Replacing the Boiler
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WHEN we first moved in, we had the guys at Anderson Heating come by and do a pressure check and overall checkup on the heating system.
Fortunately, the in-slab piping held pressure; unfortunately, the original boiler was 40 years old, pretty tired, not efficient at all and needing $$$ in maintenance.
The hot water tank was no great shakes, either- they estimated we'd get another couple of years out of the whole mess before we had to do something... They said they'd be glad to install a new Munchkin and SuperStor for only $11K... |
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We didn't like that price point, we we banged around on the web and found LightHeat.com
, and they'd drop ship the entire setup to us for around $5K. This setup came with all the valving and manifolds, etc... and was ready to just drop in. HERE's what it looked like coming off the pallet. |
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There was only one minor issue with the installation- as soon as we ripped out the old heater, we had no heat or hot water. JasonT came by to help and gave us his entire weekend! Thank you, Jason- it wouldn't have gotten done without you! In the background here, notice that we stripped all the sheetrock to check the studs- there was extensive termite damage in the roof to this room and we wanted to make sure the walls were ok- they were! |
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The mess viewed from the backyard- probably 2/3 of the shop wound up on the ground out there at some point in this project. Thankfully, we had great weather to do this in. |
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We shut down the old boiler Saturday morning and turned on the new system Sunday afternoon. Almost everything worked except the hot water tank... So we got Rod from LightHeat on the phone and he talked us thru it- turned out the recirculating pump for the hot water tank was stuck. We were able to clear it and...voila... had a tank of hot water 20 minutes later! |
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HERE's the final product- And, with any luck, we never have to worry about heat or hot water for the rest of the time we live here! |