Bit the bullet: bought an HTP UFT-100W on ebay
Actually I bought TWO of these UFT-100Ws, for $1,000 each. Our 50 yr old boiler went kaput in March and I am going to try to DIY my way into a heated home over the next few weeks.
They haven't arrived yet but the seller said they were manufactured in 2020 or later, so I am assuming they won't have the control board problems I have read about on here. I will check the info when they arrive to confirm. I know I probably won't qualify for any warranty for these discontinued units purchased on ebay, but $2k for TWO boilers was hard to beat. They are advertised as brand new, unopened. Pictures look like this is true and I will confirm of course.
I am planning to install them in a cascade setup so the heating load is shared between the two, and so that if I have to service one, I can bypass it and still have heat. My calculated heat load is about 93k BTU (DIY manual J and HDD methods both agree), so the pair of these will provide more than enough for the coldest days. The EDRs of all our rads can't even put out more than 130k at 180 degrees, so I am certain these two 100k boilers will be much more than enough, haha. But with the modulation, cascade mode, outdoor reset, etc etc they should do a good job of keeping everything efficient.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how dumb was this purchase?
Comments
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If you want fancy control i'd go with a viessman or lochinvar of the appropriate size. the control on the uft can do some stuff but it is fairly limited.
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Doesn’t sound like often, maybe ever, both boilers will need to fire?
So you got a good deal for the $$
Does the the onboard control have boiler staging?
If you want a feature rich staging control, take a look at tekmar
Essay here
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream0 -
it does cascading with the right interconnect cable.
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Whether or not it was dumb depends on how the boilers arrive! Certainly if you get 2 new boilers for that price then you got a great deal. Personally I think I would install one and just save the second one in storage. I think the system would be overall more efficient with a single right sized boiler, slightly simpler piping requirements as well so less that can be messed up. Also 2 vents means twice the chances to recirculate flue gas, keep those intakes far away from the exhaust
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I have UFT-80 installed in my home and picked up a second one cheap as spare. Pretty simple install, just follow the manual. I'd install the single unit and keep second for hot spare. Use the time and $ you save to improve the air sealing and insulation of the home envelope. Will pay off all year long.
Be sure to install a DirtMag prior to the boiler.
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Fair price IMO. I was paying about $1800 for a 100W in 2019 when I stopped using them but as long as you don't have all low temp radiant or need any tech support, they're a pretty good boiler. As was mentioned above, I'd probably just install one with unions and keep the second for parts/spare rather than a cascaded system but you're welcome to do as you please.
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what was the issue running them on low temp?
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They have a 10:1 turndown ratio, they should do low temp as well as anything else out there.
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mine runs temps of 90-115f
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The Kiturami HX has some weird aluminum diverter plates in the SS fire tubes that tend to plug up with scale when running low temp and are just about impossible to clean. I installed a crap load of UFT and Laars Mascot FT from about 2016 to 2020 (hated HTP customer service and switched to Laars, then started seeing these issues come up) and have been kicking my own butt for it on a regular basis. High temp systems and low temp w/ indirect seem to be doing okay, but low temp only have been a nightmare. @Ironman and I have talked about this, I believe he's replaced a few HX as well that were not salvageable
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Glad I have a indirect tank connected!
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