Looking for a Q90-100

Chevy57

team,
I installed a Q90-100 in 2006 and it has been awesome. I've replaced the igniter quite a few times, its on its 3rd draft inducing fan assembly. It recently sprung a leak in the back if heat exchanger. I would really like to buy the same boiler but they have discontinued them. Is there a place to find one? Also would consider replacing just the heat exchanger but the only one I can find is $1743 just for the aluminum block.

Does anyone have a source for either NOS boiler or heat exchanger?

EdTheHeaterMan

It is time for a new boiler. Sorry. To bad there are no Vintage Boiler Clubs that swap parts and have shows where everyone brings their boiler to a parking lot or convention center , Mr. @Chevy57

I personally liked the 1955 Chevy but the tail fins on the 57 were kind of cool. Have you ever tried to stuff a 454ci with twin 4 barrel carbs on an Eldebrock manifold into that car?

Ironman

18 years is a good run for that boiler. Unlike most cars, parts can become scarce or nonexistent after a mod/con is discontinued.

Even if one could be found, I wouldn’t put one of those back in.

Chevy57

Ed the Heater man,
As a matter of fact I had a 57 2dr post car with a 427 in it. Single 4 barrel on an aluminum intake. That was a fun car. I am currently building a 55 Chevy 2 dr hardtop

Chevy57

Ironman,
Why don't you like the Q90? What would you replace it with? It is currently set up with 4 zones. 1 radiant heat kitchen floor, 2 zone is my first floor cast iron radiators, 3 is second floor cast iron radiators and 4 is my side arm boiler. All run circulators in the return lines. Its a pretty straight forward system uses a Taco priority controller. I don't have a primary secondary loop system and if we are being honest (I believe we should be) I don't even know what that means. My system off the boiler is all PEX. 1 1/4 Pex aluminium pex to my radiators and 3/4 pex aluminum pex under my kitchen floor.

What would you recommend putting in that would be relatively easy to plumb?

ZackR

@Chevy57 I was in the same boat as you over the summer. Mine was installed in 2007 and developed a couple leaks in between the halves of the HX. I weighed many options and chose to buy a HX and swap it myself. Part of the rational was that I already had a bunch of spare parts and the other was that it would be the least amount of messing with the pipes. I also choose to go from 100kBTU down to 75, which was much closer to what I really needed for my house.

I spent around $3K for the HX, some fittings, and dirt/mag separator, manometer and combustion analyzer. (I think that price should be vague enough to not go against the rules?). It took about 8 hours to do the swap by myself and things went pretty smoothly. I already had big pipe wrenches and could do the needed soldering myself, so that does come into play in terms of cost.

I have no regrets. The boiler has been mostly trouble free since 2007 and parts are still easily available online.

I am not a pro, just someone who wanted heat and hot water with the least amount of fuss. Also not trying to persuade one way or another, just wanted to share my experience, since it seems very relevant here.

Chevy57

ZachR,
To be clear I'm not asking about costs. I installed the Boiler in 06 and I will install the new one. I can sweat pipe and crimp pex. The problem is that my local distributor said the Q90 series is no longer available, so I need to find one leftover or find a suitable replacement. I agree with you mine doesn't owe me a dime. I would buy another one if I can find one although its not looking good.

ZackR

@Chevy57 Sorry if I wasn't clear...I also looked for a complete replacement q90, but as you found, none were available since they've been continued for a couple years.

The HX and all other parts are readily available, so the cost I mentioned was for me to replace the HX, not the complete boiler.

Ironman

Chevy57 said:

Ironman, Why don't you like the Q90? What would you replace it with? It is currently set up with 4 zones. 1 radiant heat kitchen floor, 2 zone is my first floor cast iron radiators, 3 is second floor cast iron radiators and 4 is my side arm boiler. All run circulators in the return lines. Its a pretty straight forward system uses a Taco priority controller. I don't have a primary secondary loop system and if we are being honest (I believe we should be) I don't even know what that means. My system off the boiler is all PEX. 1 1/4 Pex aluminium pex to my radiators and 3/4 pex aluminum pex under my kitchen floor. What would you recommend putting in that would be relatively easy to plumb?

It’s not so much a matter of not liking the boiler. I installed quite a number of the larger Q95M-200 back in the day. I’m not a big fan of the aluminum block HX.

I was consulted at the factory for several days on the laser tube line which was a far superior boiler and replaced them. It was clear then that ECR was developing a better design as the Q series was their first generation of mod/cons and there were several issues.

Parts may be available now, but I can assure you that won’t be the case 5-10 years down the road. I’ve been doing this for over 50 years and the way manufacturers have changed how they provide parts for obsolete equipment has drastically changed in the last five years. The bean counters are running the show now and all they care about is selling something new.

Chevy57

Ironman,
What would be a good replacement? My current set up uses 4 zone pumps its pretty straight forward. Are there other plumbing changes that are requires for the newer version of these boilers? What material for heat exchanger?

Le John

Chevy57 said:

Ed the Heater man,
As a matter of fact I had a 57 2dr post car with a 427 in it. Single 4 barrel on an aluminum intake. That was a fun car. I am currently building a 55 Chevy 2 dr hardtop

WOW Beautiful.