Look at this boiler

Mark Hunt

This is the boiler we removed from the home of the nice lady that was "in desperate need of an estimate".

She had this boiler serviced EVERY year for the past 15 years. She kept EVERY report she was given.

Now you are all professionals here, tell me how something like this went unnoticed.

No way.

It was NEVER tested, not ever.

The retention head was COMPLETELY burned off.

This lady was concerned about CO so she and her two beautiful daughters, 5 and 7, went for blood tests today.

She also called her lawyer.

She also called a local news station.

The lawyer wants the blood test results.

The news station wants the pictures you see here and they want to interview me.

Someone could have died here and I AM NOT KIDDING.

The flame from this burner was bouncing off of the concrete floor. The scorch marks on the outside of the tank prove that combustion products were venting into the house. No basement here, Levitt style home with the boiler nestled under the stairs on the first floor.

There is a local oil company that is going to have some hard questions thrown at them.

WE are supposed to know better aren't we?

I am so tired of finding crap like this, and I find it all the time.

Most of us here discourage homeowners from installing their own equipment, but when I see stuff like this I have to wonder if the homeowners are better served by ignorant "professionals".

There is no excuse for this. None.

Go ahead and light the boiler, water heater, or furnace.

If you don't test it, you shouldn't be in business.

Mark H



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Floyd_5

That's scarry.......

she can thank the good lord she and her family are still alive and the house is still standing!!!

Floyd

Mark Hunt

You said it Floyd!


I hope this gets some legs locally.

Mark H

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Mark Hunt

PS


Can you tell from the pics that it is Fall?

Mark H

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John@Reliable_4

I'm with you Mark,.............

sometimes it's someone being lazy. Other times it's someone tring to "help" someone, I know they need a new one but I know they can't afford it or this may make them change to a different fuel. I here it and see all to often! I think like you if you need it to be safe thats it no matter the cost and it's that simple. Drives me nuts when I tell a customer they need a new system for safety reasons and they **** cause it's only 40 years old, but they have $1100.00 worth of car payments in the driveway and will try to find someone else to fix it, O'well John@Reliable

Joe C

\"Professionals\"

Here is a good one also, I installed a small oil fired boiler for an old customer of mine approx 8 years ago.I do not do oil so I told the customer to get a competent oil company to set up the burner and do an eff.test BEFORE the unit was used, which was done. All I thought was fine until I recived a call saying that the oil co "COULD NOT CLEAN THE BOILER." The tech simply left. No follow up call,no estimate no nothing.I arrived to find water on the floor around the boiler and the valve to the feeder closed and the boiler ready to fire, just as said oil co. left it! I looked into the boiler and with a 150 watt drop-light in the chamber could not see any light coming up between the sections.After disassembling the boiler,less than 1 hr. I found a residue that looked like someone had trowed black cement into the pins between the sections.I left this for the oil co to deal with as well as a very disturbed HO. the oil co said "we will clean your boiler ,install a new chamber and put it back together" When tech #2 arrived he looked at the sections like a deer looks at an oncomming locomotive,got on his cell phone and then left.Service manager then calls HO and says "WE can't do anything YOU voided your contract" I took the sections and sandblasted them. They looked brand new.Installed new seals and a chamber put the boiler together and had another oil co do a test. Without changing ANYTHING on the burner after the chamber burned in 0 smoke and 82% eff 11%co2 .Not the best but for a boiler that was 10 yrs old when it was installed 8 yrs ago and yes it was cleaned as described above then also, not to bad. Now my question is How can an established buisness be this irresponsible? Not properly cleaning something is one thing, but to leave a potential bomb in someone's basement is another! I got paid in full when I presented my bill. This customer has ALWAYS paid well and refers me alot. What is going on? I always thought you should keep customers like this one happy, but I guess I'm obsolete. I wonder what oil co # 1 did all those years for "contract cleaning and maint."

jerryb

oil customers

Today with most large oil co your just a dergree day number too them and training of techs is nonexistant.JMO !

techheat_2

Joe C.

According to what you wrote the boiler you installed 8 years ago was already 10 years old and used. Is this correct? Or am I misunderstanding you?

Steamhead

I ran into one like that some time ago

Wish I'd had my camera that day. Beautiful old Ideal Water Tube hot-water boiler, still running gravity circulation. Opened the fire door and the firebox had long since collapsed. Opened the cleanout doors and saw a solid wall of soot. Pulled the Beckett and discovered the retention head was about three sizes too small. And the draft regulator disc had fallen out of its frame and someone had screwed it shut.

To make a long story short, we showed this to the owner, then cleaned it out. We installed a new firebox, retention head, nozzle, draft regulator and two-stage pump (still had old underground tank). This was my rookie effort with the Testo but I got it into half-decent tune- and told him to dump his oil company!

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Joe C

Tech

Yes that is correct +- a year or 2. We installed that boiler to heat a kettle. The owner discontinued that process after approx 3 years and offered us the boiler back if we disconnected it and the kettle. It sat until it replaced a pancake boiler 8 years ago. After I cleaned it and replaced the chamber of course.Customers fuel bill dropped 50%.