slant fin?

I am considering buying the ld30pt liberty slant fin. I receive giftcards as a perq from my employer and i currently have enough in home depot cards to buy the boiler, plus I have a coupon for a discount. I have my basement set for baseboard heat and I will have to add an additional zone to accomadate the extra area. My plumber is reluctant to touch my 35 year old boiler/ plus my heating bill is more than I would like to spend, and my hot water only lasts a few minutes because the coils are shot in the boiler. My upstairs has baseboard cast iron heat.

I have searched for reviews on the slant fin pt and it does not come up as one of the most efficient boilers, is this because it has tankless hot water? My house is currently apx 1150 square feet and I hope to expand by about 850.00 square feet within the next 7 years, should this be a concern. I can also order lowes cards does anyone know what brand of boiler they carry? I dont need to do this right away but the only way I can afford it is to order thru one home depot or lowes so I just have to pay for labor in cash. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Slant Fin isn't one of my favorites but they are not a bad boiler. In fact, if I had a choice between a Slant Fin & a Weil McLain, I'd take the Slant in a heartbeat. I'm not sure what if any boilers Lowes handles. I searched their web site & found no boilers.
Regardless of what you buy, the most important thing is to do a Manual J heat loss calculation so you don't get a boiler too large or too small.
The next most important part is PROPER installation.
Instead of using the domestic coil, I suggest an indirect water heater. By using one of these, your boiler does not need to stay hot 24/7/365 & you have 40 gallons of hot water ready for use.

 

I agree with Grady's comments.

I have a next door neighbor whom I helped install a Slant Fin LD-30 boiler 3 years ago.

My part of the installation was just to help him get the boiler (wrapped in a woden crate) into the cellar when Home Depot delivered it.

He then hired a local heating technician to remove the old boiler & install the new one.

He also bought an Amtrol 40 gal. indirect-fired hot water heater from Home Depot as part of the deal.

The boiler weighed ~500 lbs & we had to remove the cellar stairs & use a block & tackle to get it into the cellar; the indirect heater weighed little & was no problem.

The neighbor is well satisfied with the Slantfin unit; he states his fuel oil usage dropped by ~35% over the old boiler; the unit is rated at ~83-85% efficiency, which is typical for a wet-base, cast-iron boiler; the burner is Beckett, aquastat & primary controls Honeywell; circ is a Taco 007.

He had the technician install a water backflow preventer valve & a low-water cutoff valve & 2 Taco 571 zone valves, using a 40V xformer to drive the zone valves; these are all good quality components, well-known & respected in the heating industry; the Taco 007 circulator is considered very reliable, lubricated by the hot water system & thus does not require any periodic oil lubrication.

The LD-30 is rated up to 140,000 btu/hr, depending on the size nozzle used; the shipped nozzle of 1.10 gph was a little noisy when installed & produced more heat than the building needed, so it was downrated (exchanged) for a 1.00 gph nozzle, which quieted the unit considerably & resulted in an even greater fuel savings.

This unit comes either with or without a domestic coil for hot tap water; as Grady suggested, you should order the boiler WITHOUT the domestic coil & buy the 40 gallon (or 30 gallon) indirect hw heater that connects to the boiler with a zone valve or circulator.

As to the square footage of your house you state in your post, make sure you include cellar space & any utility rooms in your total; as long as they are part of the area where the heating pipes go through, or the boiler is situated.

For this you or your technician has to do a HEAT LOSS CALCULATION (Manual J), to determine what size boiler you should order; if the area you've given is accurate, you may be able to get by with the slightly smaller Slant-Fin LD-20, which is rated at ~80-100,000 btu/hr.

You can do a preliminary HLC at the sites below to get a rough idea of your needed boiler size.

I've also seen the Slant-Fin boilers in Lowe's at about the same price.

http://www.burnham.com/heatloss1.cfm
http://www.heatload.com

 

thanks so much for your advice. My next step will be to determine my heat loss and speak to my installer, I have also been told that the xl-30 is a better model from slant fin.

 

The XL-30 is a low mass boiler with presumably a lower water content. If installed right, this can be a big plus especially with an indirect water heater. However, installation is the key.

 

I'm also considering installing a slant fin boiler and indirect tank.Can anyone tell me the difference between the XL30 and the XL30H besides BTU's(can't find what the H stands for in their brochure) Thanks Joe

 

From looking at the online literature, at a guess I would say the "H" probably stands for "High Efficiency" since it reaches 86% AFUE. All of the Slant Fin, oil fired boilers which reach 86% have the "H" designation.

 

I just bought an XL-30H. Almost done installing it. The distributor didn't even stock the XL-30 because they told me all you have to do to change the 30H to a 30 is put a .85 gph nozzle in it. Which is what I will do.

 

There is more to it than just changing the nozzle. The air would need to be adjusted as well. There could be a pump pressure or burner end cone change as well. Please get a pro with combustion analysis equipment to make the change.

 

The XL30H comes with .85 gph nozzle and the Xl30 comes with a choice depending on btu's 1.00 gph or slightly larger. All the suppliers I went to suggested the XL30.According to the heat loss calculator on slant fin web site I should go with the XL20. I am not sure all the info I entered is 100% accurate though.Am I supposed to enter the length of baseboard in each room on the heat loss calculator? I also had 1 estimate from a contracter so far(he mentioned nothing of heat loss) and I was told with an indirect tank a 4 section boiler woulod be required or I could get a 3 section boiler with an aquabooster(wich to me seems like the same thing as an indirect). The old boiler says 120,000 btu and 1.65 gph but it now has a.85 gph nozzle in it.Very confused as to what size boiler I need.

 

Sorry, I was got the models reversed. I have the 30 and am going add the .85 nozzle making it a 30H. The air setting for the different sized nozzles are in the manual. The plumbing and heating supply I picked it up at has been around 60 yrs. and is great. Very knowledgeable people there and take time with DIY'rs like me. Got it at contractor's price too. I will have someone come out with combustion gages and check it out as soon as it's installed.

 

Please let me know how this works out for you.

 

GTRJUNKIE:
Glad the air settings are in the manual. That takes a load off my mind. A flame too lean can drive the CO sky high. Too rich & you get heavy sooting.

SEARAYSRV:
The only purpose of entering the existing baseboard would be to tell you the maximum amount of heat you could get into the house or maybe at what temperature you run the boiler to get the required amount of heat into the house. It really has little to do with sizing the boiler. What is the btu/hr input requirement for the indirect you have chosen? You need to size the boiler for the larger of the heat load for the house or the indirect, not both at the same time. Very easy to do with a switching relay with priority capabilities.

 

Hi Grady,
According to the info I entered into the slant fin heat loss calculator heat loss is 46454 btuh. I will go with slant fin WH30 or a turbomax 23 indirect but can't find btuh requirements of either. If the XL30H is oversized at 119000 btu, how much more efficient will the XL20 at 91000 btu be.I appreciate your help as I am nervous of getting a boiler thats too small.

 

Assuming your heat loss is correct, then you are a candidate for a ~80,000 BTU input boiler. That size will recover a 20-40 gal indirect heater just fine. You will, however, want to have a zone valve control or switching relay with "priority" to give priority to hot water production when the indirect calls. This basically turns off the space heating and gives all the boiler energy to the indirect for a few minutes (~15-20). In 20 minutes the building will not cool off appreciably. Then the control turns back to space heating. Simple and efficient.

One way to check against your heat loss calculation, assuming your house heats OK now, is to measure the number of feet of baseboard (actual fin-tube element length, not the covers) and multiply by 550. That will give you a rough approximation of your baseboard output in BTU/hr using typical 180F supply water. Example: my house is 50,000 BTU/hr loss using the slantfin software. I have about 64,000 BTU/hr worth of baseboard. This is known as "overradiation." No biggie. There are controls for that. I used 64,000 BTU/hr to size my boiler. I also have a 40 gal indirect. The boiler is 96,000 input (manufacturer has a fair bit of spacing between sizes, I got closest without going under).

I know nothing about slantfin boilers, but just looking at the sizing and efficiency chart on the web, I'd go with the XL-20 over the XL-30H for your application.

 

There are ups & downs to both. The 20 even with the lower efficency should cost you less to operate & if your calculations are right or nearly so, it should be amply large.
From personal experience, I do not suggest using a water heater less than 40 gallons unless you run it very hot. I put a 26 in my place & even with just two people it isn't enough. Glad I made that mistake in my own place & not a customer's. Ever since, I've used nothing under 40 gallons.

 

The Turbomax indirect claim they can make hot water from 40 to 140 degrees in 7 seconds. Do guys have any experience with these.

 

No experience. Never heard of it. But comparing the ratings to some other "typical" indirects, the Turbomax doesn't appear to be any better. In many cases, it doesn't perform as well.

They sure do have a flashy brochure, though....

 

Sure they can. So can I with a cigarette lighter & a teaspoon of water. I haven't looked at the literature but I'd bet they don't say how much water they can heat in 7 seconds nor what the temperature of the boiler water is.