Williamson Vs Viessman Boilers

Hello,
I got a quote to replace my oil boiler with a Viessmann VR1-33 and was going to move forward. I "friend" of mine said he would match the price but quoted me a Willamson OWB-3 burner. I've heard of Viessman and I believe they are considered good boilers. I've never heard of Williamson and I think he may be giving me a lesser boiler so that he could match the price. Anyone know if Williamson's are comparable to Viessman.

 

Viessmann VR1-33 or almost any Viessman product is a top notch quality product. The Williamson is a middle of the road boiler.
A bigger difference is the boiler sizes. The Viessman is almost twice as many btu's then the Williamson product. I would assume the guy quoting the Williamson may be closer in sizing his boiler, if not it is too small. With doing over a thousand heat losses I know most boilers are 100% oversized. If they are oversized the boiler efficiency takes a hit and you will have more breakdowns and servicing.

 

That's interesting. I didn't realize that. The boiler will serve 3 zones in a 2100 sq ft. Colonial. It will have 3 circulators for the 2 heating zones (1st and 2nd floor) and the 3rd zone is the indirect water heater. The Viessman guy installs the same unit in all his installs so I don't think he took size into consideration. The 2nd guy, the Williamson, quoted me $1500 more about a month ago but this month he said he would match the other guy. He basically took $1500 off the price so he could match the other guy so I'm not sure he took sizing into consideration either. I'm suspecting he just gave me a less expensive boiler to match the price. Neither of them even mentioned sizing of the boiler.

Thanks though, I thought it was kind of a one size fits all for residential.

 

As a rule of thumb your boiler size is probably more accurately around 70,000 btu's.
A heat loss should always be done. If no one did a heat loss they missed the most important step, proper sizing. Larger boilers will cause short cycling and affect the boiler operating efficiency.
This Link will help explain the need for a heat loss.

 

Thanks, pretty interesting and informative