boiler comparison

retiredatlast

I'm having to replace both boiler & hot water heater. I got 2 quotes, similar prices. Weil Mclain CGA 140 w/ 40 gal gas atmos draft water heater. vs Bradford White Brute BBFTHF199NA3XN w/ 48 gal indirect hot water storage tk. The Brute seems like the better deal - 199mbtu vs 140, 48 gal vs 40, 95% eff vs 84. The Brute would add a new zone for the hot water while the Weil Mclain seems to be a separate hot water heater. Any opinions?

Jamie Hall

There are some other comparisons and contrasts. First, though, the most important factor is the competence of the contractor installing the equipment. The best equipment in the world will be junk unless the contractor is competent.

Now a couple of other points. The Weil-McClain option is considerably simpler to install, set up correctly, and maintain. It is likely to be more reliable down the road, offers the option of not running the boiler at all in the summer, and has redundancy — if the boiler needs work, you still have hot water, and vice versa.

The Bradford White does offer higher peak efficiency — but you'll not see that in the summer when all it's doing is heating water, nor in the colder months of the year. It also has slightly higher domestic hot water heating capacity, but I doubt that you would see much difference in recovery rate of the hot water.

WMno57

Are you a family of 12 with teenagers taking 3 showers a day and 6 loads of laundry in hot water per day?

Or retired family of 2 who does all their laundry in cold water?

For low to moderate hot water use, I believe electric water heaters have the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.

For the space heating with the boiler; 1200 square foot house with modern insulation, or 8000 square foot house with poor insulation?

Can't make decisions on efficiency numbers alone. The Brute will only get 95% under ideal conditions (realistically never). So comparing 95 to 84 is comparing apples to oranges.

Would you buy a Prius if you only drove 3000 miles a year?

Hot_water_fan

You want a boiler sized to your heat loss, or with the ability to modulate down. Bigger is WORSE not better. You can of course add an indirect to the  Weil-McClain option or add a standalone heater to the other one.

Broad Decisions:

1. Condensing vs. Not
   1. You need to tell us what emitters you have (ie radiant floors vs. radiators vs. baseboard, etc)
   2. Total gas usage/year
   3. Cost of that usage
2. Indirect vs. Standalone
   1. There's not much daylight between these options. A larger tank will have more capacity, a larger burner will have quicker recovery. If hot water demands are lower, importance of this decision decreases. Just go cheap if you don't use much.