My first boiler maintenance, what should I make sure is done?

Users who are viewing this thread

Parin

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
ma
I have a Burnham ESC4 boiler that is now due for it's first maintenance.

A short history:
It was installed by a local outfit that didn't do too well. They installed the lines backwards and redid the install after I read and pointed out what was in the install manual. They did not own combustion testing equipment. The installer fiddled with the gas pressure adjustment, tuning it "by ear". It's run OK, but gas use has been higher than expected. No other professionals have touched it, it was never tweaked. I've thought it's running short cycles at times, but it works ok and never delved into it. It's reading 2,270 hours and 23,481 cycles after three heating seasons or just under 6 minutes per cycle on average.

What are all the steps that an annual maintenance call should include and is there anything in particular about this model we should be concerned about?
 
Last edited:

Tom Sawyer

In the Trades
Messages
3,625
Reaction score
34
Points
48
Location
Maine
I have a Burnham ESC4 boiler that is now due for it's first maintenance.

A short history:
It was installed by a local outfit that didn't do too well. They installed the lines backwards and redid the install after I read and pointed out what was in the install manual. They did not own combustion testing equipment. The installer fiddled with the gas pressure adjustment, tuning it "by ear". It's run OK, but gas use has been higher than expected. No other professionals have touched it, it was never tweaked. I've thought it's running short cycles at times, but it works ok and never delved into it. It's reading 2,270 hours and 23,481 cycles after three heating seasons or just under 6 minutes per cycle on average.

What are all the steps that an annual maintenance call should include and is there anything in particular about this model we should be concerned about?

Without the proper instruments there is nothing you can do.
 

Parin

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
ma
I'm not doing it.

I want to be assured that whoever does it is thorough and am asking what a full maintenance service call includes so that nothing is overlooked, and if Burnham's ESC4 has any quirks or things that we should be concerned about.
 
Last edited:

BadgerBoilerMN

Hydronic Heating Designer
Messages
485
Reaction score
10
Points
18
Location
Minneapolis
Website
www.badgerboilerservice.com
More evidence to confirm that the installer is more important than the boiler.

Though it is not my favorite installation manual, Appendix 'E' page 44 on will get you by. If you don't have the ODR module you wasted money on this boiler. If you do have ODR it should be set up by and experienced technician.

It should go without saying that every proper boiler replacement starts with an ACCA Manual 'J' heat load analysis and the boiler sized to 150% max of the design load.

Competent heating contractors own combustion analysis equipment.
 

Dana

In the trades
Messages
7,889
Reaction score
509
Points
113
Location
01609
More evidence to confirm that the installer is more important than the boiler.

Though it is not my favorite installation manual, Appendix 'E' page 44 on will get you by. If you don't have the ODR module you wasted money on this boiler. If you do have ODR it should be set up by and experienced technician.

It should go without saying that every proper boiler replacement starts with an ACCA Manual 'J' heat load analysis and the boiler sized to 150% max of the design load.

Competent heating contractors own combustion analysis equipment.

No kidding.

The ESC4 is more boiler than 95% of the homes in MA would ever need (105 MBH of outout, really?), and would be more than 2x oversized for a typical 2500 sub-code min house in Pittsfield or Worcester, and more than 3x the load of a pretty tight new code min house that size. But if it isn't being short-cycled to death on zone calls it'll probably do OK. Six minute average burn times aren't an efficiency disaster, but had they installed the ESC3 (the smallest in that line) that would have been more like 10 minutes/burn, with a proportionally fewer number of burn cycles.
 

Parin

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
ma
I thought we were doing right with this install, even paying a premium price for someone's expertise, but so much went wrong.

It's heating one floor an old home, about 750 SF. We appreciated two zones with the old system, but the thermostats were wired together making it one zone but I'm not sure that's necessary. It starts with a loud resonating single clap sound about 25 seconds into the cycle which I was told was normal. And I've always questioned the outside vent being about 14" off the ground and it's relationship to the snowline. So there's some luggage I'd like a second opinion on.

Page 44 of the manual that came with it refers to venting. I don't see an Appendix E anywhere, which book are you referring to?

And yes, contrary to what we usually do, I do want to be looking over the technicians shoulder and have an understanding of what's going on and know the inspection and service is inclusive.
 
Last edited:

Dana

In the trades
Messages
7,889
Reaction score
509
Points
113
Location
01609
A really crude sizing WAG:

Assuming you live near Boston @ ~5600 heating degree days/year, over three heating seasons you've seen about 17,000 heating degree-days. At 105 MBH output x ~2300 hours you're looking at 241.5 MMBTU. That's about 14,200 BTU per degree-day or ~600 BTU per degree-hour for every degree-hour below 65F. At a 99% outside design temp of +10F (suburban Boston ) that's 65F-10F= 55F heating-degrees, for an approximate heat load of about 600 BTU/ degree-hour x 55F degrees= 33,000 BTU/hr.

If instead you live in say, Amherst that would have been about 20,000 HDD for about 12,000 BTU/HDD, or 500 BTU/degree-hour, and an outside design temp of 0F for 65F heating degrees, and an implied heat load of 65F x 500= 32,500 BTU/hr- not much different. You could look at mid-winter heating bills and look up the exact heating degree-days between meter readings and come up with something a bit closer to reality, but it's not going to be off by more than 30% from those figures (in either direction.) With a zip code and a mid-winter gas bill showing usage and the exact meter reading dates (or the therms/day and the average daily temperature, which some of the gas utilities print on every bill), we could fine-tune that if you like.

That 33K number less than 1/3 the output of the ESC4, about half the output of the ESC3. That means you have enough boiler to heat the place at temperatures of about -100F, just in case an ice age colder than the last one occurs while you're still living there. ;-) Even the ESC3 would have been overkill (most cast iron boilers are), but would have been the best possible choice within that series.

Also, a 33 K heat load is a lot for 750' of conditioned space (about 45 BTU/hr per square foot of floor area), implying both high air leakage and minimal insulation, possibly with some single-pane windows? A decently tight 750' older house with at least tight storm windows would normally come in under half that. (For reference, I live in a 2400' 1920s antique 1.5 story bungalow in Worcester that less than 10% more heat load than that, despite being 3x the size.)

A loud resonating clap is not a normal symptom- it could be a small exhaust explosion inside the venting due to improper air/fuel mixture. This thing needs to be tuned up by somebody with a combustion analyzer who knows how to use it.

For reference, the 1971-2000 heating degree-day normals for a bunch of MA cities begins on page 11 of this document.
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks