Boiler Service - What to Expect?

Big_Al

This will be my second winter in a steam heated house. We have a six year old Burnham Independence 6 boiler, intermittent ignition, running on natural gas. If I hire a competent boiler guy to get it ready for winter what would I expect him to do? (We're in an area with few steam systems, so it might be hard to get somebody really good.) Here are the things I could come up with:

1) Disassemble and clean the MM 67 LWCO and make sure it works.

2) Clean the siphon and make sure the Pressuretrol works.

3) Test the pressure relief.

4) Flush the inside of the boiler with a hose to clean out the sediment.

5) Remove the upper sheet metal and clean the combustion side of the unit with a flue brush.

6) Inspect/clean the burners.

7) Check the flame and adjust if necessary.

Is there any kind of PM to be done on the hot-surface intermittent ignition?

(I generally have a hard time hiring people to work on my appliances or vehicles. I'm now a mechanical engineer, but I grew up working in a maintenance machine shop and I've redone too many hack jobs to trust a random tech. In this case, I've done a bit of research, but I probably don't want to invest in the tools to do the work properly myself, at least the gas/flame part . . . so it's off to find a pro.)

What have I missed? Any advice would be appreciated!

Bruce M_2

You Might Want To Read This

Installation, operations and service instructions for your boiler. Read what the factory maintenance requirements are and have that on-hand so you can make a check list. You did not state where you live. There may be an expert who lives near you.

http://www.burnham.com/PDF/8141049.pdf

Big_Al

Thanks, Bruce!

I do have a copy of the boiler manual. It says to clean and check the LWCO, and tells how to brush out the flueways . . . but not much else except for troubleshooting . . . nothing about the pigtail on the limit control or about flushing out sediment . . . but the boiler could be used in many applications, including hot water systems, so service procedures would be different.

I'm going to go go ahead and make a flushing tool out of copper tubing and a ball valve and will try to clean the muck out myself. We're having a few days of cool weather, so I can afford to fire up the boiler when I'm all done to drive out all the fresh oxygen, etc. I'll be putting into the water. That will be the time consuming part. I'll get a pro to deal with the combustion side.

tim smith

PM service

You have the water side pretty well down, add cleaning fill valve strainer to the mix.
Gas side, clean flame rod, checked igniter for wear, ie heat damage etc and replace if looks like it. 5 years? I would probably suggest replacing. Remove burners and wire brush and or wash out if tube in tube design. clean combustion fan if equipped. Clean pressure switch ports for combustion side. Clean orifices. Check flue passages with mirror while burners out and then brush out if needed from top and bottom. Check flue for build up. Assemble, fire up, run to pressure settings and verify controls operation and check for proper clean combustion with analyzer. Maybe do quick check for proper operating air vents and check for leaky/malfunctioning traps or hand valves. This is being very thorough and may cost a few $$$. But thorough. Good luck, Tim