TIL that re-tubing a boiler feedwater heater cut our fuel gas use by 9% at the plant in Gary

Dylan Thompson · 2026-10-12T22:55:04.890083+00:00

So I work maintenance at a plant just outside Gary, Indiana, and we had this old feedwater heater that had been limping along for maybe 12 years. Our stack temp was running around 430 degrees and nobody thought much of it, just figured that was normal for a unit that age. Back in January we finally pulled the tube bundle and found about 60 tubes with pitting bad enough that they were letting water sneak past into the shell side. We re-tubed the whole bundle, new gaskets, cleaned the shell out while it was open. First month after startup our fuel gas numbers dropped from about 41,000 MMBtu to 37,300, and the stack temp came down to 375. The guys on shift kept asking why the draft felt different, and it was just because that heater was actually doing its job again instead of passing heat straight up the stack. Now I want to know if anyone else has seen gains like that from a re-tube, or did we just get lucky that the leak was that bad?

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TIL that re-tubing a boiler feedwater heater cut our fuel gas use by 9% at the plant in Gary | Boilermakers - Opinions Matter