Need advice on new steam system...

Adam_24

Hi,

Update: I did look over the pro list again and found one person listed in my area that mentioned he worked on steam problems. I called him and he said he only did gas heat. I asked him if he knew anyone in our area that did steam systems and he didn't know anyone but he suggested I just go with the local oil companies. So I guess I wasn't far afield having come to the same conclusion.

I wish there were someone as passionate about steam installations as Matt is, in my area. :-)

Thanks very much :-)

Adam_24

Need advice on new steam system...without furnace a week

Hi

Our 15 year old steam furnace, by Weil McLean with a Beckett burner, developed a problem the beginning of last week. To make a long story short, there is water in the boiler and leaked all over the floor and we are told we have to replace the whole thing.

We are pretty upset about the whole thing and distracted by other crisis right now and not as sharp as we normally would be. Between the oil company and the insurance company they have left us without a furnace all week and it is Monday and we are looking for a new oil company and trying to figure out why a 15 yr old furnace is kaput, still not sure we are covered by insurance, but are getting hints that they are looking for some wiggle room and now have to figure out what are we going to replace it with.

Hot water systems we had years ago were never this much trouble. But we can't afford any extra expense of changing to something else. We had two oil companies suggest what to get and how much. One company said same boiler and asked 'why the heck did they use that burner with that boiler?' so they are recommending a different burner. They let us know they are swamped but they will squeeze us in, but their estimate was $5,000. Our insurance adjuster said the range was $3,000 to $5,000. So that would seem to be the high end of the range. The insurance adjuster told us this would be a very easy job. We have a small cape.

We called another oil company today, they sent out a salesman who was very brief. Took photos, measurements, answered questions in one sylable answers. Said we had no options really, there was no new technology in the past 15 years since we bought the last furnace, said he would write it up to simply replace what we had with the same burner and furnace and email us an estimate later today. Which left me feeling pretty disappointed. I am gunshy of getting another weil mclean too.

I am asking them about installing some sort of filtering system or water softening system, due to the fact that everyone keeps telling us how horrible our town's water is and it is coroding everything and they all express no knowledge or experience with doing that and refer us to a plumber. *sigh*

Not sure if there are other companies that specialize in installing the equipment that have nothing to do with the oil companies and if so would they be more expert?

We would greatly appreciate any input someone could send our way.

Thanks very much :-)

Al Letellier_9

steam boiler

It depends......sorry for the in the box answer, but one needs to consider this....what's wrong with the existing boiler. A 15 year old Weil McLain should be just in the "broken in stage" on it's way to a long life. What happened to it???
Where are you located? Use the find a pro section. There are lots of good tech listed there that can steer you in the right direction. I'm in Maine. If anywhere near contact me directly.

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Adam_24

Hi Al,

Thanks, that was what I thought too. A pipe in the back of the furnace corroded right through and all the water drained out of the furnace all over the floor when we weren't home. The house was full of oil fumes 1st and 2nd floor when we came in. It would appear that the low water cut off valve did not work and the burner overheated and cracked. This was while having a service contract with a local oil company who had just supposedly serviced it 4 months earlier and was responsible for the service for the past 10 years at least.

We are pretty unhappy about it.

ed wallace

15 yr old boiler

1st thing if you look at your contract with the oil co. it does not cover the piping just the oil burner and safety controls that said they should have warned you about the corroded pipes you need a real steam man to look at your boiler the price you were giving might not be out of line depending where you live

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Mad Dog_2

Where are you located Adam?

Sounds like you could really benefit from a heating consultation from of the Pros here at the Find A Professional Link. Arm your self with knowledge....THEN
make an educated decision. Mad Dog

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GW

burner guys

yes, sadly some techs are 'looking' at the burner only; hopefully you didn't get the "new guy". It seems your low water cut off failed, was it a probe style or float style? Do you have a valve there to 'blow it down'?

Gary

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Unknown

its called a boiler

Pls pls don't call our boiler furance! U'll need to get a real steam boiler service person, sounds like the blow down/low water cut off was over looked, that will destory any brand boiler.

Adam_24

Hi,

Just to clarify a few things. We are in Eastern Massachusetts. The service person was someone we got from asking our neighbors who they used. We had a service contract with him every year. We brought to his attention problems that we noticed and asked questions. We had a low water shut off with the floater technology, not the probe. The boiler was 15 years old, so they wouldn't have been putting in the electronic probes 15 yrs ago, would they?

We followed his instructions on what we should be doing for the boiler. It was on the calendar at the first of each month to drain the water out from that valve under the floater. We would drain it, fill it with water again, drain it again, fill it a second time and leave it. Which is what he told us to do. During the months of December through March, we would do this twice a month. So beyond doing all of these things, we don't know what else we would be responsible for.

While we had this emergency, I was looking for their telephone number and googled them and the first hit it brought up was that they were being investigated by the attorney general's office. This was the first time we were aware of anything being possibly wrong with our service person. Now that we are looking around for a new company, we are being told that they are well known for problems. Unfortunately, we were the last to know.


As Ed pointed out, the service contract doesn't cover the plumbing pipes, but I guess as a homeowner, I wonder what the oil company expects the homeowner to do, have a plumber come in to check the plumbing pipes to the heating system? Even if the oil company doesn't want to be responsible for the cost of replacing pipes that need attention, they are there once a year inspecting the heating system and if they stop their inspection at the furnace and completely ignore the piping going into the system and don't take the 2 minutes it would take to 'look' at the pipes and bring it to the homeowner's attention that there is a problem, then I think there is something wrong.

Ed, you also mentioned we need a 'real' steam man. I have asked everyone I talked to today, whether they have experienced service people within the company, and have gotten a range of answers. Some companies report that all their service people are trained to work on all systems. One company said they have the best steam expert in the New England area. Another company told us that it was a family business and they learned from an 'old timer' steam man who had been with the company for 50 years. So we are not sure what was the best response, but we are asking.

As for finding a professional here on this website, I would like to know how people are added to the list of professionals. Can anyone ask to have their name added to the list, or is there someone evaluating the performance and expertise and monitoring the experiences customers have with them or not?

Sorry about the furnace reference, rjb. Boiler, boiler boiler. :-)

Adam_24

Nice professional page Matt

Hi,

I was impressed with your professional page Matt. Such an ingenious approach by building a system from scratch yourself. Sounds like a real great way to learn something.

:-)