Help! Replacement Boiler: Buderus GB142 or Burnham Alpine?

CedarburgSteve

Good Day! I have a 1950's 1,500 sq ft

Cape Cod home in SE Wisconsin with an 8 year old oil-burning Burnham

boiler with baseboards and will be converting to a new natural gas

burning mod-con boiler.







I would sure appreciate your help in choosing either the Buderus GB142

(85,500 btu) with their S-120 32 gallon indirect water heater or a

Burnham Alpine (105,000 btu) boiler with a Themoflo #DHW-46 46 gallon

heater.







Installed pricing from two contractors, both with excellent reputations

are within $300 of each other. Both have 10 year guarantees by the

installers as long as yearly inspection is carried out. To get it

installed by year end, I need to make a decision by Monday.







Are there strong preferences out there for recommending either brand

given similar warranties? Is one better engineered, might hold up

longer once the 10-year warranty is up, etc?







I REALLY appreciate your help...I am STUCK in an indecision mode! Thanks greatly!







































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Jean-David Beyer

Are there strong preferences out there ...

As a homeowner, not a professional, my preference, since these boilers have different capacities, is to have a heat loss done and to get the smallest boiler just barely larger than required by the heat loss. I have yet another brand of boiler, but since I have experience only with the one, I am not in a position to make a recommendation.

Paul Pollets

My 2C

I prefer mod-cons with stainless steel heat exchangers, rather than those with aluminum HX's; (Viessmann, Triangle Tube, NTI, etc). I also prefer stainless steel indirect tanks, such as the Viessmann Vitocell 300's; Triangle Tube "Smart" series, etc. They last longer.



It's harder to find competent heating contractors who have access to boiler lines their wholesalers may not carry.

pipe4zen

depends

on what your contractor feels comfortable with and is willing to support, and if you feel comfortable with that contractor.



I have three times more Buderus GB's installed than any other mod/con. Buderus also has a stainless steel tank SST150 that I like alot.



Bosch owns Buderus, and also recently released their own mod/con called Greenstar with Bosch name, you may want to look into it. Competive priced and has many interesting features.

Gordy

Stainless Steel

  They are both fine boilers, and as others said its what the installer is comfy installing / servicing, and getting parts for.



  I'm with Paul though Stainless Steel is more durable, and not so sensitive to aggressive water. All though PH should be monitored with either, but especially with aluminum HX's. Ask if that is part of their yearly service checking PH of system water.



  Make sure they both do Heat loss Calcs, and choose the boiler closest to the needed output. There is a bit of a difference in size of the two boilers they are offering. The GB 142 has the lower output which is fine so long as it can meet the load. 



 My Favorites are fire tube design HX's Like Triangle tube, and Now the Knight both SS the knight has the most value per dollar in my opinion.



Gordy



 

tim smith

Re: boiler choice

I am with Paul and Gordy, Triangle or Lochinvar WHN and Viessmann. Great stainless boilers. Find which one of these that they service and know how to work on in your area. Very reliable boiler. Tim