Burnham Mega-Steam

Singh_6

I think I know the oil company ; )
S&A is over the border in MA. probably closer than going to Webb. They are Burnham dealers too. Dave Benham , very helpful, I ran into him when I had a V-7 leaker, upgraded to an MPO.
5'5 basement is tough, should have been no problem for 5'4" Mark !

Mark Hunt

Installed our first MST

this week. I can say that I am very impressed with this boiler.

This customer contacted me after he spoke to a sales rep from a wholesaler. His existing boiler, a Burnham V-85, had developed a leak above the water line after only 3 years of service. The oil company that installed the V85 was going to replace it with another V85 supplied by Burnham. Labor was quoted at $1100.00. HO was not impressed with the local oil company so he was looking for an alternative. That is how we got involved.

Dave Benham from Burnham met me on the job and we looked things over. I have attached the before pics and to be quite honest, when I saw this mess I almost walked away.

I quoted the customer on the replacement and I was MUCH higher than the oil company. They were just going to slide the new V85 back in place and leave the near boiler piping exactly as you see in the photos. Yes, it's ALL copper and yes, there were leaks. The HO took a couple weeks to make up his mind. I can understand that.

You will notice in the before pics that there is no way for most of the condensate to get back to the boiler unless it was blown through the steam main back to the wet returns. The oil company re-used the burner from the boiler they replaced. It sounded like a freight train when it ran and you could hear it running from the next door neighbors yard. I am NOT making that up. Dave from Burnham is my witness.

The white pipe you see connected to the tempering valve in the photo is not PVC. That is calcium. The valve had been leaking from day one and did not work. No aqua-stat was installed initially and the HO had to turn on the heat to get hot water in the summer. several calls back to the oil company got the issue resolved.

At some point in time, someone had drilled and tapped the end of the steam mains to add air vents. They used 1/8" radiator air vents.

We completely tore out the near boiler piping and re-piped with black iron. A drop header was a must on this job. The ceiling height is about 5' which made for some NASTY head bumps and "hunch back syndrome". I still haven't been able to stand up straight.

We extended the ends of the mains and added main air vents and we replaced all of the vents on the radiators. Every one of those was broken and filled with water. In fact, when we cut the near boiler piping, water ran out of nearly every pipe. It was that bad. The skim tapping on the old V85 was plugged and it had never been skimmed.

Out of the box, the Beckett burner ran flawlessly. The HO could not believe how quiet it was. He just assumed that burners were SUPPOSED to sound like freight trains. Also, the hammering is gone. Again, the HO assumed that steam systems were SUPPOSED to hammer.

The MST went together very quickly. The jacket is a quick assembly and the wiring harnesses make wiring a snap. Literally. An insulation blanket that WRAPS THE BLOCK wins major kudos in my opinion. Cleaning the MST will also prove VERY easy. This is one well thought out piece of equipment folks.

I must warn you though that the MST boiler in very heavy. This should be considered when you look at access for bringing a new boiler into a home. We had bilco doors and concrete steps to work with in this instance. That is a rarity. The MST513 weighed about 740 lbs. That is just the block. Again, be mindful of access when quoting an MST.

P.S. The HO was told by the oil company that they pipe all of their steam boilers with copper to "protect them from corrosion".

P.S.S. It was determined that high chloride levels in the water caused the pre-mature failure of the V85.

Mark H

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Singh_6

Good Job, Guys.

All this in a one day install?

Dan Foley

Mega Steam

Beautiful job, Mark! Big difference over what you started with. We are still looking for our first Mega Steamer. We did do an MPO last week that worked out well. - DF

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Darin Cook_5

Devan

Oh Hell no!! We took a good deal of abuse from Mother Nature on this one. The first day we started it rained wicked hard on top of all the snow there was. This house is in Chatham built in the 1840's. The basement in NOT watertight. We got flooded out of there the first day. We almost had to paddle out of the basement! All we could do was get the boiler block in and all of the material.
There was work out on the system piping that needed to be done ( main vents for one thing) inaddition to the boiler install.

Mark and I figured that including estimate and trouble-shooting time, travel time, running to Webb in Albany for some parts, all of our time added up to about 50 hours. Which is right on target with his estimate.


P.S. Mark got pretty beat up on this one. He will claim he hit his head on the piping and got the fat lip due to the low ceiling, but when he gets out of line with me I have to give him a little "military" discipline! It must be my post traumatic stress kicking in!!









Darin Cook,
Comfortable Home Technologies

clammy

mega header

Nice steel piping job ,i just love seeing a drop header done right ,excellent nice and high risers and the ell into the street ell is top flight in my book also really dig the 90 on the header to help line up to your system connection ,great looking and working job the HO was smart and lucky to get a true piping fiiting pro in there to give there near boiler piping the attention and respect it deserves again nice looking steam drop header should be in the libary peace and good luckc clammy

Darin Cook_5

Thanks for the Kudos guys

Mark did all of the steam header piping. We have fallen into a pattern of myself piping all of the hot water boilers and Mark piping the steamers. To Marks credit he does an awesome job with the steamers. The HO's remarked HOW MUCH quieter the system was the first night of operation. They had thought it was NORMAL for the system to clang and bang. This job was a real back breaker not much fun to be 6' and stand in a 5'5 basement. I worked alot of the time sitting on a lawn chair. I know you aren't supposed to sit down on the job but........






Darin Cook,
Comfortable Home Technologies

Brad White

When you mentioned your first Mega Steam

a few threads ago, I knew the status report was not long in coming. Nice work Mark and Darin!

So, Mark, if you got head-bangs, Darin must have bruised his hip bones.

That waterline leak was nasty... amazing that the prior proposal would have guaranteed another 3-year failure if not sooner. Nice to plan that far in advance. This will serve them for years to come. I hope you get back over time to replace the rest of the copper as it will go.

Dan_29

MST install

A good looking install job...almost makes me wish I had oil heat rather than gas. When is Burnham going to do a gas MST?

I am curious as to how one determines that high chloride levels caused the premature rot in the V-85. Also, how might one take action to prevent chloride induced rot on a healthy boiler?

Dan

Mark Hunt

Copper


There is a 1.5" copper supply to a radiator that was left in place. The HO did not want to pay the extra $$$.$$ to have me replace it.

The other copper lines you see are for the domestic coil.

As far as the head bangs.........I damn near gave myself a concussion Friday while carrying the old stuff out. I stood up before it was safe to do so and WHAM! Hard enough to draw blood. I also gave myself a fat lip when I tripped on the containment base the customer built to keep his boiler from being submerged in the annual flooding. I was carrying a 2" x 13" BI nipple and got smacked in the mout with it when I tripped. Again, enough to draw blood.

I spoke to the HO this am and he is very happy. No more 210° water at the faucets, no more banging and no more freight train.

Thanks all for the kind words!

Mark H

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Dave_4

No more Silicone???

I see you replaced that fantastic repair job someone had done on the return using silcone!!! That was a thing of beauty! Great looking job, the pictures don't even do it justice considering what was there before. The homeowner should certainly notice a significant difference in all aspects.

You should have hired Supply House Rick for a apprentice on that one, he could have walk around with no problem!!!!

Mark Hunt

Thanks Dave

That silicone was not what we thought it was. If you remember, there was a pile of lumber in the basement. That was the containment system the HO built to keep the boiler from being flooded. Look at the pics of the new boiler. You can see that the water was starting to creep in through all of the floor cracks. The boiler area happens to be the lowest spot in the basement too. UGH! As Darin posted earlier, the day we delivered the boiler we had to abandon ship due to flooding.

The silicone was used to plug the pipe penetrations to the containment system.

Burnham can be very proud of the MST. You folks have done something no other boiler manufactuerer has attempted, that is to bring steam boilers into the 21st century. Awesome job Burnham!

Darin did a heck of a job re-piping the domestic coil. Now instead of being clothes-lined by the hot and cold pipes, you only bang your head into them. LOL!

Mark H

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Steamhead (in transit)

Mark & Darin, I'll add my voice....

Beautiful job!

We, too, are looking to install a Mega-Steam. The gas option would increase its market, and would allow an owner to switch fuels without buying a new boiler. I'm sure any gas utility CEOs that are reading this are having chest pains thinking about what this would do to their golden parachutes. Too bad.... whenever you're ready, Burnham.

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Long Beach Ed

21st Century Boiler

Funny, Mark,

that you mention the MegaSteam is a 21st Century steam boiler. When you look it over, you'll notice that Burnham improved on the boiler by incorporating many features of good 19th Century coal boilers.

The first time I looked at one I said, "damn, this is like a coal boiler". The huge gas passages for easy cleaning, the triple pass... the return header buried low in a trough... the extra mass... even the rear exit flue.

Why the rear flue exit?...

The folks who built coal boilers, who are dead now, found that the top flues heated the top of the sections in the steam dome too much, causing problems with high clorine content in water. This produced an acid that ate cast iron.

Thus the rear flue, I speculate.

This is one fabulous 21st Century boiler -- straight, in some respects from the 19th Century.

Long Beach Ed

Brad White_9

Thanks Dave

But no thanks, I am more comfortable selling a boiler room than installing one. Devan, what's with you and S&A? Trouble in paradise? I have watched Mark and Darin do their thing and I would just be in the way...

Nice job as always guys! AND Darin welcome back to the field!

Rick

Mad Dog_2

One word...............................................

"CHUNKY!" For those who don't know...that means awesome to me. Wet Steam ain't got NO prayer here. Great Job. Yes, we are still awaiting our first Mega-Steam. Since we are not an oil company, but do oil installs AND the fact that The MEga steam is quite a bit more $$$$, AND guys are out there doing installs for nuthin......we are still Mega-Steam-less. Can't wait though. Once again....nice job man. Mad Dog

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Mad Dog_2

Yeah Ed. Marky said it weighed .........................A TON!!

Mad Dog

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Long Beach Ed

Damn, its hard...

Hard to get folks to pay for a job today!

No problem paying for those BMW's in the driveway, but unless the water's spraying from between the sections, they don't want to put it in their steam systems.

Just had another "well it's getting warmer now, so I'll wait 'till fall" call.

The Mega-steam quality install customers are hard to come by, even with EeeeeZeee Financing and the best sales efforts. So many are being quoted low low prices by oil companies who jack up their oil rates and reuse all the near-boiler piping and valves.

Good luck, Dog. You'll fall in love with this boiler. Want to rip out my own Dunkirks and put these in. But I need a new car first.

Ed

David Sutton_6

Mark and Darin Looks good!

Very nice install!!, Smooth piping job,

David