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Test the water chemistry, that will tell you what tanks will last the longest. Steel might be right for some chemistries, stainless for others.

Hi, Before doing any boiler room work, I'd be measuring shower flow rates and water pressures over at least a 24 hour period. If pressures fluctuate, I'd be looking at pressure compensating showerheads. Neoperl makes the innards for showerheads. I'd be installing 1.5 gpm heads if what you have now is larger. Once that work is done, I'd be metering hot water usage so yo know just what the demand really is. With that info, you can work in the boiler room and size the equipment to the measured need. You might find a lot of savings in equipment costs once the hot water demand is controlled. I know I'm not answering your questions directly, but this sequence of doing the work gives you the best chance of success.

Yours, Larry

Hi, I'll stay at 30,000 feet for a bit with tank longevity… Things that kill tanks are pressure fluctuations, high pressure (I like to keep it around 40-60 psi), too much water thru-put, making the heater fire excessively, and overly conductive water (reducing the anode's useful life). You can add improper connections, like copper fitting to steel tank, but it's a smaller effect.

A reason I suggested low flow fixtures is to cut the time the heater/s are firing. A water quality report would be useful as well to get an idea of the conductivity of the water and to see if there are things in the water which could be damaging to tanks or plumbing, like manganese. Salt softening is another question. Softening done wrong can dramatically shorten useful anode life.

The elephant in this room is anodes. Have you replaced them regularly? I've gotten 40 years from commercial heaters by doing so. If you have not been doing that, any other measure is close to meaningless for tank longevity.

Yours, Larry

This was something that came up when the Dead Men began converting gravity systems to pumped systems. By bypassing most of the cool water returning from the system the boiler was able to come up to high temperature (and not condense), and that speeded up the heating out there in the system.

There are about a dozen of my customers that still have this brand of boiler working for them. Charlie Pistante - long gone now - was the guy that installed it. His sticker is on the cover plate of one of the junction boxes. He continued working well into his 80's because he needed the money to pay his wife's medical bills.

Such a simple system, no? Flue gas condensation? Probably, considering the pile of combustion debris below the burner. Maybe it's was self-cleaning.

If somebody decides to install an air to water unit in the future, they will thank you!

Not over sized… sized for max efficiency.

Did this w/ my own home. Cast iron rads. love it.

Flat curve comfort too..