Dunkirk VLT75 reliabilty or users with experience

Mikes47

Anyone have long term Dunkirk experinece???   Considering replacing a failed Munchkin T80m with a Dunkirk VLT75????

Thanks for your help....

Steve Whitbeck

water tube

I don't like any water tube boilers.

what worries me about that boiler are the fins on the water tube.

How do you clean the crud off of them like builds up on a copper tube boiler.

The reason you build up crud on a copper tube boiler is due to the tubes running too cold. SO what temp do most of us run our high eff. boilers? COLD

I have sold only fire tube high eff. boilers the last 3 years.

Ironman

Disagree

I would have to respectfully disagree with Steve on this one.



I have installed, serviced and was also consulted by ECR during their design of this boiler. It is the product of extensive research and development. Like the fire tube heat exchanger that T.T. and Lochinvar use, this one is also self cleaning and requires virtually little or no maintenance.



I also sell and install the T.T. and the Knight which are great boilers, but this one has p/s piping built in which is a great time saver during installation.



Steve,

are you speaking from actual experience with this boiler or conjecture?

Steve Whitbeck

Water tube

I am speaking from 40 years servicing and repairing boilers, I also install and service many differant brands of high eff. boilers including the ones you mentioned.

I have seen this type of heat echanger crud up many times in past designs.

What is the big difference between this SS tube design and the Trianco HTM design.

The HTM was a copper tube that looked the same as the SS tube design in this new boiler.

The other thing is that the Dunkirk isn't any cheaper that the superior design fire tube.

If it was $500 cheaper it might be worth it.

And Slantfin boilers used a sugestion of mine on the design of one of their boilers.

SO WHAT - big deal. That and a buck buys a cup of coffee.

Ironman

So Then...

You are speaking from conjecture, not experience with this boiler.



I don't care for the copper tube boilers either, but I do have some experience with this boiler and I've not seen what you're referring to happen. I don't think you're giving the engineers at ECR enough credit for being intelligent or ethical enough to do the R&D necessary to produce a quality design. Let me assure you that is not the case. They researched every heat exchanger design and even scrapped their prototype which was near production. It caused them to fall almost three years behind schedule. They finally settled on what you see now. They had the fire tube on the table, as well as every other design available.



If Edison had abandoned the incandescent bulb after its first design failure, we might still be using oil lamps. If It weren't for the repeated efforts of Rudolf Diesel, including an explosion from a failed design that nearly killed him, we might be still be relying on steam engines and mules for shipping. Diesel developed his engine from the flawed design of Stuart's Hot Bulb Engine.



The OP specifically ask for anyone with experience with this boiler to give input. If you have that, please relate it. If not, I don't think it's fair to condemn it based upon someone else's failure.

Ironman

duplicate

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Steve Whitbeck

IRONMAN

You havn't answered my question - If you were involved with the design of this boiler then - explain to us the differance between the trianco  boiler and this one.

The only differance I see in the heat exchanger is in one the water tube was made out of copper that constantly crudded up and this new boiler with a stainless steel water tube.

MY 40 years of knowledge tells me that the best design is the fire tube design and NOT any water tube design and I don't care how you package it.

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION.

Steve Whitbeck

Ironman

I commented on this post because the OP also asked questions about fire tube boilers.

My expert opinion is that fire tube boilers are a better design than any water tube design.