I use a trick that works on the farm for small metal parts- wipe them all down good with a light oil and seal in a gallon-size ziploc. The bag with all the clean oily parts is up on the shelf on top the owner's manual, so I can remember how they all go back together. The inside of the stove I smear on a flour/water paste and let dry, then next year brush it loose and light up (smells like a bakery). If you greased the stove inside, I agree try to wipe it off come start-up time, because what's there will burn off somehow, though it should all go up the stack I would think. The key is to keep moisture at bay, because that's what starts the corrosion going. I also have the stack pipe disconnected and capped for the summer.