boiler door temperature

[johnp]

How hot would our wood/coal burning WT boiler doors get? I want to use a high heat gloss black paint but its only rated at 650F.

[fredrosse]

Iron fire doors can get plenty hot, sometimes over 650F. Automotive engine/exhaust paints are sold with 1200F rating.

As an alternate consider this:

A piece of sheet metal shield plate, mounted on the inside of the fire door, standing about 1/2 inch in front of the iron door will significantly reduce radiant heating of the fire door. The metal should be stainless steel, easy to get a small piece from a stainless steel cooking pot or similar at a yard sale or flea market. Do not cut up one of your mate's cooking pots unless you are looking for trouble. Four stainless steel stud bolts are used to hold the shield plate in place, screwed into the iron door, or fixed with nuts if you do not want to tap screw threads into the iron.

[DetroiTug]

On my firetube boiler, the door at night would glow red. The heat radiating from it was unbearable. I wound up welding a 1" wide strip around the inside of the door and filling it with 1" ceramic wool and then welded a metal plate over the top of that to enclose the cavity. Works good.

-Ron

[Lopez Mike]

In all of my scheming to reduce thermal losses from my VFT boiler I never thought of the stinking door! I don't give a hoot about the paint but energy lost gets my attention. Another Winter project.

Mike