Advice on replacing gas steam boiler

Betsey

Our gas steam boiler died the other night. It was pretty old, and had a crack. It did not have auto water feed, which we want going forward. Are there any brands or types we should stay away from? We have gotten a quote for a SLANT-Fin GXHA200DPZ, and a Weil McLain gas steam boiler M#MEG65SPIDN. 

Many thanks! 

bucksnort

1st thing to do is have a comp. heat loss study done to make sure you buy the right size.

Canucker

Have they measured your installed EDR to come up with these boiler sizes? If they haven't, you should, just to get a sanity check on what's going in. This is your chance to right size it, if it was wrong before

Jamie Hall

Since this is steam, you need the installed EDR as @Canucker said -- a heat loss study, while always nice to have, is irrelevant. The new boiler must match the total connected EDR.

If the people quoting you the boiler haven't come in and added up the EDR of all your radiation, you might want to look for more qualified people... ;since the quality of the installation is far more important than the make of the boiler. Installed right, any of the major makes of boiler will be fine. Installed incorrectly, none of them will be.

pecmsg

Do Not A S S U M E the old boiler was sized properly. Measure the radiators you have and size to that. 

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Betsey

The right contractor is the most important thing. They will all tell you they have been doing it for 30 or 40 or 50 years and most of them have......but they have been doing it wrong.

Steam is a different animal

Every week we get at least half a dozen posts from disatisfied customers with water shooting out of vents excessive fuel bills and we get pictures of horrofic installs by people who can't read and don't follow the installation instructions


You don't want to be one of those . You need a steam expert

You might find one in your area check "find a contractor" on this site and post your location. Someone may have a recomendation

KC_Jones

50,000 btu difference between the two boilers, either one or both is wrong.  They are both rather large boilers I would expect to see in a fairly size able house.

@Betsey over sizing steam boilers is extremely common, we see it here constantly.  We could very easily help you do a radiator survey with a minimum of information to help you know if they are sizing properly.

As said all of this is about the contractor, both brand boilers you listed are good quality boilers, both used by different contractors on this site.

ethicalpaul

I didn’t put an auto feed on my boiler and I haven’t missed it yet