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Crown vs. Dunkirk Oil Steam Boiler

fahmbx
fahmbx Member Posts: 1
in Oil Heating

Hi everyone. I am in the process of replacing my Peerless oil steam boiler. The low water cut off stopped working so the boiler ran dry and cracked. I wanted to ask your opinions on the 2 brands that I’ve been quoted on: Crown and Dunkirk. Which one would you recommend we go with? My parents are older and I really would like something that doesn’t cause them too much trouble.

We have a 3 family home that’s about 4820 sq feet in NYC. All of the windows are new and the house is well-insulated. Based on calculations, we need to cover about 442 square feet of steam which would be a 175,000 BTU boiler but the store I went to doesn’t have that one available for either brand. They checked if other brands had 175K BTU in stock but they didn’t. They told us to get a 200,000 BTU boiler and have the plumber change the nozzle so it functions like a 175K BTU and we’re not wasting oil and using the appropriate gallons per hour for the size/steam requirement of our house. Has anyone ever done this before? Should I go ahead and buy the 200K BTU boiler and change the nozzle or keep looking around for the 175K BTU one?

It’s a pretty big purchase and I don’t want to get it wrong so I figured I’d see if anyone has any strong opinions about either of these brands and check if the nozzle advice is common practice before I made my final decision.

(Included pics for reference)

If you have any other advice or recommendations please let me know. This is my first time taking responsibility of the boiler from my parents so I really don’t know much and I’m learning as I go. Thanks in advance!

Pic of the current boiler

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spec sheets I was given

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IMG_7588.jpeg
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Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,859

    It is very likely that either boiler you are thinking of can be down-fired to what you need. That said, that is something for a technician who has the necessary gauges and meters and really knows how to use them. It is not simply a matter of changing the nozzle. The oil pump pressure has to be set correctly and the nozzle size and pattern chosen to be correct and the various air settings adjusted.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 6,669
    edited September 25

    It's good that you are sizing it correctly. Keep looking for the correct sized boiler. Out of curiosity, what is the smaller size that they have available? Edit: Oh I see the brochure…I would take a 396 sq ft of steam boiler before I would take a 563 sq ft for 442 sq ft of radiation. I would consider installing a 563 sq ft boiler into a 442 EDR home to be malpractice.

    I see you're not using the boiler for your domestic hot water (good for you). There is plenty of extra capacity in every boiler.

    image.png

    Also, I think Peerless is superior to either of those two brands.

    Finally, just asking: there's no natural gas in the house?

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

    KC_Jones
  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,840
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1811716#Comment_1811716

    The 396 would still give 20% extra, instead of the normal (too much IMHO) 33%. I agree, I'd go with that before any of the choices being considered.

    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
    ethicalpaulLRCCBJ
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 9,386
    edited October 2

    I am a fan of Crown. Two reasons. I like the folks that work there. I know some of them personally and have nothing but great things to say about them. The second is that they have a great product. If you purchase the Crown, the instruction book gives you all the pipe sizes that are needed to assemble it properly. (like most other manufacturers) but they have a PIPE & FITTING kit with all the correct sizes to make the near boiler piping look just like the diagram in the book. Not everyone does that for you. https://www.velocityboilerworks.com/product/steam-boiler-piping-kits/ The Oil Fired boiler kit hsa all the pipe and fittings you need to install the near boiler piping with the recommended Drop Header design. https://www.velocityboilerworks.com/documents/freeport_2_steam_near_boiler_piping_kit.pdf

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

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