Burnham V11-23 Section Complete Replacement

EBEBRATT-Ed

Started last Monday this is a bid job for a school dept. They have (3) Burnham steam boilers V11 23 section about 4,700mbh each and need 2 to heat the school. 1 boiler blew out a chunk o

f the back section at the top draw rod. These boilers were all assembled at the factory on a steel base with the burners and all the wiring and dropped into the building with a crane originally. They had 4 continuous draw rods each one the length of the boiler as they assemble these push nipple boilers with a hydraulic pusher. The job is about 12 years old.

They only needed a new back section and Burnham has replacement sections the problem is they don't fit. The story we were told by the schools maintenance dept. is that Burnham lost their original drawings etc and can't recreate an exact fit. I don't know if this is true but I suspect it is as other contractors I know have bought the same replacement sections and had the same issues. The maintenance dept says the draw rods were overtightened and never backed off as you have to do with any push nipple boiler hence the failure.

Too bad because other than the back section the boiler is in excellent shape they keep their water treatment up and there was little to no sludge in these sections. We are using everything over to save money (bid job remember) that's all the school has money for.....new sections only basically.

We actually lucked out because of the steel beams overhead helped out a lot we have 5 chain falls hanging and only 1 short flight of stairs to go up. Total weight of al the sections is 9500 lbs. sections are 500-600 I think. 1 day 2 men to remove the jacket, flue, gas piping, oil piping, wiring and all the controls and two days 2 men to lug it outside. We only had more help when we loaded it all on the truck with a lift gate. Started Christmas Eve and the boiler was gone Thursday afternoon.

Not to shabby for a 62 & 65 year old.

Not me in the pictures I don't look that good

Waiting for the new sections

Steamhead

Was the header welded?

EBEBRATT-Ed

Yeah and Burnham recommends that the horizontal coming out of the header should be a minimum of 18" long from the header to the top of the riser where it drops into the boiler. They don't have it and I have already talked with them about it. They don't want to here it. Other than that it meets Burnham's specs and they already had someone from the factory look at it so I have been told. Bid job it's all been decided and I am just a stupid pipefitter. The header is 10" with (6) 4" risers.

And it was screwed up from the start. The boiler room is not large enough to space the headers out right. Between the stacks and the walls there isn't enough space.
You can see between boiler 2 & 3 they put 1 header on the left and the other on the right because the had issues

+ most recommend each boiler has a header (which they do) and each boiler header should feed a "steam header" separately and the system take offs come of the "steam header" they didn't do that. Each boiler header feed a common steam pipe....but they have no issues with the system. It's a school addition 25 years ago these are not the original boilers. The originals were "Frank Proxx" CI boilers made in the mid west I think.

Steamhead

That welded header is part of the reason the boiler failed. I bet the same thing happens to the other boiler in the not too distant future. You can't fix stupid................