Replacing a Cracked Hi-Voltage Cable for Ignition

erik_johnson

I have a Weill-Mcclain gas steam boiler, EG-40, about 27 years old, and after a recent cleaning / inspection, a technician told me that a hi-voltage cable in the ignition system is cracked, could short at any time, and that the part is obsolete and would require some kind of custom workaround. Based on that, a non-working pressuretrol, and the overall age and condition, he recommended replacing the whole boiler.



Curious if that sounds reasonable, or whether it might be worth it to try and fix the individual parts instead. From my pretty inexperienced perception of it all, the system is heating fine right now.

icesailor

High Tension:

1986 =/-?

I doubt seriously that parts are unavailable for something that old/young.

It is my personal experience that whenever I suggest replacing a 27 YOU RUNNING boiler with no other obvious problems but age, the customer gets a glazed look in their eye, become distance and we wish each other well. Never to meet again.

There are times when I do a service call and replace something that normally wears for cheap money. The customer relates that someone had been there and told them they needed a new boiler immediately. They got a second opinion.

You need a second opinion.

Jamie Hall

If it ain't broke...

Even if a high voltage cable needed a custom workaround -- and I agree with icesailor that it seems a little unlikely -- it could be done, and that plus a new pressuretrol just doesn't add up to a new boiler...

SWEI

technician

did he have a big price book he looked things up in?

Hap_Hazzard

Custom workaround?

Like a pice of spark plug cable, or an ignition wire from a gas grill or any of the other million appliances that use them? And that's only if you can't get the exact replacement part. (I bet you can.)



As a general rule, the only parts for 27 year old boilers that are discontinued are ones that contain mercury or asbestos, for obvious reasons, and they are generally superseded by something safer.