A tale of two boilers...

Danny Scully

A few years ago I bid on a steam boiler for a restaurant built in the late 20's. Being rewarded the bid would have been an honor, as the building has a great deal of sentimentality to me. I was not, however, rewarded the bid. I was told my competitors price was better. It broke my heart. I've since worked in the building many times, but could never bring myself to look at their install. We'll, today I looked. What I came to find was a Burnham commercial boiler, series 5B. I quoted an IN9, as that's what the connected radiation dictated. So, they installed a boiler twice the size as needed, only used 1 riser instead of 2 (manual requires 2), and piped the header in 3" while at the very least the manual requires 4". Additionally, I found bucket traps at the end of both mains, and a condensate pump (no main vents). The system does not require any of that equipment. I can't wrap my head around how they could have been less expensive then me with all this additional/oversized equipment, but that's another story. It will be an uphill battle from here on my end, but I'll keep you all posted.

adambnyc

Makes me wonder if they pulled that boiler from somewhere or happened to get something used. If they paid almost nothing for the boiler, that would do it.

Are they getting issues? I couldn't imagine that the boiler is peforming properly. Banging, spitting rads?