Gas boiler replacement

[LEAD PIPE]

I replaced my gas boiler with a Weil Mclain ultra boiler.

http://www.weil-mclain.com/products/display/1-Ultra%20gas

It was a lot more money and the installation is a bit more involved, but man am I saving some cash. My gas usage has gone down about 40%. The gas co was even here to check my meter. If anyone is in the market for a new boiler they should consider a condensing gas boiler. There are other brands making them now too.

[Sundance]

My daughter is looking into replacing the
gas boiler in her home right now. I've
been trying to talk here into putting the
cash into windows and insulation first and
just fixing the old one for now. Rather than
go into debt replacing the old one.

Nice furnace though...

[LEAD PIPE]

I am slowly doing my windows too, not cheap.

This boiler reads the outside temp and adjusts the out put water temp. So if it is 50 degrees outside it makes 130 degree water. If it drops to 0 degrees over night it makes 190 degree water. It only makes what is needed to heat the house.

[ February 21, 2007, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: LEAD PIPE ]

[Hobie]

I ripped out a relatively new Weil-McLain boiler 2 years ago after it shut down on my Christmas day, and again New Year's Day, and about every month it would burn through a flame sensor and every 6 months or so the computer module would crap out. Any alleged "high efficiency" savings was more than offset by the cost of service calls and parts.

This is not to cut down W-M. I have heard good things about their boilers, but my experience was SO bad, I'm a little gunshy. To be fair, I had what was obviously a "lemon" model. Every time I'd go into the plumbing store and tell them what model I had, three other Contractors waiting at the desk would roll their eyes and say "Oh... one of THOSE."

I put in a less efficient workhorse and, neglecting the poor workmanship of the moron I hired to plumb it, have not had any trouble. And actually, have not seen any big change in gas usage, either.

[LEAD PIPE]

There are other condensing gas boilers out there besides W-M. I have heard a lot of good things about this one too.
http://www.viessmann-us.com/web/canada/ca_publish.nsf/Content/Gas_Brennwert_Wandgeraete_ca_english


So far so good with mine. I had some trouble with the installation as well. The pumps need to be on the supply side, I guess this is unusual, and they were put on the return. The boiler just kept giving me error codes and shut down. A couple days of headaches and all was well.