New Boiler or Repair Old Boiler

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suegue

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The rental property I just purchased has a 28 year old Burnham Natural Gas Boiler. The tenants were not getting enough heat, called in a service and had the thermostat replaced and are now getting enough heat. However the heating company after visually inspecting the boiler recommended that several parts are not working and the boiler should be replaced. The fast fill doesn't work, the gauge indicates very little water almost 0, the automatic shut off doesn't work (another plumber said the tank would have shut down by now if it did) the back flow preventer doesn't work, and the air vent is not functioning, the damper is in question . The copper pipes have indication of some leaking ( green patina has formed in some places) and the external bladder is a 15 and should be a 30; and the boiler should be bled.
The boiler itself is working. It was mentioned to me that the new systems are not nearly as good as the old and if I can have the malfunctioning parts replaced I should hold onto the Burnham, it can last 50 years. Heating service companies recommended a new Weil McClain and offer 1 year warranty on labor ,2 years on parts, and 20 years for the heat exchanger.
A new Weil McClain with new copper pipes, parts, etc will cost $5500.00. The boiler service is willing to:
"REPLACE THE FEED VALVE, BACK FLOW PREVENTER, AIR ELIMINATOR AND THE EXPANSION TANK
DRAIN THE SYSTEM AND REFILL AFTER THE PARTS HAVE BEEN CHANGED " for $550.00
However the 3 different service companies I spoke with including the above are very hesitant about repairs and believe strongly in replacing the entire system.
This is a difficult situation, I clearly would like to avoid having to put so much money into a property I own for just one year, at the same time it is important the tenants do not have to go through days of no heat because the boiler broke.
Of course the service companies will make more money if they replace the system then if they repair, and there is more risk for them if something is damaged during the repair.
Any feedback on this? Whatever your suggestions I would appreciate, Thank you
 

Tom Sawyer

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Yea, run the numbers. The 28 year old boiler is most likely running somewhere around 70% efficient and a new boiler can run in the high nineties. However, the new boiler won't run that high unless there is sufficient radiation in the house to allow the boiler to condense. If it doesn't condense then it will be running in the low nineties so new boiler, you pick up 20%. Now project that 20% savings and you find out how many years of operation it will take to pay it off. Most times the time is such that you're looking at around 10 to 15 years which means the new boiler will most likely crap out just about the time it's paid for.
 

Jac04

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What WM boiler are they recommending as a replacement? For $5500 installed, it may not be a modulating condensing boiler.
 

Dana

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Replacement time is an opportunity moment for "right-sizing" the boiler to the heat load. Almost all older boilers are at least 2-3x oversized, often more, which is an efficiency & comfort problem. If you have a fuel-use history that can be correlated with heating degree-days it's pretty easy to put an upper bound on the heat load using the boiler as the load measuring instrument. (A zip code, and the amount of fuel used between two wintertime meter-reading dates on the billing would be enough information.)

Fix all the system stuff- it'll need to be done with or without a new boiler, but it's not worth fixing things on the boiler itself. But don't buy a new boiler before doing a fairly careful heat load analysis. Odds are you can buy something much smaller, which will run fewer cycles with less wear & tear, providing higher levels of comfort.

It's worth assessing the boiler size relative to the load no matter what. If you can't economically rationalize a new boiler and the old sucker is 3x or more oversized for the load, retrofitting a cheap ($200 or less) heat-purging economizer control like the Intellicon 3250HW+ , it will have much shorter payback, and reduce the number of burn cycles, reducing wear & tear, and reduce total burn time, reducing fuel use (~10-15% typical.)
 
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