This client had a cracked and failed gas Weil-McLain steam boiler that was way oversized for this home in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. It failed at 11 years due to constant short cycling. The 50 gallon gas water heater was also illegally installed and was very dangerously venting carbon monoxide flue gases into the home. We removed both of the pieces of equipment and properly sized a new Peerless gas-fired steam boiler made in the USA as well as a new Bradford White 50 gallon low boy gas water heater to properly fit into the chimney. We added the proper combination carbon monoxide & smoke detector as well. Then we replaced all of the steam radiator vents. Lots of people tell me they like the steam heat because it makes it moist in the house. Well, if that is happening that is an indication that your steam boiler, or the radiators or the vents are bad. The vents are only there to allow air to escape as the water boils into steam and rises up through the house to the radiators. Once the steam reaches the radiator vents they are supposed to click shut and trap the steam in the radiator until the steam heats the radiator and once the steam cools back down and turns back into water, the vents will then open and aid the water to drain back to the boiler to be reused in making steam again. If you would like to upgrade your home please go to our website and fill out the request service form and I’ll make an appointment with you to come out and do a home evaluation and discuss and price out a replacement upgrade system. https://dibaccoplumbing.com/contact
All right, here we are in Chelmsford, Mass. We have a client here who has an 11-year-old Weil-McLain steam boiler that has cracked and failed prematurely too. We’ve discovered that this boiler was grossly oversized for the house and the need so this thing suffered from short cycling. And we also discovered that whoever installed it could not have been a plumber because they tied in a water heater and then piped the vent downward, which is absolutely illegal and dangerous and deadly because then carbon monoxide gas can flow right out of the flue collector here, the draft damper rather, and allow the carbon monoxide to go through the house. Now this is an old drafty house so I think that’s what saved their lives and they didn’t die from carbon monoxide, but we’re going to fix all of that up today. First thing I got to do is get this old unit out. My son Mike is on his way to pick up all the materials. I’m going to cut out all of the old piping here and get ready to get this boiler moved out of here. We’ll talk to you later. All right, we’re at the final stretch here. We’ve got big Frank Bonyani
getting this baby wired up. Here’s our new steam boiler Peerless. Now the vent is no longer going upside down. New water heater. There you go. [Music] Here we are now with the finished product. We got our properly sized Peerless steam boiler in here. Everything’s heating up nicely, three inch riser steam riser there going into our header. Automatic fill with a bypass piped in if you wanted to manually add water. We have a blow-down purge station for skimming. We’ve added the boiler cleaner so that’ll clean all the rust and sediment out of the system. It’s wired up, the new water heater properly vented. No more carbon monoxide risk in the house and we even added a code-required smoke and carbon monoxide detector there. If you’re interested in getting your system replaced please go to Debacleplumbing.com. I’d be happy to come out and give you an in-home evaluation. Take care