Old Cast Iron Furnace

Perplexed63

Help Please!! I am out of my element here and don't have a lot of information. My daughter is determined to replace her Viking Junior cast iron furnace with a new furnace, not cast iron. The old one is not leaking and there are no rust spots showing. They are not very good at maintenance and I am not sure if they maintain the radiators well.
My concern is if they replace the furnace will the old pipes work well with the new furnace? Also they have to replace the burner on the furnace just about every year and can never find the proper size. Any info would be appreciated.

vaporvac

Could you post some pics. I'm guessing this is a boiler, not a furnace if it used rads, and hot water since its replacement won't be Cast Iron. Why do they have to replace the burner every year? That's unheard of.

Steamhead

Can you post some pictures, or have your daughter come up here and post them?

I couldn't find Viking in the site's boiler listings. Is this unit fired by oil or gas?

RobG

Steamhead said:

Can you post some pictures, or have your daughter come up here and post them?

I couldn't find Viking in the site's boiler listings. Is this unit fired by oil or gas?

It looks like it's an OLD Crane.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrenner/14291210110

Steamhead

Well, that one must have slipped thru the cracks- couldn't find it in either Beacon or HRH. Maybe the actual model number didn't include the Viking Jr. name.

Looks like a three-pass all-fuel (oil, gas or coal) boiler from the 1930s-1950s. Oil-fired then changed to gas with a Midco E-20. Unless it was well baffled (which we've had much success at), it's probably letting a lot of heat go up the chimney.

System looks like converted gravity, from the pipe sizes. And that PVC tells me the new one is a mod-con....................

Henry

That is a Viking Junior. They are just about indistructable. The baffles are important. I had one in my old 1919 duplexe. I managed to get it up to 85% combustion efficiency in the early 80s.

ChrisJ

Henry said:

That is a Viking Junior. They are just about indistructable. The baffles are important. I had one in my old 1919 duplexe. I managed to get it up to 85% combustion efficiency in the early 80s.

I'm amazed Canada allowed you to work on such a boiler without modern approvals?

Did it have all of it's factory safety controls? Was anything modified?
Was that boiler originally equipped with baffles from the factory?
Were the baffles approved by the manufacturer?

Steamhead

Did you upgrade the burner without getting written approval from the manufacturer?

Henry

The boiler had a Rober Gordon spark conversion burner that was previously field aproved. As a licensed contractor, I am allowed to work on gas equipment. Besides having three patents in combustion and heating and being a voting member of B149.1 and B149.2 gas codes. FYI baffles came with the boilers and usualy, the oil tech would remove them. There is one cast iron baffle over the combustion chamber and two curved one in the upper chamber.

At least in Canada, we don't have many people munking about factory certified equipment.

ChrisJ

Henry said:

The boiler had a Rober Gordon spark conversion burner that was previously field aproved. As a licensed contractor, I am allowed to work on gas equipment. Besides having three patents in combustion and heating and being a voting member of B149.1 and B149.2 gas codes. FYI baffles came with the boilers and usualy, the oil tech would remove them. There is one cast iron baffle over the combustion chamber and two curved one in the upper chamber.

At least in Canada, we don't have many people munking about factory certified equipment.

Well, regarding converting my boiler from a drafthood to a barometric which you made a big stink over, just like you Jstar is a licensed contractor and as a bonus he can also pipe a steam boiler properly.

Steamhead

Henry said:

and being a voting member of B149.1 and B149.2 gas codes.

What was your vote on this?

Henry said:

Modifications to a certified gas apliance are not permited in Canada. Such a modification would need a field aproval. There is also the problem of liability in case of a problem with the apliance. I am sure that the insurance company would go after the outfit that modified the apliance even if the modification did not cause the problem.