Shaver Improvement Forum

I think we need a new listing since the others were getting a bit long. Feel free to post old ideas since others may not have seen them.

This may be for other OWB as well. I cant believe no one is #####ing about the tar and junk literally flowing out the door when one opens it. Answer ? Well I hope its as simple as taking a piece of 1 inch ( your preference ) angle and either welding or drilling a couple of holes and fastening it to the bottom of the door opening ( not the door itself ) the junk should then drip/flow back in the boiler where it came from. You'll still have a bit from the door itself but the vast majority should be taken care of. Now all I need is a warm day to let the boiler die off so I can work on it.

Also, if others have trouble finding a shovel to fit the 4 inch opening to empty their ashes, try a kids snow shovel. They are almost flat and should do a decent job. Since most are made with plastic and wood, try it when there aren't too many red ashes on the bottom.

Tip

Here's a tip. If you need to add more chemicals after your DHW coil is sealed up, add them through the steam vent/ overflow tube.

Put a piece of 1" pex over the pipe with the curve upward. Insert a funnel and pour in the chemicals. Give it a couple cups of water for a chaser.

Thats a good tip. I had posted a while ago on the dumb way to add chemicals to these units. What a waste of caulk. I'm trying to use 2 layers of solarguard with a plate of steel on top to keep everything airtight. Cant see recaulking that unit. When spring hits I'll have to remove it and figure out a better way to seal that area.

:agree2:

Here's my contribution so far:

-Shaver steam fix:
http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=80462

-add insulation in roof area of boiler

-aquastat upgrade
I replaced the factory thermostat with a Ranco digital programmable boiler controller. You just need to make sure your well is in a good location. Another member said this about using his Ranco and its well:

hedgecutter said:

I drilled a hole through the top of the water jacket approximately 14" in from the back and 4" in from the side. Next I cut a 12" piece of 1/4" copper tubing and soldered a cap on one end. Then I slid the copper tubing through the hole and flared the uncapped end so it would hang down into the water jacket. I sealed between the hole and flared tube end with some silicone to make a water resistant dry well to put the temp sensor into. It seems to work very well. The dry well is in the general vicinity of where the pump takes suction to send water to the house. I run my temp set point at 180F with a differential of 10 degrees. The Shaver does a very nice job heating my house and hot water.

Click to expand...

here is the Ranco I used: http://www.iaqsource.com/product.php?p=ranco_etc-111000&product=110270

My next project is to modify my blower damper to operate like the natures comfort and Hardy OWB. They use a solenoid to cover and uncover the blower inlet when the fan is on/off. Here is a pic I borrowed from fellow member (derwood91, thanks for the pic):



originally I was going to redrill my blower flange, but after looking at my available space (pic below) I won't be able to do that because I don't want to mess with moving my electrical conduit





Now, I'm thinking of freeing up the pivot point of my damper and tacking an eye on to it, so I can pivot it open with the solenoid. I think I'll also need to add a bit of ballast or a return spring to pivot it back down when the solenoid shuts off. Does anyone have any other ideas how I could do this?

My thoughts for doing this are to reduce recovery time in heating water by allowing full airflow, and reduce wood usage and potential for boil over by limiting draft when water temp is above set point. For those of you not familiar the shaver blower has a flap that pivots and they recommend leaving it 1/4 open for best results. It works well, but as you can tell, I'm always tinkering.

Just a follow up on the kids flat snow shovel for ash removal. Tried it today. Thumbs up, definitely worth the 6 bucks rather than make one. And Fletch, I may have to try your water level/steam thingamabob. Lost a bit of water in one week.. although I think most went up the hot water coil pull out thinge. Lots of these words are spelled phonetically..

ngzcaz said:

Just a follow up on the kids flat snow shovel for ash removal. Tried it today. Thumbs up, definitely worth the 6 bucks rather than make one. And Fletch, I may have to try your water level/steam thingamabob. Lost a bit of water in one week.. although I think most went up the hot water coil pull out thinge. Lots of these words are spelled phonetically..

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Did you seal the water coil cover with hi-temp silicone?

Isn't that the fix that Ben said was taken care of on the "newer" models?

urhstry said:

Isn't that the fix that Ben said was taken care of on the "newer" models?

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Isn't what the fix? Sealing the water coil cover?

No, I didn't yet.. I presently have 2 sheets of solarguard on top and a steel plate compressing it. I really dislike the idea of having to waste a tube of caulk every time you access this area. I'm looking for a flexible 1/2 to 1 inch gasket type material ( kinda like the rope gasket around the wood stove doors ) that can be peeled on and off and be reused a couple of times. I don't like to keep bringing up the shortcomings of the make I happen to own, but this is another area that wasn't thought out very well. It doesn't even overlap the boiler that much and it seems the slide plate they have will warp over time. Could be wrong and I hope I am but I've seen this stuff before. Anyway, I'm surprised someone a lot smarter than me didn't offer an alternative way of sealing this area. And with over 2,000 views on Shaver related posts, Ben and his company would be well served by addressing issues his customers have.. Word of mouth means a lot around these neck of the woods. And ignoring it is even worse.. this is a decent product to begin with for the price and could be ooh so much better with very simple changes..

A guy had a gas station near where I live and his motto to his empolyees was simply this : be nice to our customers..without them we don't need you.

Personally I wish the cover cold be bolted in place and form a good seal. I'm having problems with my water level being too high right now and seeping out the cover. This is due to to my sight rearward lean and my steam fix. I need to lift the rear of the boiler up about 3/4" to alleviate this problem. After that I'm going to seal the cover with another tube of silicone (I never plan on removing it again), add more insulation to the roof area, insulate the door, and mount my new modified blower.

heat exchanger

I've had my Shaver 165 going about a month now with mixed results. Just did the steam fix yesterday, looks to be working good. After reading the posts here (great info!) I'm wondering if I have my heat exhanger plumbed backwards. The place I bought it from said to run the hot water in the top nipple and the return out the bottom. His reasoning is "it is most important that the nipple on the water to air heat exchanger that is closest to the fan is the cold water return to the outdoor wood furnace. the top nipple farthest away from the fan needs to be the hot water feed. this is improtant because as the cool air enters the air if hooked up this way then the bottom nipple will pre heat the air entering the water to air heat exchanger and as it exits the water to air heat exchanger the top nipple will super heat the air. if this is hooked up backwards the air entering the water to air heat exchanger will super heat the air and when it exits the water to air heat exchanger it will cool the air down." The guys on the site here say the opposite, hot in the bottom, cold out the top, which seems more logical to me. Anyone have the definitive answer? Thanks!

heat exchanger

I have mine hooked up with Hot on bottom and cold on top now.

That is b/c mine wouldn't flow when I had it hooked up cold bottom and hot on top b/c it had air in the line. Once I swapped the lines everything is fine. I have 120* heat coming out out of the register furthest away from my furnace.

fletcher0780 said:

Personally I wish the cover cold be bolted in place and form a good seal. I'm having problems with my water level being too high right now and seeping out the cover. This is due to to my sight rearward lean and my steam fix. I need to lift the rear of the boiler up about 3/4" to alleviate this problem. After that I'm going to seal the cover with another tube of silicone (I never plan on removing it again), add more insulation to the roof area, insulate the door, and mount my new modified blower.

Click to expand...

I had a problem with water seeping out. I cut away at the back panel with a Dremel until I found that my leak was coming from the DHW cover plate.

It was leaking from the inside. I had to run a bead of high temp silicone across on the inside. If you look on page 42 of the owners manual, at the bottom picture, you can see the two seams. Make sure you seal both with high temp silicone.

What was happening was, as the water hot, it formed condensation on the DHW cover plate and the water would run down and come out between the inside seam. Hard to explain. Hope you guys understand. Sorta like having a pot of water heating on the stove covered with a lid. If you lift off the lid, there are water droplets all underneath it.

I called my dealer about the problem and he called Shaver. I was instructed to remove the back panel/siding to find the leak. I feared that the outlet pipe was the culprit. I didn't want to drain water, remove pump and remove the whole panel. So I just cut it out in sections and found the soaked insulation started getting wet clear up at the top.

I then cut through the silicone, removed the lid and sealed up those two seams.


I siliconed everything back up and so far no more puddles under the furnace.

Windwalker7 said:

I had a problem with water seeping out. I cut away at the back panel with a Dremel until I found that my leak was coming from the DHW cover plate.

It was leaking from the inside. I had to run a bead of high temp silicone across on the inside. If you look on page 42 of the owners manual, at the bottom picture, you can see the two seams. Make sure you seal both with high temp silicone.

What was happening was, as the water hot, it formed condensation on the DHW cover plate and the water would run down and come out between the inside seam. Hard to explain. Hope you guys understand. Sorta like having a pot of water heating on the stove covered with a lid. If you lift off the lid, there are water droplets all underneath it.

I called my dealer about the problem and he called Shaver. I was instructed to remove the back panel/siding to find the leak. I feared that the outlet pipe was the culprit. I didn't want to drain water, remove pump and remove the whole panel. So I just cut it out in sections and found the soaked insulation started getting wet clear up at the top.

I then cut through the silicone, removed the lid and sealed up those two seams.


I siliconed everything back up and so far no more puddles under the furnace.

Click to expand...

I don't see any pics on p.42 in my manual, But on p.37 I see two pics the top one is just the cover, the bottom is looking into the water tank. Is the seam your talking about just below the copper coil in the pic, and run horizontally?

I assumed mine was wet because of the elevated water level and rearward lean. Anyone know how much higher the cover is than the vent pipe? How close to the bottom of the cover is the water level when filled?

Where was your puddle? left side? My insulation is wet on both sides at the bottom, maybe I'll pull the cover off tomorrow.

Is this the pic? which seam is it?

Well, I was hoping the one post was the exception rather than the rule but now I'm now so sure. If I understand this, should this be a warranty issue ? Was the seam faulty ?

:jawdrop:

Why is everyone adding solarguard to the tops of these? In the literature it is saying R58? for the tops. All I know is Im getting a little concerned because Shavers seem to have more stupid problems,and it seems like there are mods needed and they are more finicky than the rest of them combined.From what im reading they are well built units that are very rough around the edges,and need a lot of finishing off by the customers.Personally id rather pay a few hundred more,and not need to deal with this stuff,esp when Shaver has forced me to install it in December when its 20 degrees out,when i order it in early June.Its going to be enough for me to get this thing up and running,with the weather,and soft ground when its not frozen,the last thing ill want to deal with is having to partially take it apart to "fix" stuff on a brand new OWB.

Yes Fletcher, That is the seam that needs siliconed. The one right below your red arrows.

For some reason that pic is on page 42 in my manual.

Mine leaked on the left side. It only leaked when water was hot.

That seam is well above the over flow tube.

What is happening is, that the hot water condenses on the DHW cover plate then drips down into that seam. Similar to if you were cooking something in a pot of water with a lid on the pot.

That seam in the top of your picture is under the DHW cover plate and you can't see it with the cover plate in place.

I don't believe it is an actual defect but they should be sealed with silicone or something right at the factory.

I sealed mine last week and it hasn't leaked anymore.

I wish I had known before I cut open that back panel. My dealer said he would get me a replacement and some more insulation.

If you are leaking, I'd try sealing that up.

I was leaking about a cup to a cup and a half of water a day.

david78 said:

I've had my Shaver 165 going about a month now with mixed results. Just did the steam fix yesterday, looks to be working good. After reading the posts here (great info!) I'm wondering if I have my heat exhanger plumbed backwards. The place I bought it from said to run the hot water in the top nipple and the return out the bottom. His reasoning is "it is most important that the nipple on the water to air heat exchanger that is closest to the fan is the cold water return to the outdoor wood furnace. the top nipple farthest away from the fan needs to be the hot water feed. this is improtant because as the cool air enters the air if hooked up this way then the bottom nipple will pre heat the air entering the water to air heat exchanger and as it exits the water to air heat exchanger the top nipple will super heat the air. if this is hooked up backwards the air entering the water to air heat exchanger will super heat the air and when it exits the water to air heat exchanger it will cool the air down." The guys on the site here say the opposite, hot in the bottom, cold out the top, which seems more logical to me. Anyone have the definitive answer? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Mine goes in the bottom and out the top. I was told this would push the air out better.

I'll try this tomorrow and see what happens. I'll have to let the fire die down a bit so I don't get a steam bath Thanks for the help, if this works you saved me a lot of trouble re-leveling my boiler.

Just wanted to remind you to seal up on both sides too (vertically)


You'll see what i mean when you get the cover plate off.

I think your problem will be solved after you do this.

It drove me crazy for a couple weeks.