Weil-McLain Ultra boiler

steven grant

what experience has anyone had with the Weil-Mclain Ultra gas fired boiler? Tricky venting? Control life? Reliability?

DanHolohan

Much has been reported already.

If you use the Search feature on the Wall you'll be able to see it all. To open individual search results, just click on Show Thread.

Floyd_5

The Ultra...

I now have a dozen or so of the Ultra boilers installed.....
Three of them are in Ag. applications that have them running 24/7.... the longest is coming up on 1 year of continuous operation. The boiler just chuggs along maintaining 140, modulating up and down to supply the BTU's needed. Most of the time these boilers are running towards the higher end of the modulation, so no they aren't just idling along, they are working.
The main problem that I have found that they are suceptable to is the electrical problems that can come with any electronic equipment. Once in a great while they will lockout if the power goes out and flickers right back on.
Also make sure you protect the boilers from power surges, if there is a possibility that they will get hit. Power surges can fry either the main control module or the blower circuit board. A good surge strip seems to do the trick.
Over all I'm extremely satisfied with the boiler and the big reason for that is that I have a great distributor and the Co. has been very helpful with any questions that I may throw their way.
The support that I get from the manufacturers and suppliers of any product is the number one reason why I would buy any product. The best equipment in the world ain't worth 2 pennies if you ain't got nobody behind you to back you up.

So to actually respond to your questions.....
Control life..... okay so far as long as you protect it reasonably.
Venting.... no problem, very forgiving... go where ever you have to go with it... even underground...just make sure you don't trap it.
Reliability.... You know of many other boilers that will take being hammered non stop for a year with zero problems??? I do, the WM Gold......beyond that there aren't a lot out there that I'd want to do that with.....

Oh, there is one more thing..... as some that have posted here in the past have found out.... you better have someone that knows what they are doing install the boiler... the piping is critical that it is done right. Read and FOLLOW ..ALL instructions!!!!!!

And Yup, if everything is installed correctly it can save you a ton of money.... it's not just the boiler eff. that you need you need to design a SYSTEM that will get you all that the boiler has to offer.

Any more questions?????

Floyd

LEAD PIPE

Ultra

Home owner here, I’ve had mine almost a year and I love it! Saved me almost half from the year before and I have baseboard heat. Like Floyd said, the key is the installation (learned this the hard way) Make sure you install the outdoor reset that comes with the boiler.

Hey Floyd in one of the past posts we discussed lockouts during power surges. I have an electrician coming over to do some work and I want him to install the product you mentioned in that thread, I forget what it was called. If you get a chance can you post a link or info on what I need Thanks
John
leadpipe@snet.net

Kal Row

Acctualy, based on someone’s experience…

that floyd and me, helped to straighten out, it saves a bundle even if installed incorrectly, its an amazing boiler!!!
The only issues ever reported on the wall were weird errors with line power problems, plugging it into an inexpensive computer type Uninterruptible Power Supply should eliminate any possibility of things going awry – this is a good idea for any modern equipment, I had a thunder storm take out a Lars pool heater’s ignition control, in such a way, that it opened the gas valve, without turning on the igniter or checking the flame sense,… one cigarette and booooom!!!

So put your whole boiler room on a GFCI, with a good commercial grade surge protector, and the ULTRA itself on a ups, (try to isolate the circulators – so that it doesn’t load the ups, will give you better protection – ie, in the ULTRA manual, (control supplement, pg5, sec1, fig 2), there is a way of wiring the pumps with an external relay, the ac feeding the pumps through this relay should not go through the UPS, – on the line voltage terminal block, – terminals 1,2 should get power from the UPS, 6,7 should power a 120v relay coil, whose contacts switch, non-UPS power, to all the circulators including the boiler’s, this gives you a much longer battery backup time – and takes the tough inductive loads off the UPS) and make sure that the all the grounds are perfect - that is, no voltage reading between lets say the boiler and the pump, with the system on, and no voltage reading between neutral and ground with the system turned off (with the system on, there is always some voltage bet neutral and gnd because of the neutral’s own resistance – if neutral is overloaded enough – it can be as high as70-90v! – all it takes is one loose neutral connection causing high resistance, and yes, holding the neutral and ground will give you a shock and might trip the GFCI if you have one and the curent through your body is 5 milliamps)

Floyd_5

Check out...

Grainger #5JJ98

Yeah, it's 200 bucks, but it's worth it....if you wire the circ. pump as Kal said it will run it for a while. However you can set this unit to just filter the electric, also.

Have fun!!!! You'll save a TON more this year......


Floyd

Kal Row

if you get that one or a larger one...then..

You might consider leaving the boiler circulator on the ups (ie connected to terminals 6,7) to avoid the possibility of the boiler locking out on over-temp (has sensor on heat-exchanger), or, you use a line powered relay to open the thermostat circuit on power failure - so that boiler doesn’t try to run, the ups just keeps it alive so that it's electronics know nothing of the power failure

ps with the 5JJ98 ups, you get 425watts for 5 min rated, an ultra with it’s 0011 circ = 160w typical, so 425w/ (160w pump + 10w electronics) * 5min full load rating, = 10 minutes full run time, whereas powering the electronics alone, will give you over 3hours of holding time 425/10*5=212…

another possibility is just a computer grade ups, one that has a 1500va/5min rating, gives you 46min full load or 12+ hrs for electronics only $479.95 from new egg.com @
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=42-101-130&depa=0

note if the display’s first digit shows a 9 and b alternating – leave it, it will restart by itself, but if it shows an “E” as the first digit – the you need to press the “reset “ right there on the display,
possible error codes with burner on and no circulation are, 18,25,52

also Weil-McLain may have a warranty problem with the boiler’s circ not powered as per their diagram, – so the big UPS is probably a safer bet