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Heating & Air Conditioning

What to ask about in oil burner replacement bids?

mabeldingeldine_gw

15 years ago

I'm looking at replacing my HW baseboard oil burner. It needs a new coil gasket and other work, and is a low-end 1970s system. Two techs from diff. companies have suggested replacement, and my home inspection 8 years ago said w/in 10 years it would need it. I've been hoping for a technology breakthrough but it doesn't look good.

I live in rural Maine, 1800s home, and have a woodstove to supplement heat/fully heat when the elec. is down as it recently was.

What questions do I ask as I seek bids for this work? I think oil is my best option? I'd love to be green/sustainable/thrifty but solar isn't a good option for my site, no gas is available, geothermal is still very expensive.

I am also looking at adding 2 zones to add heat to the 2nd floor which is currently heated (and I use that term loosely!) via "convection."

I greatly appreciate all advice, thanks in advance. While I'm pretty handy for a girl, I'm not very mechanically minded.

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Comments (4)

vhehn
15 years ago
it often makes best sense to look at baseboard electric heat for additional heat to a room. it can be very expensive to add zones to an existing system.

the only thing you can do with the boiler is get at least 3 bids and see what they say. i wouldnt invest much in a 70s boiler. might be time for a new one.
yakimadn
15 years ago
No offense meant at all, but you may want to pound some books or find someone that has a basic working knowledge of the system to avoid a soaking by a less than honest contractor (for the case that you run across one). Does your lifestyle fit a wood and/or coal boiler (are you home enough to tend it) or is a pellet system an option? Adding additional radiators SHOULDN'T be a problem, just a matter of extending water lines. I am in Germany and am not sure how the older systems in the States were, but older systems here ran the system in a series (output from boiler went to input of radiator then OP of rad went to IP of next radiator and so on with OP of last in the chain going to the return on the boiler). Newer systems (last 30-40 years or more) had a continuois loop from OP to return on the boiler with radiators tied in along the way (this way, every radiator could work independently and all would heat up the same regardless of where in the chain.

Good Luck,

Dave
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We have a lot of fuel and heating customers with seasonal camps and vacation homes. Your issues are a classic example of why I don't recommend power-venters in seasonal homes unless someone is around to check on them. With a chimney you have a large margin of error and no potential points of mechanical or electronic failure. With chimneys there are no issues caused by wind currents, poor burner setup or snow levels. Plus they're never installed under decks, under windows or hidden in the bushes. The soot issue might simply be a boiler and burner setup issue. The power venter is effectively an artificial mechanical/electronic chimney. While power-venters are functional, they can't overcome poor oil filtration, poor boiler/piping design, poor burner setup and they're no replacement for qualified professional technicians that know how to use their electronic combustion test equipment. Replacing a 4 year old burner sounds fishy. What brand and model of boiler and burner do you have? Does the boiler have a tankless coil that produces hot water? Do you have a two-line oil system or a single line system with a Tiger-Loop?(With a 2-line system you're constantly circulating cold oil through the lines, filter(s) and strainer) Do you have a decent spin-on .10 micron oil filter? Is the boiler oversized (short cycling)? Pictures of the boiler and piping would help if you have any from a few angles. Concerning safety monitoring devices, I know of freeze alarms, water alarms, low fuel alarms and smoke detectors that dial out to telephone numbers in the event of a problem, but I guess you'd be looking for a smoke detector with relay that would kill the power to the burner.
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baymee
15 years ago
It can't be too low a quality of boiler if it's still running after 30 years.

Without seeing the situation, I would possibly opt for replacing the $6 coil gasket, and upgrading to a modern burner unit. If I was doing this to my own system, the cost would be about $600 retail plus labor, one day.

Shop around.
baymee
15 years ago
Considering that there weren't also other issues involved and you can't know that, sight unseen.

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