Oil boiler identification.

Mike_M

Hello.
I've been a lurker here for some time seeing if, somewhere here, I'd came across an, "old boiler', post that would help me identify mine, and reading through a lot of posts in general to learn more about oil boiler systems.
I've gone through most of the material in the Heating Museum but couldn't find anything there either, though I may have skipped some things there because of brain fry.
Any chance someone knows what this is?
The house was built in 1953.
2 pipe hydronic with Baseray cast iron rads.
No idea if the boiler is original.
The covers are badged Utica, but when I gave them the information from the info plate, they said there's no such model. Several e-mail attempts to ask more were unanswered.
I've read here that boilers could be made at one company then re-badged for others. Dunkirk was an example so I search them out.......nothing.
The inscription, if you could call it that, on the front of the boiler reads, 'A.S.M.E. std.' I tried to find information about that with no luck.
Any other info you need from me let me know.

Mike_M

Few more pics.

Mike_M

Oh.....and Thank You.
Mike

bburd

That boiler is probably original to the house. Some manufacturers don't keep data on older models for that long. It is well past its normal service life, but at that time most boilers were well built and could last a long time.

Why do you want to identify it?

EBEBRATT-Ed

If it says Utica, it's a Utica. Maybe my memory is slipping but, but I think at one time there were two Utica's

I think there was Utica radiator and Utica boiler maybe one went out of business, or they merged something happened can't remember. @Steamhead would probably know.

But yes why identify it there really isn't much to learn that will help you with anything and parts for the boiler itself are long extinct.

The boiler rating wont hep you size a new boiler that would be the wrong method.

If the house was built in 1953 then you have a 1953 boiler that is the original boiler.

A 1953 system with that boiler and base ray baseboard was top of the line at that time.

HVACNUT

Stack switch and cad cell primaries? And both obsolete. 
Is the seal still good on the plates you removed?

If you plan on keeping it, I would recommend a wiring and controls upgrade. Remove the stack switch and get a 15 second primary. The burner has an oil delay valve so it can be a primary with pre and post purge. 
I would also replace the circulator to a wet rotor and add isolation valves. At that time I would check the bleeders on all the Base-Ray to make sure they work, and replace if needed.

Then get an experienced oil tech to setup, and test combustion with the proper instruments. 

Intplm.

This is most likely a Utica boiler.
The confusion you might be having is, and if memory serves me correctly here? The Dunkirk labeling was labeled on many boilers way back then because Dunkirk was a major manufacturer of cast iron boiler sections for many different boiler companies.
These companies would use Dunkirk boiler "sections". And then put their brand of items on completing the boiler
for sale.

AJCimino

Good Morning,
This is the best I can do. On page three of the pdf, you will ind listed under "Small Home Unit" series "OA and "I" boiler. Yours is listed as "014."

Intplm.

Intplm. said:

This is most likely a Utica boiler.
The confusion you might be having is, and if memory serves me correctly here? The Dunkirk labeling was labeled on many boilers way back then because Dunkirk was a major manufacturer of cast iron boiler sections for many different boiler companies.
These companies would use Dunkirk boiler "sections". And then put their brand of items on completing the boiler
for sale.

Or more accurately. The sections were Dunkirk but the boiler could be any brand manufacturer.

Mike_M

Wow. Thanks!
I assumed it was original to the house, but wanted to know for sure so I could pinpoint my information search to the year of the boiler and there about which I did as well, but came up empty.
I did find a little information about the Utica Radiator co., and like you EBEBRATT-Ed, saw that they may have merged or morphed into the current Utica or some other company.

To answer some questions.....
Why? Because knowledge is power? .....but mostly curiosity, and hoping to see if there was just a little information about it to, yea, keep it going. Now that I've taken over the cleaning and such, it works quite well, as inefficient as it is. My thinking was that If I could find out more about it, even how the internals are designed, I'd have a better ability to clean, maintain and keep it going.

Seals appear to be good, no blow-by visible or damage seen, but something I'd plan on changing at some point.

Bleeders are fine though a tad crusty. I bled them all last month. Those will all get changed as well.

As for updating controls. Yea. Another thing I've considered. I haven't really done much homework about that so it probably won't happen any time soon. I have the, 'if it ain't broke....', mindset, but sometimes I have a, 'if it ain't broke, 'F' with it anyway', mindset too so it may happen next Summer.

Thanks AJ. That does indeed seem to be the boiler, though the front cover on mine looks more like the OB model which would have thrown me off if I ever came across that page on my own.

"Then get an experienced oil tech " And how does one find an experienced oil tech? I looked here in the 'Find a Contractor' list but the closest one is over an hour away. As for local techs.....there's a reason I've taken over the cleaning but that's a long story.

Lastly. I know well that I'm just a homeowner trying to take on what you guys have spent years, perhaps lifetimes doing. I don't walk into this lightly. I'll spend a lot of time researching what I need to do before doing it, and yea, I can still get it wrong. I've gotta say though, I've done a far better job cleaning and maintaining this thing than the local techs had done when my father owned this house. I will need an independent tech, not tied to an oil company, to do a combustion test and adjustment of course. I'm looking around and reading reviews.

Thank you everyone.

EdTheHeaterMan

You can make that more efficient if you want to spend some time with a welder and create a fire door that will hold the oil burner in a place that the fire was designed to be.

Before World War II most homes were heated by hand fired boilers. The design was simple, and had 3 doors for maintenance. The bottom door was opened weekly to remove ashes from the wood or coal flame that dropped to the bottom (called the ash pit). The center door was opened daily to add fuel to the boiler. That fuel sat on grates and as the fuel burned the hot gasses of combustion, fly-ash, and soot took the heat up to the top of the boiler and out to the chimney. The top door was to clean the ashes and soot from the boiler on a monthly basis. After WWII the boiler companies had little of the old stock, and since all Americans were working on the war effort, there was not much new on the drawing board for heating systems.

So when the war was over, the American soldiers had extra income as the economy started to boom. They wanted automatic heat. They did not want to be stuck feeding the old coal boilers by hand. So the boiler companies had a large demand and no new designs, so they modified the old coal boilers to use the new automatic oil and gas burners. And many oil dealers would convert existing coal boilers to burn oil by placing the oil burner in the ash pit and removing the grates. That was the easiest and fastest way to satisfy that demand. But not the most efficient use of fuel… but fuel was cheap.

The boiler you have was originally designed for coal but was factory modified to add the oil burner. To make it look more modern, a sheet metal cover was fabricated to make the whole package more streamlined. The 1953 version of the Apple Watch, compared to the flip phone of the past.

Since your boiler was designed to have the coal fire near the middle door, you can get better heat transfer if you mount the burner in that door and get rid of the combustion chamber. Fill the ash pit with vermiculite and place some ceramic fiber board over it to reflect the heat from the flame up to the crownsheet of the boiler (the top cast iron area just above the flame). Get yourself some new controls line a L7224U that will operate the burner and calculator, and get a new primary control (Carlin 70200S is my fav) and you will reach operating efficiencies to match a new package boiler built this year.
Pictures to follow

EBEBRATT-Ed

@EdTheHeaterMan

Firing through the door is something we did all the time with commercial coal boilers converted to oil or gas. But if it was my 70 year old boiler it's too close to the end I wouldn't risk it but that is JMHO

Mike_M

Ed! Wow! That information, to me, is priceless.
I have wondered if what I have was originally a manufacturer made boiler. After looking at pics of so many boilers, mine just had a few things that would suggest otherwise to the point I thought this was a one off, custom, slapped together thing.
I've been looking at getting a welder to work on my truck and some other things. This gives me another reason to do so.
I'm heading out the door but I'm going to pick your brain a bit about doing this.

Thanks Ed and Thanks again everyone else for the help.
Mike

EdTheHeaterMan

More pics to follow. Here are some that will explain how this will save $$$
In this illustration you can see an early 1900 coal fired boiler and what the inside might look like. There are large flue passages like yours behind the upper doors. This makes for easy cleaning and vacuuming. The next boiler might be what Utica did in the late 1940s and 1950s. Take one of their earlier hand fired boilers and add an oil burner to make it "Automatic Heat", then cover it with sheet metal to make it look good. I hated those covers, when it came time to do the clean-outs, I was always hitting my heat on the top cover. If you look at two modern oil boilers made today, you can see that they are very similar. the only thing missing is the bottom ash pit door.
There is a file below of the same pic if you want to zoom in for detail.

The idea here is to put the oil burner flame up where the coal flame was designed to be. Then the heat from the flame does not need to go up 12 to 18 inches before it starts to heat the water. The closer the flame is to the designed heating surface the more heat from the flame is there to transfer.


The other file is what you might do with your boiler

I prefer the Honeywell (Now Resideo) Aquastat over the Hydrolevel that some might recommend. And I prefer the Carlin 70200 Pro X primary control because it has the most diagnostic features of all the electronic controls available.

If you are going to actually do this project, you should PM me for more specifics

Mike_M

Thank You very much Ed for taking the time to go through all of the trouble of getting those pics up and the 'Photoshoping'. This is definitely something I'm going to consider doing, At the same time, I'm also considering the same as EBEBRATT-Ed pointed out. It's old. Would moving the fire up and in more direct contact cause higher stresses that it may not handle well? On the other hand, the fire can be adjusted.....much to think about.
I won't be doing anything until the heating season is over so that gives me 5 or so months to be indecisive, ( ), to consider other opinions, if any, about doing the conversion and to read the manuals of the controls you mentioned.

Thank You.
Mike

Steamhead

@Mike_M , where are you located? We might know someone who can help you with this.........

Mike_M

North Brookfield , Ma

EdTheHeaterMan

Mike_M said:

Thank You very much Ed for taking the time to go through all of the trouble of getting those pics up and the 'Photoshoping'. This is definitely something I'm going to consider doing, At the same time, I'm also considering the same as EBEBRATT-Ed pointed out. It's old. Would moving the fire up and in more direct contact cause higher stresses that it may not handle well? On the other hand, the fire can be adjusted.....much to think about.
I won't be doing anything until the heating season is over so that gives me 5 or so months to be indecisive, ( ), to consider other opinions, if any, about doing the conversion and to read the manuals of the controls you mentioned.

Thank You.
Mike

If that were an old cast iron furnace (no water on the other side of the cast iron) then I would agree, Since there is water on the other side of the cast iron, that is not an issue. You may need to tilt the burner in the door in order to make the flame fire properly. If raw oil hits the cast iron before it burns (that is called Impingement) then there will be a problem with carbon build up and possible overheating. But if it is properly designed, that is not a problem

We need to know the firing rate you will be operating at, to determine the size and shape of the flame.
Nest we need to know the dimensions of the fire door and its relationship to the inside pf the boiler. With this info we can design the best fire door/burner position for you boiler. Knowing the dimension of the flame and the boiler will get us there

The lower right illustration may be what we end up with to get the flame in the proper position for your boiler.