Burnham V36 Boiler - ideal efficiency and other Q's....

Jay_34

Hello,

I am looking at possibly replacing a Burnham V36 oil-fired boiler. The replacement hinges on the comparison of the current estimated efficiency versus the factory's estimated efficiency. Also, Does anyone know when these where made and when they stopped production?

Any OEM Spec on this unit or leads to such info. would be much appreciated. Burnham is slow with a reply so far, I'm guessing because this unit is older.....?

Thanks,

Jay

Unknown

Jay

Not sure who you have been talking to at Burnham but the answer to your questions is quite simple. The published efficiencies of the V3 boilers was probably only Combustion Efficiency as I believe these were made before or right about the time that AFUE Efficiencies became the standard. That would have probably been in the low 80% range. As to approximate date of manufacture, these were around until the late 70's to early 1980's. The date of manufacture is not trackable by Serial number in a computer as we didn't begin that process until the early 80's. This boiler would probably bear a 7 digit serial number versus the 8 digit we use for tracking manufacture today. These boilers were a real workhorse but today's technologies are much better when considering efficiency. Hope this helps.

Glenn Stanton

Manager of Training

Burnham Hydronics

U.S. Boiler Co., Inc.

Al Letellier_9

V36

Used to install a lot of these back in the 70's. One was in my dad's house ( a 3-unit). Have been servicing it ever since with a combustion efficiency around 85% but the thermal efficiency figured to be around 79%. I agree it was a workhorse and I don't think their boilers have been the same since. (Just my opinion, let's not start a war). Being thirty years old, the thermal efficiency is certainly the issue, and as any other boiler, it's life expectancy in about over. Just changing the boiler may not yield the savings your customer is looking for, unless you go high efficiency and use an indirect and outdoor reset. If you want to bring your customers heating system up to date, don't stop short. Sell the whole package.

Steamhead (in transit)

Jay, is this

a steam or hot-water system?

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