FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

A firetube boiler is a boiler in which hot gases of combustion pass through the boiler tubes and water surrounds these tubes to absorb heat.

There are many applications for firetube boilers including: heating, sterilization, laundries, food processing, co-generation, heat recycling, cleaning, petroleum extraction, and any other process that may require steam or hot water. 

An advantage of a firetube boiler is the ability to react very quickly to load changes due to the large volume of stored energy in the form of hot water and steam. 

Our primary manufacturer, Superior Boiler, manufactures two-pass and three-pass dryback boilers as well as a full line of three-pass and four-pass wetback boilers. 

A dryback boiler has a rear wall that is lined with refractory, where a wetback boiler has a rear wall that is jacketed by water. Because of this, wetback boilers typically boast higher efficiencies than dryback boilers as the heat from combustion goes directly into heating water instead of refractory. Wetback boilers are also more forgiving with load changes as the reversal chamber of the boiler is totally submerged in water, creating an even heat transfer on the intermediate tube sheet to furnace joint. 

The expected life of a firetube boiler is 25 years or more, depending on how well the boiler is maintained. Many firetube boilers currently in operation are well over 25 years old and still operating properly.

Oklahoma Boiler Equipment can supply 10 BoHP to 2,500 BoHP boilers from Superior Boiler.