Boiler and DHW heating recommendations
Greetings
Back in 2008, I placed a post here on Heating Help for recommendations on a gas boiler and DHW heating system. We have a 1950’s house located on the coast of western Canada (very close to Seattle). Our house has two floors. We have a basement suite with a single bedroom, with bath and ensuite laundry, and then our living area which has three bedrooms, a single bathroom, and additional laundry room. The house was always heated by hydronic heating but was originally heated by this old Freddy Kruger style oil boiler. The radiators were these finned baseboard heaters with a giant cage around them. In 2008, as part of recommendations from folks on this forum, we installed a Triangle Tube boiler and a Bradford White indirect hot water heater. About five years ago, we also replaced all the finned radiators with Myson and Stelrad panel radiators. There are no zones, only a single thermostat for the whole house.
This setup has been pretty much bullet proof since it was installed. We haven’t had any issues. We have ample DHW for both our tenants in our basement suite as well as my wife and I. We have never run out of hot water. Due to the age of the system, we are wanting to look at replacing both the boiler and the indirect hot water heater. My understanding is that Triangle Tube has gone out of business, so getting a replacement TT boiler is out of the question. I hear Canada manufactures two different boiler systems, NTI and IBC. With the whole tariff thing, I am curious if it would make better sense to purchase a Canadian manufactured boiler. It seems like a lot of installers like NTI, but there are certainly a lot of bad reviews on NTI’s Google profile. Same thing with IBC. Should we be looking at Navien or Viessmann? Also, does it make sense to stick with an indirect hot water tank, or are combo systems better now? Ideally, we select a boiler and DHW system that is as trouble free as the Triangle Tube boiler has been. I would appreciate any suggestions.
Comments
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Others will comment but no Navien. Viessman is probably the best but $$$$. Do you have access to Lochinvar?
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NTI, IBC and Viessmann are great boilers. Navien has been an outlier here. Seems like they're a boiler a non-professional hydronics guy would install, i.e. a plumber. But from what I've seen, they're OK. What doesn't thrill me is their technical support; hours and hours on HOLD.
Talk to installing hydronic contractors in your area and see what they like to install. If I were a Canadian, I'd be supporting Canadian products. There's a lot to be proud of.
8.33 lbs./gal. x 60 min./hr. x 20°ΔT = 10,000 BTU's/hour
Two btu per sq ft for degree difference for a slab1 -
Triangle Tube Solo Prestige. You can still get 'consumable service parts" for that boiler. F.W. Webb in U.S. still sells parts for that boiler. They are also selling remaining stock from Tri. Tube and Instinct boilers. Your boiler is a good one! If it does go…replace with Viessmann. NTI and IBC are Canadian and respectable boilers. If Viessmann, you'd be best to have someone who is very comfortable installing AND servicing it.
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I am definitely leaning towards NTI. Most of the hydronic companies in my City seem to promote them (they tend to get shown for sample installs on the company websites). I like the idea of supporting a Canadian product. The part that scares me with NTI is they have so many bad reviews on their Google profile page. IBC also seems to not have great Google profile reviews, however I see a lot of praises from installers for both products on Reddit. My understanding is that Viessmann will be considerably higher cost and more complicated to maintain. How about Rinnai? I believe there are a few installers in my City that install those….
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what about weil McCain ab-120
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Rinnai products are very good. I wouldn't pay a whole lot of attention to Google profile reviews. I presume these are consumer/homeowners and those have more to do with their relationship to the installer/service person, I presume. That said, THAT should be YOUR primary concern…rather than boiler brand.
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