Magic Wand

Besides an internal bypass? Do Not ship the thing with the circ on the return! I just have to tear it off. Put in bold words somewhere where everyone can see it a space for the combustion analysis results, and insist in the manuel that it be done or the warranty is void...

Tim

Make it weigh less than 100 lbs.

I'm getting too old for these heavy beasts.

It'd be nice

To have a dual temp ability besides radiant and DHW. Something like HWBB, radiant and DHW.

Color?

Ike, would it be difficult to have different colored shells that you can sell with it? And why would you be asking the contractors what color it should be? They won't be living with it for 20 years.

I'm always surprised at how this industry seems to always have this view of the customer as the ignorant outsider. Yes, to many people it's just a heating system - a true commodity where it just needs to keep the house warm, the fuel bills low and be reliable.

At the end of the day it's a major expense, and these lowly outsiders are the ones footing the bill. For the hydronics market, the homeowners are buying increasingly efficient and complex boilers. With the mass adoption of the internet, information on boilers is now easy to find and people are using it to educate themselves. That may be better, that may be worse, but that's what's happening. These are big purchases and it is something that the owner will be looking at for 15 years or more or they'll be buying someone else's boiler next time.

Lochinvar's Knight is an example of what I'm talking about. Lochinvar's most general brochure talks directly to the contractors. This boiler is to "expand the contractor's kingdom" by being "an installer's dream".

The Knight is a totally modern boiler, with a very traditional footprint that would make for great servicing. That easy servicing advantage comes at the expense of space and packaging - it needs a minimum of 14" at the back for venting and then needs another 12" of space for water piping coming out the one side.

Space in housing often comes at the expense of space for mechanicals. Personally, I believe that Lochinvar missed the boat with the Knight by it not being a true wall hung design (although it does have a wall mount kit available - maybe it hangs on it's side) or a even better a hybrid design like the Ultra that can be mounted on the floor or wall hung. Given a choice of it and the competing mod-cond boilers, I don't think most purchasers would want it sticking way out into the mechanical room or out along the wall of a small utility room or even worse yet, try placing it in a more general purpose space like you could with a wall-hung.

If this is going to be the next generation of cast iron boiler, it should also strive to have the flexibility to allow the next generation of packaging. Will it have a nice matching indirect that can be packaged on top of each other like a Buderus or Viessmann?

I would think that the looks and packaging of a boiler package will often determine whether or not the customer is requesting it or being sold on it. There's more total margin when there is customer pull than customer push. Manufacturers should keep that in mind.

The Customer....

Can have any color jacket they want, they just have to wait for it after arrival.

Ever seen a 68 series W/M in a color other than blue? I have...Check it out ! (It's PURPLE BTW!)