The furnace at Chez Geek is on its last legs. Ok, it was on its last legs last year, but I couldn’t afford to get it replaced last year with all of the other bills I had. Now it’s crawling on its death bed.
The plumber I usually deal with wants to put in a new unit by Quietside, which is a name I have never heard of. From poking around on the web it looks like they are made by Samsung.
Is this a good brand? Is there a better brand I should be looking at?
What I have now is a typical old gas furnace with baseboard water heat. The furnace also supplies the hot water to the house. I do not want to go to a seperate hot water tank. I like being able to take a hot shower after all 3 geek kids have been in the shower, so having a furnace that can basically supply hot water forever is very important. Comfort and reliability are more important than cost to me, but I’m not Bill Gates, so cost does have some importance.
I have been told by other people that these new high efficiency things don’t have a hot water storage tank, so it make take a second or two for the hot water to heat up once I turn it on. Not ideal, but I guess I can live with that.
I also really like baseboard water heat. It’s very comfortable. Going to forced air or any other heating type is probably not an option.
With installation and removal of the old system, the plumber is quoting about $5,500. I was expecting about $5k, so that’s a few hundred dollars higher than I was expecting, but within the right ball park at least.
Is this the right approach? What brands should I be looking for? What do all of you furnace folks recommend? Any horror stories or brands I should avoid?
The newer ones all have automatic pilot lights, so you don’t waste gas there on mild days and all summer.
Don’t accept one without that feature.
There are good ratings now on furnaces, but they can be tricky.
There is a huge yellow tag on each unit, but the categories are by class, so be sure if you are comparing two that they are in the same class.
As it happens, I just replaced an old, non-functional forced hot air furnace with a brand new baseboard hot water and boiler system. It involved a little more than your project will, since I had to pull out all the old duct work as well as a 50±year-old furnace, install the new boiler and hot water holding tank, and retrofit baseboards on the first and second floor. The whole project cost me about $10K, so it seems a little expensive that you’d be quoted $5500 for just the boiler.
My boiler, with the hot water set up as a 35-gallon third zone for instant hot water when I need it, is by Buderus. They’re relatively new to the American market, but have been in business in Europe for almost 200 years. You may want to check them out.
Also, I can’t say enough about shopping around. The plumber I turn to for all my standard plumbing work quoted the heating job and came up 50% higher than the next lower bid. He’s still my plumber for standard work, but he’s not my heating guy.
I’m a fan of Weil-McLain, although to be fair, Vaillant, Burnham, Utica, and Columbia have also been in the residential and commercial boiler business for quite a long time.
Assuming that you have no conditions indicative of an undersized boiler, you can look for a new unit with a domestic coil (that’s what heats your shower/tap hot water) which has the same NET BTUh rating. By going to a power vent high AFUE appliance, your GROSS BTUh can possibly be reduced, thereby dropping your cost of operation.
Hot surface or intermittant spark ignition is pretty much standard, now-I haven’t sold a furnace or boiler with a standing pilot in years. There are over 7 major HVAC suppliers in the York/Hanover area, so any tradesman who wants to find you a good deal can do so.