burnham freedom mod/con boiler

Chris S

I have a lot of faith in Burnham, have had 3 Warranty Claims wiyh yhem on CI all of which were handled professionally & to our satisfaction. It makes you want to deal with them. I don't have any bad personal experience with WM but have heard horror stories. You can read them on this site, so make that decision on your own.
I had to work on a Burnham yesterday (not my install, I onherited the customer). The problem was installation related & once again- access to the wiring & etc is much easier on the Burnham. At AHR the WM rep tells me they are changing theirs to make it better. They also promised to mail me an add on control for a customer who has to manually reset his boiler because of power interruptions ( haven't seen it yet)
For me for now- I'll stay with the Burnham

Chris

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ed m

freedom boiler

anybody using theses boilers? if so how are they,any pros and cons for this boiler, supplier is now selling them and before we start to install them just wanted to get some feed back from the field?
thanks
eddie

Chris S

burnham freedom

I have 1 in and running on LP, I also have 3 Crown Bimini running0 just a preference between supply houses. This I believe is one case where it is the same boiler in a different colored wrapper. We were selling WM Ultras, both have good features. You'll decide on that.
The Freedom is very easy to wire & service- I think more so than the WM. The LWCO is included & prewired- also a nice feature. I have a lot of faith in Burnham and so did not hesitate when they became available.
One unit we have running right now is in an unfinished home- with a 12,000 btu radiant load & a 45,000 btu unit heater running - both are wide open - no thermostat yet & its keeping the house mid 50 degrees. ( We lowered the set point temperature) The neat part is the unit is running nonstop at a low firing rate (saving me fuel) I Love it.

WM explains their logic (PhD technology) better than the Burnham package. Our unit will cycle on start up, then tune in to the load and just hum. We do the same with oil installations and they cycle & cycle & cycle.

One more thing they have several venting options- we ran one straight up and through the roof with their flashing & vent kit- pretty simple, but it doesn't show in the literature, you have to ask. You can aslo get an adaptor & use Z vent if that works better for you.
I'll sell more of these
Good Luck
Chris

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ed m

thanks

thanks for the input,when choosing between the 2 burnham freedom, or weil mclain ultra which do you perfer both avail through my suppliers,trying to decided which to go with?this will be the first mod/con install for us,usally just ci boilers,so its abit new to us,but hopefully will be doing more? thanks
eddie

Jorgie

Burnham Freedom FMC 120 Problems

Have a FMC 120 running for 4 1/2 years on NG. There have been 3 failures which cost $1,700 in repair charges. The first blower failed prematurely after 20 mos. and the second just failed 30 mos. later. The Tyco 0014 main circulator failed at 50 mos. The installation conforms to all the manual specs, however the vent and supply 3" pipes calculate out to 53' vs the max limit of 55'. To Burnham's credit they reimbursed me for the first blower failure and I have a request in for the second. The service Reps are on the phone to Burnham 10 minutes after they arrive to trouble shoot and even then do not always get it right the first time. I had to find the blown Tyco pump myself and kept the service Rep from installing a new control board.which was not the problem. Has anyone else had premature blower failures and figured out how to prevent them?

Zman

Why?

Why are you considering an aluminum boiler when there are so many good stainless ones.

Aluminum would be my last choice.

I think the WM model you suggested is a Givonni exchanger.

I would use a stainless firetube exchanger like Triangle Tube, Lochnivar ect. They require less maintenance, use less circ energy and generally have a better track record.

Carl

Jean-David Beyer

WM explains their logic (PhD technology) better than the Burnham package.

W-M stopped using the PhD technology with the Ultra 3. I think the Ultra 2 was the last one to use PhD controls. Their new control is called U-control and it is very good, very easy to set up, reliable (mine worked even after being shorted out under a couple of inches of water that should not have been there; though W-M replaced it because they did not think I should continue running with it), and the codes are all in plain English, not stuff you have to look up in the manual. It is very flexible and you can do everything from the front panel. The only improvement I could suggest is a USB, serial port, or ethernet connector so I could monitor it from inside the house.



The Ultra 3 boilers are aluminum and I have had no trouble with it, but this is my only experience with mod-con boilers and I have just finished its fourth heating season, so that does not prove much. It is not a Giannoni heat exchanger (that I believe are stainless steel). It is an aluminum casting that has pins on the fire side. The burner is entirely inside the heat exchanger.



Annual service includes cleaning the fire side of the heat exchanger, and making sure the pH and X-100 concentration of the water on the water side are correct.

CMadatMe

The Freedom

Is a Crown BWC boiler. It is or was actually put together as well as jacketed at the Crown factory. Both companies are owned by Burnham Holdings. It is going away though..