munchkin contender

Ross_7

Thanks John B,

I already have a TT Prestige at my house. However, I was looking at different options for a camp that my brother & I have been looking to build. With the Contender being priced substantially cheaper (because of the non-ASME stamping), I wanted to look at the track record on how they were on LP. Most of the Munchkins, that I have serviced out in the field have all been natural gas. I have installed lots of standard boilers on LP, but not a mod/con yet. I know that Hot Rod had some "foghorn" issues with a few different mod/con boilers on LP. Thanks very much for the input!
Ross

Ross_7

Munchkin Contender

To those of you who have installed a Munchkin Contender..
How have they been running so far? Do any of you have one running on LP? Any issues with that? Just curious. I'm always anxious to hear about new products in the field. How about the wall hung Lochinvar Knights? TIA
Ross

Dof3

Contender

I have 6 or 7 in the field now,including my own house. Half are LP gas. I set them up just like the other Munchkins and have had no calls back. They are nice to install. They come with the vision 1 already installed. I pipe them just like the diagram in the manual with no trouble at all. Try 1 I think you will like it.

hot_rod

One LP Contender

and two LP wall hung Knights. All are running smoothly, knock on wood.

I like that both of those now have copper stubbed out for S&R connections. I like the condensate cup and drain on the Contender. The Contender is very light weight with the composite HX case. And the new jacket seals well.

The Knight continues to use the combustion air piped directly to the fan. This helps a lot for job site dust inhalation. Any smell or leakage under the hood doesn't have a path to the outside however.All metal cases are nice, and the pull out control box is a nice feature.

The Knight has the best and most features on the control, in my experience.

I have had excellent support from both companies when questions or problems arise.

hot rod

Ross_7

Fuel usage

Hi HR,

Thanks for the input! How has fuel usage been so far with both boilers? The reason I was looking at a mod/con for a camp application, is mainly the quick recovery from a cold start. If we're only there one or two weekends a month, I would much rather install hot water with glycol, than a "furnasty" Just a comfort issue, you know! Much easier to dry out wet clothes in the winter, with hot water heating :-) Also, I'm not ruling out an electric boiler. I like Slant-Fin's Monitron. Looks like most of the parts are "off the shelf", if you will.
Ross

hot_rod

Electric boilers

make for a very simple install, no vent, fuel lines, etc. IF you have enough capacity in the breaker panel. In my neck of the woods electric still hovers around 7 cents a KWH. With LP over two bucks a gallon, even at 90% the electric boilers are gaining popularity.

I like the Electro Industries from Minnosota. I also have a few Thermolec installed. both include outdoor reset sensor and control. Electro has a DHW proiority and a nice zone control module that fits inside, as an option.

Electronic boilers are much quieter and less maintenance than the older style with a rack of large open contactors clattering around. But they are run by a printed circuit board.

hot rod

Ross_7

Electric

Here in town, we're about 8 cents/kwh. I think that out in the area where we plan on building it's around 10-12 cents/ kwh. That would be the only thing to deter me from using an electric boiler is the "clunking" of the contactor, turning on & off. I used to service some electric Sussmann steam boilers for sterilizing surgical equipment & they were very noisy. It would be definitely worth looking at.

Bob Sweet

I 've got a Contender installed

on L.P. it works really well. Did have a pesky little call back issue that cost me qiute a few hours. Turned out to be the micro switch on the condensate cup would dissengage every time the garage door would slam shut, secured the cup and haven't heard from my customer since.

One other note; if you are at elevation (above 4500') the combustion numbers given in the manual might be hard to get. Talk to factory support or the local rep to compensate for higher elevations.
Very nice boiler.

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