The Boiler Beat Down

Brett Luna

Member
Messages
230
Location
Peters Creek, Alaska
Along the line of Don Baer's saga, I have plumbers coming this morning to replace our boiler, water heaters, and garage heater. Fortunately, it's not an emergency job but what we have is original to the house (1984) and it's tired.

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The platform they sit upon is really tired too, so huzzah, another project for me. Since the new boiler is narrower and we're going from two water heaters to one, the bench can be shorter but must be deeper to allow wall clearance to meet code. Here was the plan and the finished product:

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I'm no mechanical engineer but I respect the weight of water...having been a keeper of aquariums...so I made this thing an over-engineered, six-legged beast. It doesn't hurt that it's just a little prettier than the old one.

The new high efficiency boilers are so dear in cost that we opted to stick with a conventional cast iron boiler. They have a longer service life, anyway. However, we did upgrade the water heaters, going from two 40-gallon, gas-fired dinosaurs to a single 56-gallon indirect model that connects to the boiler. The hydronic garage heater will be updated to a low-profile model that has dual squirrel cage air movers rather than a single conventional fan.

They should be here any time now.
 
That's a really sturdy looking platform... I'm assuming the top is formica? or did you go with corian?

And I'm feeling cold just thinking about living in Alaska... being a Texan by birth, SNOW is a four letter word to me. :D
 
Is the top heat/water resistant, or does it matter?

That's a really sturdy looking platform... I'm assuming the top is formica? or did you go with corian?

I topped it with vinyl composite floor tile. My old boiler sat atop a heat shield but everything is self-contained with the new one.

And I'm feeling cold just thinking about living in Alaska... being a Texan by birth, SNOW is a four letter word to me. :D

Every place has its cost of living. I'm a Mississippi boy by birth and lived all over the Deep South. I don't miss the hot, sticky summers one bit. We have snow, ice, and earthquakes but we don't have hurricanes, tornadoes, or extremely high heat. Anchorage had a record high of 90°F this past July 4th while we pegged out at 93°F here at the house. We also don't have snakes, much to the relief of my wife. Heck, Anchorage rarely even has a thunderstorm. But it is getting a little chilly in the house right now, with the heat out.

Oh...and...

Alaska: Pissin' off Texans since 1959. ;)
 
Woot! We have heat and hot water again. The guys put in a 12-hour day, overcame some hurdles, and got the job done right. A professional installation that is far superior to what we had.

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Looks great, Brett! :thumb: Those guys do clean work indeed.
Nice setup. Neat, and efficient space usage. Like the double 'earthquake straps,' too.
I think the double straps are becoming more common in code books. I know they're required here in NM now, and we're about as likely to get hit by an earthquake as we are a hurricane, lol. (Actually, earthquakes are not unheard of here, but they only happen every 3 or 4 decades and they're so light they wouldn't even be the subject of conversation in CA or AK).
 
Looks great, Brett! :thumb: Those guys do clean work indeed.

I think the double straps are becoming more common in code books. I know they're required here in NM now, and we're about as likely to get hit by an earthquake as we are a hurricane, lol. (Actually, earthquakes are not unheard of here, but they only happen every 3 or 4 decades and they're so light they wouldn't even be the subject of conversation in CA or AK).
I remember when I sold my moms house and also when I sold my house in California I had to install earthquake straps on both homes as a condition of the sale and that was over 13 years ago.
 
I remember when I sold my moms house and also when I sold my house in California I had to install earthquake straps on both homes as a condition of the sale and that was over 13 years ago.
Were they double or single straps? Single straps were code for ages in CA, but they had switched to doubles by the time I replaced a water heater back in the early 2000s. But I was surprised that double straps were required in NM when we replaced our water heater here a couple of years ago.
 
I think the double straps are becoming more common in code books. I know they're required here in NM now, and we're about as likely to get hit by an earthquake as we are a hurricane, lol. (Actually, earthquakes are not unheard of here, but they only happen every 3 or 4 decades and they're so light they wouldn't even be the subject of conversation in CA or AK).
The doubles were required in California well before 2000. I had them on my house in Tustin around 1996, as I recall.

Here in NE Ohio they're not required. In fact, the gas and water lines are hard piped (no flex lines) by code, which I find sorta scary.

We did have a 2.8 quake here a couple years ago. Being 'California calibrated,' I didn't even feel it, but one of the local schools closed down for three days for engineering inspections, and so did the Youngstown City Office Building. What a joke!
 
Tennessee must not have any regulations on water heaters... mine is in the master bedroom closet, behind a wall. The furnace fan for the heat pump was in the same space, but with the new heat pump we installed 5 or 6 years ago, it a self contained unit and all sits out side the house...
 
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