cleaning soot out of water heater vent
scottn
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I have a water heater that was run on propane for a few days while it was set up for nat. gas. The propane guy said I need to clean out the vent pipe. The exhaust is not going up the vent right, it is going out into the cabinet, which fortunately is on the outside of the house. My question is, how do I clean it out. I have been looking for some kind of pipe cleaner on a pole but can’t find anything. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Replies
A few days created enough soot to block the vent? something is wrong.
>>The exhaust is not going up the vent right, it is going out into the cabinet,
Where are the flue gases spilling from? The access to the combustion chamber at the bottom of the water heater? Or from under the draft diverter (bonnet/draft hood) at the top of the water heater?
If the first:
Take the flue off, and the draft diverter.
The turbulator plate (baffle) which hangs down in the water heater's internal flue should lift out, giving you access to the flue.
If the second, you need to disassemble the flue and find the blockage.
But I suspect there's something else wrong besides just soot.
BTW, soot in a gas appliance usually indicates that the appliance is also producing excessive and dangerous levels of CO.
Fighting Ignorance since 1967
It's taking way longer than we thought
The gas was coming out of the top of the water heater where the vent pipe is. The pipe is not completely clogged, it just has a lot of soot in it. I think the problem was that the propane tank was almost empty, so the burner wasn't working right. It seems to be alright now that the tank is full.
I know with a 90+% efficienct furnace, two or more days of over firing an NG unit with LP will clog or severly limit venting through, not only the vent (flue) piping, but the heat exchanger, draft inducer and everything else in the exhaust path.
For the flue, you can get chimney sweep brushes of various sizes on 5 ft fiberglass rods with threaded connnections so you can extend the length indefinitely.
For the other vent components, bottle brushes and aquarium cleaning brush sets are a good bet for multiple sizes on flexible steel handles. IF the are long cavities within the water heater tank, these will need to be brushed by means you'll propbably have to "customize". Anything that can be removed and soaked, a dilute mixture of vinegar and water helps a great deal. Elbow grease will be required.
Blow-out everything as much as possible with compressed air and be prepared for a mess. For whatever reaseon this was done, there will be consequences, now or later, Best to bite the bullet and clean everything diligently now. IF it was only really "run on propane for a few days" then, obviously the clean-up will be easier than if it was run to failure.