Burnham vs. Dunkirk

Long Beach Ed

I own and operate both Burnham and Dunkirk, which I consider to be the two best iron boilers on the market. They both have metal nipples between the sections which are a must if you want a boiler that will last for fifty years. Both are excellent castings.

The burnham has some features which make servicing easier. The Dunkirk is a beast to take apart to clean.

Take your pick. They are both fine boilers backed up with great manufacturers if installed properly.

Long Beach Ed

Michael G.

Burnham vs. Dunkirk

I am a consumer and my heating contractor has offerred me a choice between Burnham and Dunkirk for a 271 or 275 e.d.r. gas steam boiler. Any advantages/disadvantages of one brand over the other?

Also, we are putting in a hydronic boiler for the other part of the house that has hot water baseboards. We are going to add taps on it for a future indirect hot water heater. While the baseboards of my home seem to require a load of 80,000 btus, my contractor has indicated that a future hot water appropriate for my house would require a minimum of 140,000 btus so that we will need to now get a larger boiler (a Dunkirk PWX 5V versus the PWX 4V). Does this make sense to increase the size of the boiler for future application?

Constantin

Hmmm...

Fellow homeowner here. I have no opinion on the boilers, have no experience with either brand.

As for sizing the boiler by baseboard, I think that's the wrong approach. The hot water circuit should most likely be sized by the heat load, not the DHW needs, unless you have something close to a constant-draw application like a carwash.

So, I would ask for (or compute your own) heat loss calculation for the hydronic heat. Then put in a appropriate boiler. If the hydronic load is low enough, you may even be able to run both the steam and the hyrdonic system off of one boiler. Dan has written a good primer on that subject.

Unknown

have ya check

Have you check with Weil Mclain boiler? They have been around a loong time...

Al Gregory

Get a Peerless Boiler

Boilerpro_5

Burnham Vs Dunkirk

I've installed several of each and this is how I see it.....Dunkirk is more economy grade and requires larger piping for good operation, so the savings on the boiler cost is partly offset with more piping. However it is completely assembled with controls wired, so it is ready to pipe right off the crate. The Burnham is a very, very nice package, with all control wiring in steel conduit with a commerical grade pressuretrol. It takes more time to set up since the controls need to be installed, but piping is smaller and a less work. Both seem to make similiar steam quality.
My personal favorite is the Slantfin Galaxy steamer. I have 4 of these in now and they work exceptionally well. They only require a single 2 1/2 inch riser to get very dry steam and are very easy to get and keep clean...critical for efficient operation of steam. The single riser keeps piping to a minimum. There is some assembly required (at least on the small commerical modular units I have installed). They, however, do not have steel conduit for the control wiring and use the cheaper, usually poorly calibrated, Honeywell residential pressretrol. I have found in the smaller sizes that the Dunkirk has better firing efficiency than the others, but a clean boiler is worth more than that.

Here's a pair of 180,000 input each Slanfin module. They produce steam so clean that the main LWCO had to be changed to a special high sensitivity model because there was no carryover of boiler water into the header. REALLY NICE!

Boilerpro

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