Conversion burner

squidbass

Has anyone successfully installed a gas conversion burner on a Burnham mega Steam boiler?

Steamhead

I believe it's been done

with the Carlin EZ-Gas. But I'm told (from several sources) someone at Burnham is trying to block sales of the EZ-Gas for the MegaSteam though- putting a lot of pressure on Carlin. I don't know who, or why, but there doesn't seem to be any engineering reason for this.



But I'd do it in a heartbeat. The MegaSteam is the best residential steam boiler on the market today. There's no reason someone burning gas shouldn't be able to have this boiler.

Rod

Burnham isn't Too Swift

Burnham needs to come off their ivory tower and get real. More and more areas in the northeast will have natural gas available in the near future. Anyone buying a boiler today, who is now living in these areas which were once strictly oil, would want to keep their options open. My next boiler was going to be a Megasteam but without the option of converting it to gas, I'm probably going to look at a Smith or Slantfin or another Peerless.

- Rod

Dave in QCA

Burnham or another company

Burnham did what should have been obvious.  They put all of the heat transfer surface, that is to say, the flueways, below the water line.  This is not a new design, but rather an improvement on what was the old standard on solid fuel fired, cast iron, sectional boilers from the turn of the last century.  Capitol Boiler, in its Red Top model boasted of "superior castings" and "long fire travel".   All Burnham had to do was to look to the past for the design concept and they narrowed the flue passages and added ribbing to increase the heat transfer surfaces.  It should have been obvious long ago!!! So, I suspect that if Burnham does not come out with a gas model of the Megasteam, or at least approve a gas conversion burner that won't void the warrantee,  some other manufacturer will surely introduce a similar design available in gas. This design will likely change the face of the modern steam boiler.  It appears that Burnham may choose to pass on a golden opportunity. I am going to make the suggestion that every person that reads this thread, cut and paste this email address   info@usboiler.net    to send and email to Burnham, dba U S Boiler Company, and ask this question.   You can even cut and paste it to make it real easy.    When is the Megasteam boiler going to be available with a dual fuel or gas only burner?  There is a real need for this boiler in the gas burning market. It might be interesting to see what the response is if they are inundated with several hundred emails. Dave~

BobC

gas megasteam

I just sent an email, i don't know if anyone will listen but I gave them an earful.



Bob

Steamhead

Done

and I added that we would have no trouble selling it.



And if I was running a boiler company, we'd have a 3-pass steamer available in both oil and gas trim. Maybe if I hit the lottery..................

BobC

reply from burnham

i got this reply from Burnham on my request fir a gas fired Mega Steam boiler -



Hi Bob,

Thanks for taking the time to send us a note, we’re glad to hear you like the Mega Steam boiler.  There has been discussions internally as to the possibility of doing some application work on a gas gun for this product, however at this time it’s not at the top of the to do list.  While there is a demand for this type of application, it’s actually pretty small believe it or not, but being in sales I hate to lose any opportunity that presents itself.

 

Thanks for your input!

 

I told them that nobody was likely to install a oil fired appliance when natural gas was available in the area but corporate just doesn't see the market. i told him they are forcing people into the arms of Smith but it did not seem to move them off the mark.



Bob

Steamhead

I got the same response

word-for-word!



So they haven't done the application testing with the EZ-Gas.



Here is my reply:



Thanks for replying, Jim. Here are some things to think about:



1- Atmospheric boilers don't have the raw thermal efficiency of wet-base/power-burner types. Based on published ratings, the typical atmospheric has a thermal efficiency of 80-82%, while the wet-base/power gas burner units we've been using are 86-87% depending on which brands you're talking about- the MegaSteam being the best. I think the atmospherics' dry-base construction with wide front openings where the burners are mounted, plus their higher excess-air requirements for clean combustion, are what decreases their efficiency. Sure, a 5-7% difference in thermal efficiency doesn't sound like much, but as fuel prices rise it becomes significant.



2- We've been replacing a LOT of rotted-out atmospheric gas steam boilers- including a bunch of Independence units. They don't seem to be able to tolerate any water loss from the system at all- and they really shouldn't have to, but the real world isn't always that kind to boilers, is it? Maybe the basic atmospheric design just concentrates too much heat in a space that is too small, starting the infamous oxygen corrosion.



The MegaSteam with gas gun is the solution here- I hear these boilers have been running for some time in bakeries and other applications where they see a lot of fresh water, with no failures to date. Don't forget those crab-steaming rigs either- OK, that's mostly an East Coast thing, but if a boiler can thrive in that environment it can handle pretty much anything.



3. As much as I hate to see it happen, oil heat is declining. I recall reading somewhere that 70% of fossil-fuel heating equipment being installed today is gas-fired- I believe our boiler installations are about 70% gas. Even if that figure is off a bit, it still represents a significant untapped market for a more-efficient gas-fired steamer, especially one that can shrug off conditions that would kill most boilers.



What most people forget is that there is a HUGE installed base of steam heat in this country, and most of it is now gas-fired or will be in the next few years. A MegaSteam in the basement of every steam-heated home is a worthy goal- I'd sure like to be able to offer its superior efficiency and durability to my gas-fired steam customers, and I'm sure you'd like to sell more MegaSteams. A gas burner option on the MegaSteam would help us all serve our customers better, which would increase our sales.



Don't worry about Independence sales- landlords, gas utilities and others solely interested in first cost will always buy them.



My company, All Steamed Up Inc, would be interested in field-testing the gas-fired MegaSteam when you get to that stage.

ctjomac

Have any of the Pro's

gotten any further with conversion approvals from Burnham or had any success stories with conversion burners for the MegaSteam?

JStar

Mega Steam

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm actively pursuing this at the moment.



Burnham has given me the same response as everyone else has gotten. So, I talked to Crown instead. They have their FST series (same as Mega Steam). They have done "preliminary testing". I don't know what that means. Either you test it or you don't. They said that the AFUE rating is lower than the oil-fired version.



I'm trading emails with the rep right now.

Dave in QCA

megasteam gas installation

http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/142964/New-Mini-tube-installation



Joe, Here is another thread where Eric Reynolds installed a gas burner on a Megasteam.

Crown's boiler is interesting. I wonder how long they have been testing the gas burner. As is almost always the case, a gas gun runs a little lower efficiency that an oil gun. They get really high efficiency ratings on these 3 pass boilers firing oil, then they don't want to even talk about the ratings that they get when firing gas.