10yr old Burnham Commercial 808HE leaking

yanks10123

I have a Burnham Commerical 808HE boiler that was manufactured in 2013 but installed in July 2014. I noticed a small puddle at the back left of the unit (close to the drain spigot) with a very slow drip. Consensus from 2 plumbers that came out is that it's a cracked heat exchanger just based on the location of the leak (though no one undressed the unit).

A few questions for the group:

(1) What would cause a premature failure on the heat exchanger? This is for my hydronic heating system. To my knowledge, there are no leaks in the system and I’m not using makeup water. I do have 2 air handlers in the uninsulated attic that get down to 33-40 degrees in the winter

(2) Does it make sense to have a plumber replace the heat exchanger or should I just bite the bullet and replace the whole unit? Burnham won't cover the heat exchanger because it's just outside of the 10-year warranty (based on date of manufacture and not date of install)

(3) Assuming the recommendation is to replace, should I use the same boiler (which would make install simpler) and are there any improvements I should make at the same time? I'll likely have a mixing valve put in for the return line

(4) Because I have 2 air handlers in the unconditioned attic, I've always toyed with the idea of having low concentration glycol added so I don't have to worry about attic temps when we get extremely cold weather. Any issues using glycol with a new 808HE?

Thank you in advance for your help

EBEBRATT-Ed

Someone should remove the jacket and find exactly where the leak is coming from or are they too lazy to do that? The leak could be coming from a leaking pipe nipple or fitting that can be repaired.

I would not spend $$$$s of dollar for a replacement until I found where the leak is coming from and that it is not repairable.

With a Burnham anything is possible

yanks10123

Thank you --- makes total sense. Both plumbers just looked at the location of the leak and said it must be the heat exchanger without taking off the jacket. I'll get someone out to do a deeper dive

yanks10123

To close the loop here, HVAC contractor pulled the jacket and it was pretty clear the boiler had been leaking for a while based on the amount of rust inside. He didn’t search hard for the actual leak but there was lots of rust towards the top of the heat exchanger with no water source nearby

Intplm.

@yanks10123 Can you post some pictures of this? Would like to get a better look.

yanks10123

Yes will upload tonight. Thank you

yanks10123

See below —- it was hard to capture but you can see rust all throughout the inside of the jacket.

The photo below shows the back left side (when looking at the front of the unit). The frame rail and area above it is wet. On the left side of the picture is where the fresh water supply line is.

Intplm.

If this is a cracked section, I'm sorry to say it's time for a new boiler. But before that, have a qualified pro look this over completely as a picture from here is still not enough.

If it is cracked, you can use a product called boiler seal to stop the leak. It can be used as a temporary fix that will buy you some time.