replacing old boiler's heating coil

Patty

We have a VERY reliable but old oil/steam boiler. It works perfectly now, in part, thanks to info on Dan's webpage.
The heating coil is defective as it leaks slightly. I would appreciate suggestions on where I could find a replacement coil with gasket and bolts for American Standard Boiler Model # A 506?
Thank you,
Patty

Al Letellier_9

replacement coils

Everhot makes replacement coils for almost every boiler ever made. Try a local supplier or your heat technician

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Patty

Thanks very much. And, as it turns out, the heating company that services our boiler NOW tells me that sure, they can check to see if the coil can be replaced. At first it was, ooops, guess you need a new boiler! Thanks for the name of the coil maker.
Best,
Patty

Joe Grosso

Coils

Yeah, Everhot can make any coil if they have the dimensions.

Leo

By their design the old American Standard boilers guzzle whatever fuel you put to them. They tend to heat the room they are in or let a lot of heat up the chimney or both. Given that get a price on a new coil and a price on a new boiler. At this point you can make an informed decision.

Leo

bob young

kill the coil

Consider eliminating the coil & installing a gas fired hot water heater. shut down boiler in summer months.

Ted Robinson

Old boiler hot water coil

In July 04 I replaced our A-3 steam boiler'instant hot water coil' with a gas fired hot water heater. Sure my gas bills have gone up,but I have used about 300 gallons less oil, than in previous years! That result was not expected, althouoghI estimated that I was using a gallona day for domestic hot water during the off-heating season.

bob young

energy saving

you could also run the cold supply through the coil using it as a preheater. dis connect aquastat .end maintaining water temperature.acts as storage tank and more accurate temperature control is possible.

Steamhead (in transit)

Tankless coils

require the boiler to be maintained at full temperature all year, unless used as a preheater as Bob suggests, or in conjunction with a storage tank. This of course results in a lot of standby loss as heat leaks out of the boiler into the room and up the chimney.

Patty, I normally recommend using indirect heaters rather than direct-fired tank-type heaters. Indirects heat your faucet water using hot water from the boiler which is routed thru a heat exchanger in the tank. Since the indirect tank does not have a flue running thru it, standby loss is minimized. The boiler's burner only fires if the house or the indirect calls for heat.

However, your A-506 is big enough that unless you have a very large hot-water usage, even a large indirect might make the boiler short-cycle which is quite wasteful. So a standard direct-fired tank-type heater would probably be your best bet for efficiency.

Maybe by the time you replace the A-506, high/low or continuously variable firing will be more or less standard in that size boiler. In that case, I'd take another look at the indirect.

BTW, if your A-506 has an old-style burner in it, and you're not ready for a new boiler, upgrading to a "flame-retention" (current style high-efficiency) burner can produce some savings, which I've seen pegged at 15-25%. This type of upgrade was part of a job that turned into a demonstration project, on an A-34 steamer which is a smaller version of yours. We saved that couple 36% on their oil consumption, and quite a bit of electricity too since they no longer had to use electric heaters in rooms that didn't heat well.