Any recommendations for steam installer near Pittsburgh PA?

samglo

Greetings all,
I'm a long time lurker and have enjoyed reading Mr. Holohan's books to make improvements to my system and to keep it running.

The time has come to replace my 30 year old Weil-McLain boiler, and I'm really struggling trying to find a local installer with extensive steam experience.

System is a 2 pipe steam with a 200000 BTU input boiler (W-M EG-55), which is a pretty good match with the EDR and I've been happy with the heating even on frigid days and a drafty old house.

Any recommendations out there? Thank you so much in advance.
Sam

Ironman

Have you tried the on site contractor locator?

samglo

Yes, no luck within 100 miles. Many options on east side of Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio, but no luck in SW PA

steamhouse

samglo said:

Greetings all,
I'm a long time lurker and have enjoyed reading Mr. Holohan's books to make improvements to my system and to keep it running.

The time has come to replace my 30 year old Weil-McLain boiler, and I'm really struggling trying to find a local installer with extensive steam experience.

System is a 2 pipe steam with a 200000 BTU input boiler (W-M EG-55), which is a pretty good match with the EDR and I've been happy with the heating even on frigid days and a drafty old house.

Any recommendations out there? Thank you so much in advance.
Sam

What town near Pittsburgh?

samglo

I'm in the South Hills, Mt. Lebanon, 6 miles south of downtown

RayWohlfarth

Sam I have a couple of recommendations
Frew Plumbing in Bellevue
Metro on Banksville
They have a good reputation. Good luck

samglo

Thank you Ray! I greatly appreciate your input.

I've read some of your articles in PME. I'm a civil engineer, working primarily in wastewater conveyance and treatment. Thank you for your outreach to the community!

samglo

Here's the old girl. Header seems less than ideal for dry steam? Drop and wet return are also piped less than ideally from my understanding.

Most I've talked to just want to keep as-is, I suppose from a cost/effort perspective. Thoughts?

Fred

There really isn't a header there. Riser out of the boiler just ties into the main and the equalizer drops off of that main. Hartford loop also looks like it is above the boiler water line. Now is the time to have it piped correctly. I would think you'd want to use both risers out of the new boiler as well. I would be skeptical of any installer who suggests leaving it as is.

Dave0176

Sam here is the last EG-55 I installed, that’s a 4” header btw.

samglo

Wow that's a true beauty, Dave! I would be ecstatic if i found someone to do an install half as nice.

Do you want to spend a few days in beautiful Pittsburgh Pennsylvania? I have two guest bedrooms, good cold beer, and I'm a pretty good tour guide for random off- beat sites!

samglo

Some additional info regarding the replacement.

I calculate radiator EDR as 417 ft2. I'm renovating a kitchen and will need to reconfigure the current radiators, and may potentially add another radiator to the kitchen island after I relocate a radiator to a rear door area. It would likely be small, but potential eventual load could be on the order of eventual 437 ft2. The steam main trunk is 3" with one loop around the perimeter and house is about 2600 sq ft (fire block/brick exterior and single pane metal casement windows...I know...that's a project for another day).

With radiator output of 105 MBH, I was thinking the current EG-55 is oversized. It's never had a problem heating the house even with the wonky header configuration. Steam traps have been replaced and all rooms heat pretty evenly.

The two quotes I've gotten are for Burnham PIN6SNI-ME2 (175000 BTU input) and Bryant BS2‐225 (225000 BTU input). Burnham would be pick-up factor of 1.37 and Bryant would be pick-up factor of 1.75. Surprisingly, the larger unit was from the installer who I felt had more steam experience.

Any thoughts?

KC_Jones

You are correct your current boiler is over sized.

The Burnham would be sized correctly by current standards. That Bryant would be massively oversized and it is the side outlet style boiler that most steam guys on here don't like. No way would I go with the Bryant.

You should be able to get the boiler installed however you want. There is a post on here right now where the customer told the installer the specific items they wanted. As long as the installer can screw pipe and you are willing to pay for their work I don't see why you can't get a proper or even an over the top install.

If you went with the Burnham I would spec that I wanted the alternate piping (drop header) and use the header pipe size for the IN7 which gives you a 3" header.

Here is the thread for the customer that spec'd out to the contractor.
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/162016/steam-boiler-comparison-help#latest
@mynameisphunk

Dave0176

I’d actually pick a Weil-McLain EG-45 150,000 BTU 392 Sq ft steam.
I installed this boiler in a house in Fort Lee NJ with 409 sq ft. It works perfect.