Munchkin 199

347

I was doing a yearly maintenance on a Munchkin 199 this afternoon and all was going just till I reinstalled the burner. Upon tightening up the bolts, one of the studs broke off. I was not really tightening that much, the nuts had a little oxidation on them, not much though.
I spoke with HTP and they basically said the boiler is done with. I fired the boiler for an hr with my combustion analyzer near the broke stud and the CO2 was 0.
I'm hoping someone has an idea to fix or do you think it's time for a new one also. The boiler was installed in 2007..

If there is no hope, do you think I'm responsible for replacing the boiler out of my pocket?

Thanks for the input, might not be able to respond right way.

clammy

I doubt there’s any repair for the stud and as for paying for replacement at over 15 years old it’s at a point where it’s kinda close to the end of its or it’s parts life span I would think . It is not the safest of situations maybe leave a co dect near the boiler and advise the home ownerof what’s going on . If it where not you who broke the stud it would have been the next guy . I know larger co would have shut her down red tagged and quoted a new one and that would be that ,that’s saying they would even do the proper service on a 15 year old mod con .
Peace and good luck clammy

tim smith

No, you should not be responsible if you tightened them down reasonably tight but not cranked on. If you used equal pressure on all then one of the studs was weak. 15 yrs is lucky to get out of Munchies. If you have an asme weld shop in town you could see if they will weld the stud back on. I have had to have many Triangles studs welded as they are know to just pop studs on earlier models or they too will pop off when tightening. I am always fair to customers buy this is not your fault.

Teemok

Agree @ 15 years old it shouldn't be your burden. Don't over tighten the surrounding bolts trying to compensate. CO alarm near and check on it. Plan for replacement. Careful welding, there's water tube right there behind it. Probably a piece of cake for a good welder.
I went through this with a customer who happen to be an engineer. I didn't break this one but I had before I learned to be very cautious and use ceramic grease. The engineer wasn't that worried about it. I've never seen or heard of a problem with a missing stud. This one happened to be at the 3 o'clock position. We talked about metal strapping around the whole HX front to back and using a bolt and some nuts to aptly light pressure at the missing stud. We decide to do nothing after giggling about it. Another mulled over idea was to drill a stainless rivet nut in the jacket out side the diameter of the water coils and bolt a holding bracket to it.
I did make a strap clamp and hold down system for an out of warranty Triangle Tube 175 solo with 3 studs sheared. It's still working well but that was for a friend's shop space not a "customer".

Jamie Hall

If you have to have that stud... which you may not; this isn't a cylinder head after all -- you may be able to weld an extension to it and get it out. Doesn't work often, but... or you may be able to use an EasyOut and an impact wrench... or you may be able to use a drill and drill it out with a drill just slightly less than the root diameter of the threads, then drive out the spiral of threads or use a tap... or drill it out completely, tap it for a Heli-coil and a new bolt... or sometimes tap it for an oversize bolt.

And don't ask why I know these techniques.

347

Thank you for the responses.
I found a welder that is willing to try and weld the stud.
I did leave a CO detector very close to the boiler and made the customer aware of the problem.
I felt it wasn't my fault either but I wanted to get a feel for what other people thought.
Thanks again