Biasi v. Burnham

alexcran

Hi, I'm currently looking to replace an ancient Burnham Fiesta oil fired hot water boiler with electric hot water heater to one of 2 proposed options we shortlisted which follow:

Biasi B-10-6 w/50 Gallon Bock indirect hot water heater
Burnham MPO-IQ147 w/Alliance SL hydrastone lined indirect hot water heater

So community, what would you choose?

Thanks in advance.

Steamhead

How did they size these boilers? Did they do a room-by-room heat loss calculation?

You can't go wrong with either model, but they have to be sized correctly, and simply installing the same size as what's there is wasteful without verification.

alexcran

Steamhead, they were given gross sf for the house and did visual inspection of existing unit, piping and so on. The 2 contractors, one a plumber and one a heating oil company, are within about 8-10% of each other on cost so that isn't the biggest concern but when doing research on the brands I get more confused as some people have seemingly very positive and some very negative experiences with the same units.

Steamhead

Then they're doing it wrong. Don't hire either one. Go here and follow the instructions to find someone near you who will do it right with a heat-loss calculation:

https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/

I bet they propose a smaller boiler, which will cost less to buy and operate.

Robert O'Brien

147k? At least 2x more than needed

EBEBRATT-Ed

@alexcran as both the above experts @Steamhead & @Robert O'Brien mentioned

You have to do a heat loss. Most contractors think it's time wasted....it's not.

a boiler too large will waste fuel, short cycle and cost more to install and maintain.

You can get good advise here my suggestion is to take it.

newagedawn

burnhams are garbage

alexcran

Ok, heat loss calculation seems to be a baseline I wasn't even concerned about. That's the first step. Thanks!

STEVEusaPA

newagedawn said:

burnhams are garbage

You should make a more professional comment on your posts, before trashing all of one manufacturer's product line.

Maybe start your own thread about it and explain why.

bob eck

Burnham MPO is a very good oil boiler.
Baxi boiler I am not familiar with.

Depends where you are located at take a look at using the Trio Cast Iron low mass boiler. Can be fired with oil, natural gas or LP gas burner.

Trio boiler video and literature check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gaD_Nz2dGY&feature=share

http://www.pureproproducts.com/htg/trio_boilers.html

Trio Cast Iron boilers are sold by F W Webb to professional heating and plumbing contractors.
This boiler is approved to burn oil, natural gas and LP gas. So if you are starting out using oil and if you ever need or want to go to natural gas or LP gas the boiler is already tested and certified for all three fuels.

You do need a professional heating contractor to size your boiler for the correct BTU need of your house. With the correct control you do not need to add extra BTU for your indirect water heater.
Putting in to large of a boiler will cause the boiler to short cycle and this is not good for the boiler and the burner / controls.

Find a good professional heating contractor.

Steamhead

The Trio is Biasi-based.

newagedawn

how many stories of burnham boilers leaking in 5 yrs or less on this site and people still defend it, all i can say is, how many peerless, buderus,wiel-mclain,new yorkers,utica,hb's,etc boilers have we heard that leak and if they leak its usually in 30 or 40 yrs, i have spoken my 2 cents worth, seems like only .25 of a cents worth but heck its what i believe, NO BURNHAMS

Steamhead

The V7 and V8 series had issues. So far, I haven't heard anything bad about the MPO and MegaSteam. However, Burnham needs to get with the program and stop throwing tantrums when we talk about firing the MPO and MegaSteam with gas burners.