Time for a new boiler?

[skipatroller]

I am looking for some advice.

My parents home was built in the summer of 1968 and has natural gas fired Hot Water baseboard heat. It is a small boiler unit (roughly 3' high, 18" wide, and 3' deep) and has a pump and motor and expansion tank attached to the rear. The house has 3 zones (Living/Kitchen, Bedrooms, and Rec Room) that use motorized valves controlled by the thermostats. The water then goes out thru copper tubing to the baseboard heaters. It has served them well for coming up on 30 years now (in North Idaho), all though the pump and motor have each been replaced over the years. They have gas hot water but it is a separate gas fired hot water tank (40 gallon)

Does anyone have any recommendations on replacement natural gas fired boilers? They must be a lot more efficient than this 1968 model. Any particular brands to stay away from? I contacted a few of the heating HVAC contractors in the area and they don't do these sorts of systems and didn't seem to want to give me any reccomendations either.

Any Suggestions? Thanks

[junkcollector]

Well, no one makes absolute junk, but there are two ways to go:

Option one would be to go with a conventional cast iron boiler. These units have stood the test of time, and last a long time. Modern ones of this type have better efficiency than the older ones, mostly because electronic ignition has replaced standing pilots. The new ones have a exhaust damper installed in the stack, which reduce standby losses. They are pretty reasonably priced. The downside? Efficiency. Most conventional ones have AFUEs from 83 to 87%. Not real bad, but not as good is a modern gas hot air furnace which usually range 92 to 96%.

Manufacturers that make good cast iron boilers:

Weil-McClain (http://www.weil-mclain.com/)

Burnham (http://burnham.com/)

Slant/Fin (http://www.slantfin.com/)

Buderus (http://www.buderus.net/)

Dunkirk (http://www.dunkirk.com/)

The other way to go is what's called a mod-con, or modulating condensing boiler. This is a very high efficiency unit, usually ranging +92% AFUE. They are relatively new to the market in the US. The burner is controlled by a modulating gas valve, which controls gas flow based on outside air temperature. on warmer days when you don't need 100%, the valve cuts back on the amount of gas. The heat exchanger is made of stainless steel, and on the cheaper models, cast aluminum. The boiler usually vents via PVC pipe, and has a sealed burner chamber. It requires another pipe from outside, bringing in combustion air. Due to the low exhaust gas temp and the nature of the unit, there is a condensate pipe that needs to be piped to the floor drain. They are highly technological pieces of machinery. One downside is cost. They cost at least a third more than a cast iron boiler. They are also foreign to many repair people, and cost more to diagnose and fix. Sometimes the parts can are hard to come by. The other thing is longevity. You can expect about a third of the life or less than a cast iron boiler.

One manufacturer that makes a pretty good mod-con is Triangle Tube (http://www.triangletube.com/).

One last thing, with any boiler it is very important to have a heat loss done, to make sure that the unit is correctly sized.

Holler if you have more questions...

[junkcollector]

Advancing my reply...

[skipatroller]

Thanks for the info !!

Yes, the current boiler exhuasts into a masonary chimney, so probably want to stay with a conventional type boiler and bringing in combustion air wouldn't be that easy as it is located in the center of a daylight basement