• Tubes for boilers can be water- or fire-based.Boilers, ladders and pipes at a power plant, image by Andrei Merkulov from Fotolia.com
  
  The boiler tube is an important part of any boiler or furnace. Keeping up with cleaning and maintenance is imperative not just for safety but also for saving money. There are two distinct types of boiler system tubes: the watertube and the firetube. In a watertube, the water is pushed through the pipes and heated from the outside by flames. In a firetube, gasses inside the tubes are heated by water from outside. Both of these can get clogged with soot or water scale, decreasing efficiency.
  
  

Tube Brushes

• Tube brushes are used for both types of boilers. Watertube brushes are used to scrub out the water scale and mineral buildup that occurs when the water is flushed through the pipes and heated. Firetube brushes are used to scrub out soot that builds up from the air and gasses that are heated and forced through the tubes. The brushes are used with different types of tube cleaners.
  
  

Turbine Soot Cleaner

• This type of tube cleaner is used in firetubes. It is air- or electric-powered, and cleans out the soot in the tubes in conjunction with various types of brushes.
  
  

Vacuum Tube Cleaner

• This is used for watertube boilers. It is air powered or electric powered, and has various brush attachments to scrape and clean out scale from the water that flows through the tubes. It has a sucking action that pulls the waste in from the tubes as the brushes help to loosen it from the tube walls.