munchkin boiler

tim smith_2

Just went back to my oldest Munchkin, after 15 months of operation, took burner assembly and combustion chamber access plate off and was pleasantly surprised to see no build up or heat stress on burner or heat exchanger. Did a quick sanding on electrodes and flame rod. Flushed out condensate and put back together. Makes me a little more confident in the lasting of the munchkin.

Guy_5

Great

I am glad to hear it. A Munchkin that has been properly installed and set up (watch the flow and CO) will give the results that you are seeing. As I had said once before, boiler number 0001 is still purring along beautifully in the home of one of our process engineers. Early this spring he opened it up for the first time with the same results that you had seen.

Kevin_in_Denver

munchkin 0001

how many years?

R. Kalia

is 15 months a lot?

Is 15 months a lot? Would you expect any boiler to start to go bad within 15 months (1.5 heating seasons)?

How frequently should the Munchkin be serviced? If #001 was recently opened up for the first time (I don't yet know after how many years, but I would guess 3 years or more) annual maintenance is presumably not necessary?

The MZ web page says, basically, that once every 5 years should be OK for the MZ.

hr

That clean out procedure

takes less than 1/2 hour. If this is all that is required to assure the HX is clean and efficient, that's not a bad yearly task. Checking water quality and PH would assure good longevity for the internals of the HX, also. You need to protect both sides of those thin stainless HX ers

These small, low mass HX's are going to take more care than the old cast iron blocks. That's the trade off for high efficiency, I suppose.

A yearly clean and combustion analyzer check is a small price to pay for 90% plus efficiency. Fuel saving dollars should easily pay for that over the cost of running 80% equipment.

Not a bad trade off considering how many cast boilers are operating with dirty external HX surfaces in low efficiency ranges.

I'll bet it ( a Munchkin clean out)is a lot less hassle and mess than cleaning out a dirty oil fired HX

I'll be checking the same on my MZ, especially with aluminum in the mix. You really want to catch a plugged or corroded HX early on. Copper tube boilers have taught us this lesson over and over.

hot rod

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tim smith_2

Time in service

Regarding what's a lot of time, we have always done cast iron atmospherics, and we service all types, glow cores, heatmaker, hydropulse and the like. Get my drift why I was concerned and was somewhat enthralled at the looks of this unit after 1.5 years. I still like standard atmospherics, but there is a place and a time for these and i fret that time is coming to an end. So I try some units I think may have a chance and make sure my customer knows what I am doing. This makes me feel somewhat responsible. And I hope I am doing the best I can for my customer based upon the needs they have. I will keep posting regarding findings I see regarding the munchies and all the other units I try. My next endeavor is a Buderus Stainless commercial forced draft condensing boiler, also going to the factory next month in Germany. good luck guys, Tim.

tim smith_2

Once every five years????

Don't buy that, outdoor air particulate. Gas pressure changes. Condensation, not likely. Try one for 5 years and then see, I have serviced way to many gas burning devices to believe that they will last without service more often then that. I have been servicing this type of units for 22 years. So I can't agree with that kind of interval. respectfully, Tim.