\"Used boiler\" questions

Michael_5

A colleague of mine has 6-year old Weil-McLain boiler (217000 btu) in his house and he no longer needs the boiler. I, on the other side, have to replace my boiler which is 40 years old manufactured by "American Standard" with cracked heat-exchanger. I would like to use this McLain boiler for replacement of mine. I am a homeowner and will invite a contractor to do an actual job, but:

1. How to determine a fair price of this unit? I cannot find the price list for McLains.

1a. Is it a good idea to buy used boiler? How it should be verified or inspected?

2. This boiler has oil-burner. I need a boiler with a gas burner. Is it possible to get a gas burner for McLains and how much it may cost?

3. It appears that the nearest McLains sales office for KY is in Pittsburg. How you guys are purchasing boilers? Directly from the factory? Or there are distributors of various models that I can contact to determine if McLain is a good choice for my application?

Bill NTSG

Michael

How big is your house? 217,000 btu is almost twice as much as most homes need. When you say cracked heat exchanger, do you have a boiler or a furnace? When you have to retrofit gas and oil burners that were not designed for a specific application you are inviting problems. It might not be worth the time and effort, even if was "free" . I did not say it couldn't be done but I doubt if it would be worth the trouble.

Michael_5

The house is 2400sqf.

Regarding your question of "boiler or furnace": I am not sure I am using the right terminology, so please correct me if I am wrong. My undestanding is that "furnace" means a unit that heats the air, boiler is the unit that heats or evaporates the water. Based on this definitions I have a steam boiler approx. 40 years old made by "American Standards". Unfortunately spare parts for it are nowhere to be found, since the company stopped manufaturing them long time ago.

Is there a simple formula that can estimate the needed capacity for a boiler using the square footage of the house and # of stores or windows (the house is 2400 sq.ft, 2 floors and 14 windows )?

[Deleted User]

your going to need a contractor

to install the steam boiler, so have him add up your radiators square ft. and let him size the replacement properly. a steam boiler is not something to mess with...just like a waterheater or water boiler, it is basically a bomb in your basement...please give it the respect it deserves.

Jim_47

Used Boiler

If you need a gas steam boiler then the best thing is a NEW gas steam boiler. Do you buy used shoes? Most boilers take a beating being moved. You have wrong fuel and wrong type here (assuming the Weil McLain is hot water.) It will cost more to convert this to steam and gas then it will take to purchase a new boiler. The second concern is finding a qualified service tech to do the conversions on used equipment. Good luck and hire a qualified contractor.

Rich_2

no

It would be crazy to do it ,did a used boiler for someone this past year pulled it out a week later poor guy had to pay me twice,I gave him a good deal but his wife didn't!She wanted to pull his head off!Oh did I mention it failed on thanksgiving eve coldest one in 9 years.Bottem line nothing will be guaranteed.

Mark Hunt

I doubt


that you will have an easy time finding a qualified contractor to install a used boiler especially one that will need a conversion burner.

You are not starting off on a good footing here and the money you will think that you saved will not be enough to undo the job if it is done wrong.

You need a NEW boiler, one that will have all of the warranties.

Save yourself the headaches along with the money and let a pro design this from scratch with new eqipment.

Mark H





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