Best time for annual service?

Al Hendrickson_41

The heating season is finally over in Wisconsin. Before next winter (September) I'll be doing the annual maintenance on my home steam boiler (Burnham I6) . . . flushing the water side, cleaning the burners, etc. Is it better to do it now or wait until fall?

Should I wait until fall and leave the old water in the boiler all summer? Any sediment in the boiler would have more of a chance to turn into a hardened mass, but the water is cycled up and should be less corrosive . . . or . . .

Should I do it now, run the boiler long enough to drive most of the oxygen out of the water, and leave somewhat more corrosive water in over the summer . . . or . . .

Should I clean things up now, and leave the boiler dry over the summer?

Any opinions or experiences you might share would be appreciated.

Ross_7

Right now would be the best time, Al

I'm telling you this as a service tech, that right now when you don't need your heating system, is the best time to get your annual service done. That way, in case the the tech has to order parts or if there is something that's vitally wrong with you system, you're not "under the gun" so to speak, to get it working correctly. Good Luck!
Ross

Jamie Hall

Agreed

Do it now. There's another factor: you may still have to (or at least be able to) run the boiler for a bit after it gets serviced, to make sure that all is well. It does happen that, for instance, in an effort to get efficiency up the air gets slightly off, and then it's fine while the tech is there, but that first cold night... she won't fire. So do it now. For all of Ross's reasons and mine too!

oil-2-4-6-gas

NOw the tech will have more time and be less stressed,he can do a more thorough job and yes if he needs to order parts well you've got time to get it all straightened out ----don't wait until that time of year when a couple hundred other customers call for service --then wonder why you can't get there right away --do it now your service tech. You and your service company will be glad you do

Darrell_4

I'm a service tech and thinking about offering a discount for May/June annual checkups...fills in the low spot in the monthly graph and helps with the October panic.

tim smith

We start our maintenance programs in March and go to august

This is the only time we have some time to do them. The spring mos to early june are the best for us to fit them in. Tim