Dunkirk oil boilers

pwatrous

What are main differences between Carrier, Lennox, Pennco, and other brands of oil boilers manufactured by Dunkirk?

Robert O'Brien

None

HVACNUT

They all make the same great boat anchor.

MarkMurf

Please allow me to relay a bit of history concerning Dunkirk .
My family were Delco Heat dealers . Before the government, in an anti-trust law suit with General Motors forced General Motors to divest from the home heating equipment manufacturing business . General Motors then sold the factory/foundry, out on Long Island, N.Y. to the employees. They changed the name from Delco to Delray . They had a good product line of boilers . They had a residential vertical tube steel boiler which I personally liked and used often . They, back in the day would normally put on a Wayne 1725 RPM oil burner as standard equipment or you could upgrade to a variety of 3450 RPM burners; Wayne, Beckett, Carlin, Sunray etc . Does anyone recall the Sunray with the 'shell head' ignition assembly as opposed to the retention head ? Dialed in properly, it was as clean a flame as any . Then, and this I believe correct, the foundry had additional financial woes and I liked to think with their backs against the abyss escaped closing with a reorg and renamed it Dunkirk . Using the historic name of the British forces escape from mainland Europe in the beginning of WW2 . From that point on, any company could contract with Dunkirk to manufacture their products with their own name painted on the jacket ! And being an old oil burner/heating/steam serviceman, and still at it, I have seen Dunkirk boilers with ; Sears, Homart, Lennox, Esso, Trane and Texaco name brands on them . Indeed, being a heating oil distributor and service company we used to pick up said Dunkirk, oil fired equipment from a local Texaco plant at very reasonable prices with the Texaco star emblem painted on the boilers and burners . A lovely green and red color scheme, as I recall . 'YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR . THE BIG RED TEXACO STAR ! " At any rate, Dunkirks, and I was just working on a natural gas unit . Same cast iron sectional as the oil fired units, as with all cast iron, hot water boilers have seen their day . Sorry to say that technology has out-paced heating oil . And this coming from a heating oil family member . Even if you're out in the country where there is no natural gas service, one would do far better with a wall hung, stainless steel, counterflow, modulating boiler, as you would in town with natural gas available . Dunkirk had/has baffles available to slide into those side cleanouts, which greatly increased thermal efficiency . And with a high efficiency ; Beckett, Carlin, Sunray burner and a knowledgable, experienced oil burner man could be tuned close to any for efficiency.......And I would love any harder facts concerning the history of the Dunkirk foundry, as my take on it is a product of second hand innuendo, faded memories and my father's mumblings as we tooled down the road to the next cleanout......

HVACNUT

> @MarkMurf said:
> Does anyone recall the Sunray with the 'shell head' ignition assembly as opposed to the retention head ? Dialed in properly, it was as clean a flame as any .

I dont remember a Shell Head Sunray. The Golden Cup and FC-134, yes.
I do however remember the instructor from my first oil burner course drilling it into our heads,
"80° hollow is the ONLY nozzle to be used in a Shell Head."
My wife often punches me in my sleep because I keep mumbling his words.
80° hollow, 80° hollow, Shell Head, snort.

Robert O'Brien

> @MarkMurf said:
> Please allow me to relay a bit of history concerning Dunkirk .
> My family were Delco Heat dealers . Before the government, in an anti-trust law suit with General Motors forced General Motors to divest from the home heating equipment manufacturing business . General Motors then sold the factory/foundry, out on Long Island, N.Y. to the employees. They changed the name from Delco to Delray . They had a good product line of boilers . They had a residential vertical tube steel boiler which I personally liked and used often . They, back in the day would normally put on a Wayne 1725 RPM oil burner as standard equipment or you could upgrade to a variety of 3450 RPM burners; Wayne, Beckett, Carlin, Sunray etc . Does anyone recall the Sunray with the 'shell head' ignition assembly as opposed to the retention head ? Dialed in properly, it was as clean a flame as any . Then, and this I believe correct, the foundry had additional financial woes and I liked to think with their backs against the abyss escaped closing with a reorg and renamed it Dunkirk . Using the historic name of the British forces escape from mainland Europe in the beginning of WW2 . From that point on, any company could contract with Dunkirk to manufacture their products with their own name painted on the jacket ! And being an old oil burner/heating/steam serviceman, and still at it, I have seen Dunkirk boilers with ; Sears, Homart, Lennox, Esso, Trane and Texaco name brands on them . Indeed, being a heating oil distributor and service company we used to pick up said Dunkirk, oil fired equipment from a local Texaco plant at very reasonable prices with the Texaco star emblem painted on the boilers and burners . A lovely green and red color scheme, as I recall . 'YOU CAN TRUST YOUR CAR TO THE MAN WHO WEARS THE STAR . THE BIG RED TEXACO STAR ! " At any rate, Dunkirks, and I was just working on a natural gas unit . Same cast iron sectional as the oil fired units, as with all cast iron, hot water boilers have seen their day . Sorry to say that technology has out-paced heating oil . And this coming from a heating oil family member . Even if you're out in the country where there is no natural gas service, one would do far better with a wall hung, stainless steel, counterflow, modulating boiler, as you would in town with natural gas available . Dunkirk had/has baffles available to slide into those side cleanouts, which greatly increased thermal efficiency . And with a high efficiency ; Beckett, Carlin, Sunray burner and a knowledgable, experienced oil burner man could be tuned close to any for efficiency.......And I would love any harder facts concerning the history of the Dunkirk foundry, as my take on it is a product of second hand innuendo, faded memories and my father's mumblings as we tooled down the road to the next cleanout......

I bought from Texaco as well, first in Roslyn then Inwood.

Steamhead

Except that we've seen cases where a wall-hung mod-con boiler hasn't lasted nearly as long as a cast-iron boiler would have. Sure, they advertise 6-8% better efficiency than a good cast-iron unit, but if it only lasts 1/3 to 1/2 as long, where's the savings?

Cast-iron for me.

And I've worked on all those burners, except the Shellhead. Those Sunray Golden Cup burners were great- with the proper nozzles and head settings, you could fire anything with them.

GBart

The only difference is the decal.

and please, spare me the nightmares of the old burners, they all sucked, thank god we are down to Carlin, Beckett and Riello spare a few, and some guys can't set those up.

MarkMurf

I dunno . I've been using the Lochinvar WH series for a few years . Paying more attention to flushing out and system cleanliness than most I know . So far , very reliable units. Probably have 20-30 out there . Few call backs . No failures . But I did just come from a Basmor, 100 year old, cast iron, convection flow, natural gas, milli-volt, hot water, open system clicking like a chicken...GOTTA LOVE IT......

MarkMurf

And Buddy , I could dial in an Acme 1725RPM, old school just fine . Can't help a lack of filters, rotted tank with a loose cap and some fly by night plumber with the mechanical aptitude of a red brick ! !
The old man was still alive . I moved to Montana 30 years ago . Picked up some oil burner route from this know it all, know nothing . One ball of soot after another . Gotta say, I aint the first guy to pull out an analyzer. Couldn't dial these flames in ! ! Past mechanic kept lauding the praises of the oil burner school in Spokane he went to ."Gotta have them orange whips on them flames ." Heard it once, heard a thousand times . Funny, I always liked them flash bulb white hot myself . Complete combustion, NO ?
The old man didn't say much . You'd have to call him . He ain't dialing you up . Just the way it was. Mentioned my lack of success dialing in these burners . "Huh"... the usual abbreviated reply. " O.k., talk soon son." Week or two later, phone rang . The old man . Sat down thinking someone died . "Ahhhh them burners , it's your altitude . You gotta adjust for altitude yourself . Open the air all the way . Start by cutting rated nozzle size by half to one third . Then work your way back up to adequate heating and a clear flame . O.k. kid ? Gotta take mom to church . See ya ."
Few years later sitting in a Burnham Boiler seminar . Maybe 30 techs . "How many you guys work on steam ?" Raise my hand . No one else . "How many work on oil burners ?" Same response . I asked out loud, "None of you guys ? Wadda I got a nitch here ?" Later on I'm dozing after the free Mickey 'D's lunch . He starts mentioning deregulation of LP and nat gas jobs . I raise my hand and ask the prescribed method for deregulating an oil burner . "I've never heard of deregulating an oil job ." Kinda of discounting my inquiry . "Aye", says I, relaying my story . "I've been an oil burner tech a long time. " says he . "Never heard of it ." Again, I insist on it's necessity. I've seen it first hand and besides it just makes sense . "Well we are pretty high here." says I . "Look, I'm from PA. and we have mountains . I've never heard of it ."he's getting indignant . "Well Pal, Sorry, I'm from JERSEY and have had my hands on 1000 oil burners and Pennsy's mountains ain't mountains . " Pointing out the window. "Them are mountains. " HA ! towing the corporate line.....mis and dis information it's everywhere .