Best Of

There both safety controls and they need to be maintained or replaced. I am sure the LWCO could be taken apart and cleaned. Is it worth it?

With today's price for a replacement maybe.

But look at it this way. Those controls protect the boiler and your house. If they haven't been maintained you could end up in a lot more trouble

I would replace them they owe you nothing.

The bigger elephant is the lwco is supposed to be replaced after 10 years

Hi, I like using things wrong. Following on the suggestion of cleaning it out, I'm wondering if a short piece of 1/4" drain cleaning spring, just cut with no bit on the end, chucked into a drill might make quick work of any clog? 🤔

Yours, Larry

If it was me I'd replace the boiler myself, others on this site have, and I believe they are glad they did. It seems your contractors only want to do a mediocre job. Probably the hardest part is getting the new boiler into the basement. Although it actually seems that the hardest part is for some contractors to do a good installation job.

If you prefer to not do the work yourself, I guess keep getting estimates until you get one you like without a lot of coaching. Has any contractor measured the radiators ?

I'd match the boiler (Square Feet) to the EDR. (Assuming the EDR survey is accurate) As an example, my boiler could run for hours (if needed) and the pressure never gets to 2 Inches of water column (0.072 PSIG). It is slightly undersized, yet heats the house just fine. No extra pressure during a recovery from a setback.

Your near boiler piping is not correct. So it should be corrected, a new boiler install is the perfect time to get it done.

I would not reward Burnham with another purchase. Maybe 29 years is good run for a Burnham. I believe my old boiler is over 50.

The drips at the end of the mains should be individual pipes until well under the boiler's water line then connected into the wet return, to isolate each main from the other.

Since you are using Big Mouths, run the longer main with minimal or no vent restriction, a custom orifice can be easily made from a pipe plug and added the threaded vent of the Big Mouth on the shorter main. This way the steam gets to the end of each main at about the same time.

I'd probably get the chimney repaired / relined for quiet boiler operation and maybe change the orientation of the boiler to minimize the flew pipe length.