I'm from Upstate New York. Most techs service natural gas, oil & LP. Natural gas in the city areas is serviced by a mixture of plumbers, heating techs, and a variety of general contractors. We have a lot of oil & propane fuel/sales/service/installation outfits that service the rural areas... Everything from mobile home furnaces to fireplaces, gas stoves, pellet stoves, System 2000, Buderus & Veissmann mod/con wall hung boilers. Some outfits these days seem to be more interested in selling fuel, service contracts and installing new equipment than doing service. Some people don't service what they sell. Licensing and enforcement of codes is almost nonexistent in many areas of the state. Anyone with a truck and enough knowledge to be dangerous to themselves and their customers is doing general contracting, plumbing, heating and electrical work.

Hey, another Anchorage visitor to the site. :-) I also had a Weil-McLain GV boiler installed recently. (Mine was just over a year ago.) The link below shows the model. My boiler was not equipped with an Outdoor Reset module 'out of the box', but Klebs installed it with one and it works beautifully. (Taco controller set.) My cycle times are around 1 ~ 2 minutes with a 15° differential. (If I remember correctly, the size is 70k BTU, which is half the size of the original boiler and still a touch large for my home.) The Taco module really took over almost all the functionality of the boiler's own controller. My system runs a lot, but that's because it's running at a low water temperature right now. (Around 145°.) You should pop the top cover off your boiler and watch the lights on the controller when you expect it to do a short cycle. Maybe it will give you a clue as to why it stops. Perhaps the flame didn't ignite on time or the air pressure switch didn't give the right reading? The Outdoor Reset module is definitely an add-on for this boiler, but it works well. My gas bill arrived today and came in at $85.00. Last month was $42. A co-worker of mine had Klebs install the Lochinvar-Knight (most expensive boiler offered) and her gas bill this month was over $100, so I'm not feeling to shabby about my GV! Side note: When was the last time you placed oil in the cups on the blower motor? Send me a message through the web site! I could Email you a picture of the Taco controller and explain how it works. Here is a link that might be useful: Weil-McLain GV

After reading this entire posts and seeing no definitive answers, I'd figured I would chime in. As an architect I see a lot of projects where we replace an existing boiler with a Direct Vent (DV) boiler. 90% of the replacements use a horizontal, thru-wall vent. This is done typically because it is easier and less costly than going through a roof. Note on the attached link that there are maximum distances for vents and you are limited to where the outlets are in relation to windows, doors, A/C condensers, air intakes, overhangs, etc. You say you could use the 'unused, walled-in chimney' as a vertical vent. I assume this means a wood framed chimney enclosure. You could run PVC vent pipes vertically through this chimney but you would have a difficult time accessing the pipe joints and brackets during installation. DO NOT THINK ABOUT connecting to an old masonry chimney, even if it is terracotta lined. The direct vent gases are cool and will condense inside the chimney fast leaving a pool of highly corrosive water at the bottom of the chimney. This will eventually degrade the chimney and create possible CO leaks. For new construction I typically specify running the pipes vertically with a roof termination. This eliminates the steam plume shooting through the house wall while the boiler is on. Note that Weil McLain requires the pipes to slope back toward the boiler. I believe they collect the condensate and reheat it. Not certain how this works. I know that in a vertical installation there will be less vapor exhausted and more condensate generated as it rises through the pipe. This is typically collected at the bottom of the vertical stack into a condensate pump. This water is corrosive so be careful where it is pumped to (i.e. keep it away from landscaping). As long as you can find an inconspicuous location to vent the gases, the sidewall is the way to go for a retrofit. Here is a link that might be useful: Venting

The tech came yesterday and it seems all has been fixed. We did once again have some sludge build-up on the nozzle so he changed out the nozzle and another (oil) strainer that he said looked like it had not been changed in awhile. As mentioned, he changed the nozzle and put in a "W" nozzle. He said the "W" will work better if we continue to encounter the sludge issue. He changed two electrodes whose points seemed to have flattened a bit, changed the furnace fan setting and the filters/strainers. I have to say that even before the shuttering of the boiler last week, we still heard the boiler kick on, but not as loud...now we cannot even hear it kick on. The boiler seems to shut off sooner, but the forced air seems to stay on with warm air longer. Seems efficiency has been tended to here. Looking for feedback on the following suggestions though.... 1) he said the furnace fan was set at 200, so he turned it down to 180. He said anything higher than 180 just creates steam and at 180 it will be more efficient. When we first moved in 6 years ago, we had complained that the forced air seemed to be "cold" after the boiler shut off, so that is why it was set to 200...I think. Opinions on what is the most efficient furnace fan temp setting? 2) he suggest we upgrade our filter to something slightly larger since we continue to have the sludge problem even after getting about 35 gallons sucked out in late July. The last time we we had the furnace serviced with changing nozzle and filters was 7/30/08, so we did not even get 6months our of it this time. 3) he suggests we put a diesel conditioner or STR-2 in the tank next time we get oil delivered to try to break down some of the sludge. He did say that we should not add it too often since it can errode the tank. I have read the same thing. I did find a company FuelRight, although I do not think they sell direct to consumers, that had a "study" that they performed on the different oil additives (See Link). This is the one thing I am unsure of here, so ANY suggestions on an oil additive would be helpful. The tech said we should get a minimum of 20 years out of our boiler as long as it is maintained properly. Seems we made the right move by bringing in a new company/tech and will stick with him in the future. We are extremely happy with the work he performed. Thanks again for all of your help. Here is a link that might be useful: Additive