Boiler Brands

From another midwesterner

that only works with boilers, Here's my scale from the brands I have worked with;

For highest build quality combined with excellent factory support:

Burnham (due to Glenn Stanton)
and Weil McLain

However, I see lots of failed WM EG and EGH's in the field after only 15 to 20 years of service....gasket failures, cracks at the top of the legs on end sections, holes rotted through on steamers. Funny thing, I see lots of oooold E series still cranking along after 40 years. Also the CG series seem to hold up quite well.

For average build quality but excellent tech support (and some need for improved engineering) :

Dunkirk (Mark and Bob at tech are really good at what they
do)

For average build quality, but very poor factory support (and some need for better engineering):

Lochinvar

For poor build quality and very poor factory support:

Hydrotherm (Meztek) (good local reps, though)

Also, I just recently started using New Yorker boilers (Burnhams little brother) and have been very pleased with the quality, on par with Burnhams. They also have gotten rid of the terrible Honeywell aquarelay box, and substituted an aquastat and fan relay set up like on Burnham. These appear to be by far the best bang for your buck.

Also have worked with some Raypak and have been very pleased. Very Good design that is well built. They have had things like full burner modulation for years (I believe down to 20%), when all sorts of noise is now being made about it on the new high tech boilers.

Noel from Slant fin is one of the wisest here, but the local supplier that carries the line is the pits. I am hoping to use their boilers someday, especially the stage fired steam modules.

Thats about the extant, IMHO

Boilerpro

i swear by slant-fin - most bang for the buck...

and noel murdough nmurdough@slantfin.com is real helpful

on the other hand it's really depends what you want to do..
a slant fin person will not tell you that their boilers are better than vie$$mann or buderus , but, they will question you, to make sure you are spending at least an extra 2 grand for a good reason!!!

all the ones you mentioned are pretty good and people have had good and bad of each, and they should all give about 30years of life, but with the projected fuel price rise and technology explosion, you probably will want to get rid of almost anything you buy today, in ten years!!!

so to hell with the heat source, make sure your heat emitters, distribution, and control is second to none!!!

i have taken a house with an old dead hydrotherm (ugh), and replaced it with an inexpensive slant-fin natural draft cast iron boiler, put piped the boiler room with primary/secondary/injection/outdoor-reset with a tekmar control, and proper zoning and balancing, the homeowner is saving a bundle already, even though the efficiency rating of the old boiler and the new one are the same 83% - the old one ran 50 min out of an hour – and the top floor cooked and the bottom froze – the new one runs 8min out of an hour and the temps are even, you think, that putting a vie$$mann, into the old piping would have helped as much, just because it’s efficiency ratings are in the 90’s? hell no!!

don’t sweat the boiler, look at support, parts availability, and yes… even price –
however DO sweat the install!!


Ps even a residential heating raypak, is more like a pool heater or a tankless, best used in a very low-head high flow system – like a gravity conversion – where you are tying into pipes’n’fittings “the size of Winnebagos” as dan holohan puts it