Cast aluminum boilers

Jay Stein

Does anyone have any field experience to share regarding how the life of cast aluminum boilers compares to those with cast iron or copper tube exchangers?

Kal Row

the have been no reported

heat exchanger failures here on the wall for the Weil-Mclain ULTRA (which is aluminum) - and weil mclain themselves ran it, in accelerated long term testing mode for 15 years

there was a couple of electronic quircks in the beginning and one user had it installed completely wrong, nevertheless it still worked

if you use it for slab radiant, 110f supply 90f return, then you will get efficency into the mid 90's

hr

Only time will tell

I'm not a fan of accelerated tests! Remember the Entran debacle. There is know way in my mind that a lab can duplicate real life installs. Especially when the installer talent, or lack of, is thrown into the mix

The biggest unknown is the water quality and routine maintenance, as aluminum is very, very sensitive to ph. I feel if good fill water is used, and an inhibitor specfic to aluminum and hydronics, those HX's should last a good long time.

Rumors are they have a good track record in Europe, but our water and variety of water is another story.

Same for the stainless steel boilers they too have a soft spot for certain water conditions.

By far the best you can do for a new boiler install is use a hydronic cleaner, flush, add good water and add an O2 scavanger, plateing agent, ph buffer, etc.

Then sample the water, or fluid, every couple years.

Oh yeah, don't dry fire and aluminum HX

hot rod

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George_10

Both of our products

the cleaner and the treatment are safe to be used with these boilers. For further info check out our website under hydronic products. www.rhomarwater.com

S Ebels

Aluminum/Magnesium

Good point on the dry fire scenario Hot Rod. Those metals and their alloy variations are very scary when they burn. They belong to a class of substances that will burn basically under water.

There is a reason powdered aluminum and magnesium are classified as highly flammable/explosive!

Back in the day......... We made homemade fireworks, BIG'uns, using magnesium that we had ground up. (and my in-laws from the city wonder what we do for entertainment out here in the sticks) (G)

Unknown

When a Helocopter catches fire

on the deck of a ship, they push it over the side, FAST!!!!

That way, it won't burn through every deck on the way to the bottom.

Yup, they DO burn underwater, all the way down. Metal fires (class D) make their own oxygen.

Scary.

Noel

hr

PK is putting their eggs in

the aluminum block basket, also. A simple pin block design, not unlike a cast iron pin boiler is what Patterson Kelly is selling in their larger 250,000 up condensing boilers.

I suspect they have done some homework before going aluminum.

hot rod

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Floyd_5

This boiler has been running....

nonstop for almost a year....Yup, it never shuts down, just modulates up and down......
The second pic. is what happened to the CI boiler it replaced...off course that wasn't installed correctly, either, it ran at 120 or so on and off till it ate itself up....

So far so good.....but I got my own accelerated "real life" test going....

We'll see

Floyd

Kal Row

lets not panic here

there are all sorts of protection device on a home boiler - so a fire is out of the question

aluminum is just to good a conductor to pass up, you can effectively extract heat into the water from flue gasses that's only 2 degrees warmer than the return water, with copper you need at least 5 degrees and with a semi-liquid like Freon it's usually 10 degrees.

I know from my refrigeration work, that i dont get frost on a coil until the internal coil temp drops below 25f as indicated by refrigerant pressure inside the coil, or if the refrigerant temp is 35, then the outer surface of the coil will read 45, that’s why on the really high eff ac's they are using aluminum heat ex’s – even though it's more expensive to produce than copper

of course, if you are looking at aluminum high eff boiler – it goes without saying that you intend to install it right – water ph, pri/sec and all, otherwise – why spend the extra money at all, when for less than half the price of an Ultra, you can buy a SlantFin CI boiler that takes vast amounts of abuse, without failing, I should know, I have in the past been one of the abusers – with nary a callback

Ken_8

Hey Floyd,

How did you flush that system out before putting the boiler into full service? Any inhibitors or additives in the system water at this time?

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Floyd_5

I cheated .....

Installed a s/s FPHX, so the boiler side is only running maybe a gallon or so of water.....
The other side of the system was basically open... with iron heat plates, cpvc, and rubber hoses to transport the water.....thought I better not push my luck that far....
In my house, however I did hook up the Ultra directly to my CI BB and rads with out flushing or treating. Been a little over a year... I'll pull the cover and take pics. soon. See what I find....

Floyd

Ken D.

Aluminum

I prefer to use a manual feed to prevent increasing mineral concentrations and diluting of the water treatment with low water cutoffs to prevent dry firing. No problems so far.

jerry scharf_2

on burning magnesium

check out this meassge
burning next. It's a great part of comuter lore.

jerry

jerry scharf_2

on burning magnesium

check out the
burning next. It's a great part of comuter lore.

jerry

jerry scharf_2

on burning magnesium

check out the
burning next. It's a great part of comuter lore.

jerry