OT: Talk to me about forced hot water boilers

[45K10]

We just had a home inspection on a house we have under contract and it turns out the boiler used to heat the house (forced hot water) is from 1961. I have no experience with this sort of heating system. I have only had forced hot air or a heat pump in the houses I have ever lived in.

So the boiler works, except for a faulty pressure gauge, it uses natural gas, has three heating zones. Other than the age of the boiler, the house is pretty solid.

I would like to replace the boiler sooner rather than later so just looking for some advice on any pitfalls associated with changing out the boiler, brands to consider, boiler type to consider, etc....

Thanks

[Tandem Rider]

Congratulations! Hot water heat is the best! (I assume that forced = pumped rather than gravity circulation).

As far as the replacement, brands don't matter much. It is sizing and the quality of the installation that makes or breaks the system. Sort of like bike wheels, great parts+bad build=junk, ok parts+great build=great wheel. You beed to find the Ergott or OP for boilers in your area.

Ask around, other people in your neighborhood with HW heat will know who does good work and who to avoid. Pick a contractor that sells a boiler that is available locally from a reputable wholesale house. When it's years down the road and something fails in January, you need that part right away, not in 3 or 4 days.

Efficiency is not a good reason to replace a boiler in good shape. Do the math, use actual heating cost (not total bills for year, use cost of gas in heating months minus monthly charges, cost of cooking, cost of hw heater if you have one). For example, $1000 x 15% more efficient = $150 per year. If there is a sticker on the boiler from a service company, call them and ask about the boiler.

Make sure there is no asbestos, 1961 piping probably had it at one time at least. Hopefully it has been mitigated if there was.

[grawk]

Hot water heat is definitely awesome. I'd think a 28 year old gas boiler that was regularly serviced would probably still have a lot of life in it.

[wc1934]

Lots of real good high efficiency(95) boilers on the market today -not cheap but you may be eligible for state and federal tax rebates. I have a Weil McClain, but the other top names (Burnham, Peerless, Buderus-sp) etc are great too. These are so efficient that there is no need to vent thru the chimney (vent thur a side wall and mostly vapor).

[carpediemracing]

We have a Weil McClain also, new in 2007. Our old boiler took a dump a month after we bought the house. I think I had the same kind of boiler in old house, replace a converted coal furnace, went from burning 1000-1100gal oil a year to 500 gal (also insulated house, replaced windows/doors, etc).

We also have oil fired hot water, which is good and bad. At least the furnace kicks on regularly during the summer.

Not sure how oil vs gas works in price but I've been using oil for forever and it's fine. I think gas is cheaper at some level. I think changing is expensive.

[paredown]

A well maintained boiler can last for a long time--service life is considered to be 20 years for a typical one, 30 years for an old school cast boiler.

Efficiency though (as has been said) will be higher on the new ones; the innovative systems use a combination boiler + indirect hot water and kill two problems with one burner system.

[allezdude]

Our last house was built in the 1920s and still had the original boiler which worked fine. Why not wait to replace yours until something goes wrong? Unless you know you're going to live in this house a long time, it's not the kind of thing that will increase the value of the house.

And you will love hot water heat. It's silent, maintains a constant temperature, and no air blowing dust etc around.

[2LeftCleats]

My mother still has the original one in her 1965 house. Don't know the brand. Has it serviced annually and (so far) no problems. Not sure how much longer she'll be able to continue living there, so I'd like to see her upgrade/replace as I think it will be an issue in selling the home.

[Tandem Rider]

Real question here, Why do you want to replace it? I understand there are good reasons.

[sitzmark]

Had a Burnham oil-fired tankless that was installed when the house was built. Oil was a PITA so had an NG line run from the street by gas company. Installed a conversion burner to keep boiler but fire it with gas. Internal tankless hardware had numerous issues and rusted through after 12 years taking down the entire unit. Replaced it with Viessmann Vitogas burner and Vitocell indirect water heater. Nearly 15 years and not a single issue. A lot of stainless internal components and all still looks brand new. Joel Boucher (Boucher Energy Systems) installed it. Joel designed and installed a This Old House system and has an excellent reputation in the Boston market.

Since we didn't have ducts for AC, Joel installed a Unico HVAC system to give us a whole house option for AC and air filtration as well.

[45K10]

Real question here, Why do you want to replace it? I understand there are good reasons.

I guess the age of the boiler just scares me a bit. Like I said I don't have experience with this type of heat but it sounds from the comments like forced hot water is the way to go the and boiler may have more life to give. I may just have it serviced when we move in and see how it goes.

Thanks for everyone's input I really appreciate!