When to clean Boiler tubes ?

Triggers to suggest perfect time for boiler tube Maintenance:

Since boiler tube maintenance requires substantial time and expertised manpower, it is important to time a proper maintenance schedule. 

If a boiler is cleaned too frequently, it:

1. Stops the operations of the unit.
2. Increases the costs incurring in form of expense for tools and manpower.

Thus, the triggers for scheduling a boiler tube maintenance are:

1. Flue gas temperature: As these deposits attract heat, the flue gas temperature increases higher than normal. In a few extreme conditions, it increases by 80-100 degrees Celsius as well. 
2. Fuel consumption: Once one starts to notice that the fuel consumption has increased by 3%-7%, it may be a good time to proceed for a boiler tube maintenance. 

These factors should be used to schedule a boiler tube maintenance instead of a fixed schedule as it may result in early or late maintenance. 

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Now, once you know based on the triggers that you need to clean the boiler tubes, there are two ways to go ahead:

( If you haven’t read the triggers to understand when to clean the boiler tubes, please click here. )

1. Professional Boiler services: Since professional service providers have equipment and expertise required for efficiently cleaning the boiler tubes, this is a better option compared to inhouse teams. However they come with their own cons such as price impact. Thus, must only be considered if:

1. Your Boiler Maintenance takes place only once or twice in an annum based on above triggers.
2. Critical Industries: If the industry longer downtime creates problems or the industry operations are critical in nature, one must turn their focus to professional boiler service providers. 

2. In house Maintenance: is also one of the effective methods only in case the right training of the manpower is conducted. Other it can also turn out to be inefficient, unsafe and time taking activity. Thus, proper safety gears, protocols and boiler equipments needs to be utilized for cleaning a boiler tube efficiently. 

Now, once we have made our minds on whom to appoint for boiler tube maintenance, let us understand the following methods of cleaning boiler tubes:

1. High Pressure Compressor Air: method involves cleaning boiler tube using flexible or solid shaft with a mechanical brush usually made of steel or hard fiber. The brush which is joined in front of the shaft goes deep into the boiler tubes for removing the deepest layers.
2. Water Jet: High pressure water jet is one of the most efficient methods to clean the boiler tube. It requires safety to be assured of the machines = and the manpower as a high pressure water can easily cut through steel. 
3. Chemical Cleaning: is used to clean the boiler tubes. It is effective as it also cleans the tube bends as well. 

Cons: It is time taking however as it takes time to settle down and wash as well. Also, the cleaning chemicals are corrosive in nature due to which these chemicals should not be left for longer than required. It leads to the thinning of the tube layers. 

4. Steam Cleaning: is used during the boiler commissioning or cold start after installation. However it is not a common practice in regular use.

	Pros	Cons
High Pressure Compressor Air	Economic running costs and efficientRelatively safer for machines and manpower unless roughly handled.	High setup cotsRequires manpower training
Water Jet	Requires relatively lower investment cost.Thorough cleaning even at the tube bends.Quick Process	It requires proper safety training and equipments for the machine and the manpower.
Chemical Cleaning	Thorough cleaning even in tube bends.	Requires slightly longer timeTrained personnel are required due to corrosive nature of chemicals.Cannot be done more frequently than quarterly.