Munchkin gas boiler

Yvette

I have a munchkin gas boiler for heat and hot water and am wondering:

1  how often I should have it maintained -  annually or every other year?

2 how long should an annual maintenance service on a munchkin  boiler typically take? Less than 1/2 hour? 

3. What should I expect the maintenance person to do during a munchkin maintenance service, i.e, clean out the heat chamber, replace gaskets/spark plugs, etc? 

I ask because I had an annual maintenance service scheduled and the technician was done in 22 minutes and had no tools with him… is that normal for a munchkin maintenance service?  I have previously only had oil burning boilers so I’m not familiar with gas munchkin boiler requirements

Would appreciate objective input from someone familiar with munchkin unit maintenance protocols before I call and ask them to come back for a redo….thanks in advance.

- Yvette:)

GGross

Techs showing up to do annual maintenance on modcons often give the industry a bad name, pull igniter and leave. In my opinion annual or bi-annual maintenance of a modcon should include

-a combustion analysis, before and after service, after service tuning printed and left with unit
-gas pressure testing at static, low/medium/high fire, and lockup pressure
-an inspection of the flame sensor and igniter, carefully clean, replace if necessary
-a visual inspection of the interior of the boiler cabinet, associated boiler piping in the room to check for -signs of leaks, damage anything out of the ordinary, clean everything up by hand, any leak should be scheduled for a separate repair, the inside of the boiler cabinet should look new when done
-burner chamber disassembled, heat exchanger cleaned, burner cone inspected and blown out with compressed air. The heat exchanger should look very clean when done, no chunks of coffee grounds left behind
-condensate trap removed cleaned and refilled.
-safeties tested (within reason), PRV operated,
-expansion tank pulled and proper PSI charge confirmed
-system topped up to static pressure, run the system while doing final combustion test and tuning, let it run to release any air added while filling and to make sure air vents are functional and not leaking


You will be hard pressed to find anyone that will do all of that, but it should be done. 1-2 hours if one were familiar with the equipment, faster if they were servicing it every year properly

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

I agree with @GGross and for the ones I service, the most important thing is to remove the burner door and clean out the combustion chamber, pour plenty of water through the heat exchanger to make sure the trap and drain aren’t clogged and then check combustion levels and adjust per the manufacturer’s spec’s. And then check and replace any worn parts which includes condensate pellets. 

Every two years, especially if you have a low temperature system, i.e. radiant heat. 

Unfortunately, you can’t get to the condensate trap on a Munchkin, so you have to flush them well. 

HomerJSmith

It takes me 2 1/2-3 hours to properly clean and service a Munchkin boiler and do a combustion analysis. I do a cleaning every 3 years, not every year. I have cleaned Munchkins that haven't been serviced as long as 7 years, gasp. A Lochinvar Knight boiler with a heat exchanger like the Munchkin was the dirtiest boiler that I ever had to clean, took 4 1/2hrs. I thought that it was a combustion problem and no one did a combustion analysis on it. A combustion analysis meter should be recently calibrated, you should ask when it was done. @GGross is correct.