Triangle Tube Prestige Excellence Boiler

bob eck

Hello

Looking and taking out a 33 year old Weil Mclain cast iron oil fired boiler with domestic coil that is installed with 2" steel main and radiators on first floor and second floor.

Looking at going to natural gas with a Triangle Tube Prestige Excellence 95% AFUE boiler with built in indirect stainless steel water heater.

I like that the boiler and indirect water heater are all in one neat wall hung unit plus that it vents sidewall with PVC pipe plus the high efficiency and that this unit qualifies for the federal tax credit of 30% up to $1500.

Just want to know if anyone has installed this boiler and how they are working for the homeowner.

Thanks for the info.

dynamic

Keep in mind

Why are you thinking about taking out oil and going to gas ?

 Keep in mind, you only get 92,000 btus per gallon of propane, and 138,000 btus per gallon of oil. So if you do the math, a 95% efficient propane boiler will net you 87,400 btus per gallon. And that is if the boiler is operating at 95% at any given moment. An oil boiler at 85% will net you 117,300 btu's per gallon. That is a difference of over 25% more heat. No matter how you cut it you will always get more heat for you dollar from oil than you will from propane.

Even with oil boilers, there are a ot of good, solid, control strategies to get the most efficiency from you boiler. I don't know your reasoning, but I hope this helps.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Excellence

The Prestige (heating only) and Excellence (Heating and DHW) are both top shelf boilers; easy to install, simple programming and trouble free operation. 



The only drawback to the Excellence is that it doesn't put out a lot of domestic hot water; only about 3.5 gallons per minute.  That means you can use one fixture at a time; any more than that and the delivery temperature will drop.

mjcromp

IMHO

I have installed a few of the Excellence and quite a few heat only TT's.

I have had no problems with them. They work great!

EricAune

He said natural gas.....

There was no mention of switching to propane.  Sure the Btu content of oil is high.  Some would even prefer burning it over LP or Methane, BUT, those who are getting out of the business of storing their fuel on-site would probably benefit from installing a TT. 



If you have a decent demand for hot domestic water consider a Solo TT w/ a indirect; endless hot water.

MarkPFalade

I just installed my first two,

at different locations. One Excellence and one 110. Both gravity systems that now work much better than they have in the last 50 years. Both customers are very happy and reading the comments here relaxes my mind a bit about reliability. Longevity is another concern I have but that will have to just play itself out I guess. I have issues with accessibility room for wrenches to back up everything as per their explicit warnings in the instructions. I've talked to them about it, they seemed receptive. I do wish they'd offer the next size up with DHW. I've already come across a situation where the 110 size is big enough for heat but the DHW is not adequate. I also get the feeling that a function that "exercises" the switchover valve in the Excellence might not be a bad idea. I remember rumblings of it getting stuck after not working all summer. Overall I'm pleased.



I forgot, FYI, I called them because I had a seeping fitting on one of the DHW connections and I wanted to get their opinion before I cranked any tighter. I wanted to make sure the copper female adapters were the right thing to use there. He said yes and recommended using pipe dope AND teflon tape. Dope it then tape it. This goes against my grain, so all I did was give it another crank around without taking it apart and the leak stopped. Seems like you have to bury everything to get things tight these days. Kinda scary when you're wrenching the "heck" out of something that you have barely enough room to back up on and one slip could turn it into a very expensive pretzel. ;-)

NRT_Rob

I like the Prestige line

but the excellence can be a tough fit.



I don't know many homes that need a 30k to 100k boiler that only have one bath. More generally you either need more domestic on a home sized for that kind of a heat load, or less burner for the heating on a home with a single bath.



So I think it only fits a very few situations. anything with significant water mass (like the radiator conversions) would mitigate the problem (short cycling on heating demands) though.



typically in modern homes I would rather use a solo 60 and a generously sized indirect.

MarkPFalade

Soon as

they put in the big bubbly tub the Excellence is toast. I wonder if just a storage tank fed by recirc from an excellence wouldn't even things up. Rather than going whole hog with an indirect. Just an idle thought.