My boiler is between 15 to 18 yrs. old. I just had a new pump installed as the coupler was wearing out and was very noisy. Also was leaking. Also needed to trouble shoot thermostat in zone 2. Turns out the old home owners had by passed the damper and had cut the wires. Wiring very messed up. Was told about 1200 to rewire system or 4500 for a whole new boiler installed. Is it worth 3300 more for a new system at this point?

Year ago I cleaned soot and shale from the bottom of my chimney. The picture below shows the soot and shale that have since accumulated after one year. The pile of soot on the left in the picture is about a cup full. The chimney is clay lined and the flakes in the picture are almost all paper thin. [url]http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr355/zoesdaddy/DSC00902.jpg[/url] I was wondering if that shale indicates there is a problem? Should there be no shale whatsoever? If I understand from the forum the stack temperature has to be high enough or you can get condensation in the chimney that can cause deterioration. Last service guy here in 2006 recorded [I]“stack temp=300”[/I]. He pointed out that there was shale in the bottom of the chimney which he thought might indicate a problem. But he didn’t say anything [I]at all [/I]about the stack temperature being [I]too low[/I]. In the previous year (2005) he had [I]measured 400[/I]? I think I remember from the forum that you have to wait maybe 20 minutes or so (hope I’m close there) after the burner comes on to get a true stack temperature reading. So I was thinking maybe the service guy took it [I]too soon [/I]that last time? Be that as it may, I got me a thermometer and a smoke tester to try and do some checking myself. I have 2 zones. The temp in both zones was 64 so I set both t-stats up to 67. Burner ran as indicated below to raise temps in both zones to 68 according to t-stat displays. (Don’t have my storm windows in yet - if that’s[I] at all[/I] relevant?). minute 0 –--------[burner ON] minute 7-- -------[stack-t = 410] minutes 8-35 -– [stack-t oscillates around 390] minutes 36-43---[ stack-t climbs to 405] minute 43 ------ [burner OFF] minute 46--------[stack-t = 355] minute 46 –-----[burner ON] minute 49 –--- -[burner OFF – house temp 68 and both t-stats satisfied] The thermometer I have is the [I]Omega HH12B[/I]. I also used the [I]Smoke Tester (Westwood)[/I] during the test and got zero smoke according to the paper. Did another test later where I used hot water in the basement until the burner turned on for the domestic hot water(tankless system). I then quickly turned the hot water off. It took about three minutes of burner run time for the system to raise the water temperature and the burner to turn off. Stack temperature got up to about 370 degrees. I have an L7224U Aquastat that I have set as follows: High Limit = 185 High Limit Differential = 10 Low Limit = 160 Low Limit Differential = 10 In addition to the shale question my other question is “Do these stack temperatures seem OK“? Want to do whatever I can to prevent chimney or any other deterioration. Any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated!