Adding Gas hot water heater to steam boiler

steamin

I am at the preliminary stages of adding a gas hot water heater to my old steam boiler.  I have a one pipe steam boiler that supplies both heat and hot water.  The hot water is not efficient and gets cold and hot intermittently.  I want to know what Hot water Heater to by and how hard it would be to install it myself?  Any help would be great? 

Long Beach Ed

Clean the Coil

If you clean the hot water coil, it should give you good service.  There are companies that specialize in this work, pumping chemicals through them or using ultrasonic cleaners.  That would be the cheapest, easiest way to get your hot water back.  With a clean coil, you should have all the water you need. 



The next choice would be to add a direct gas hot water heater.  This has its own burner and is piped to the gas line with the flue installed above the boiler's.  If you know nothing about piping gas, you shouldn't do this yourself.  



A more efficient arrangement would be to add an indirect tank, which is a domestic water tank with a pipe coil in it.  It is piped similar to a hot water zone off of your current boiler.  It is the most expensive option but probably the most efficient. 



If the boiler itself is old, oversized and inefficient, it's probably best to consider replacing everything -- the steam boiler and installing a new indirect hot water tank.  Modifying an old steam boiler's plumbing is often very difficult because things break when messed with and can be almost impossible/costly to get apart. 

steamin

cleaning coils

Getting my coils cleaned.  How bad could they be?   Who does this type of work?  I live in 18072 area code.    It seems that my boiler cannot keep up with heating the house and providing hot water.  

jpf321

did it ever?

did it ever keep up? when was it installed?