buying a Used Boiler

[sublime68charger]

found this add in Craigslist in my area,

(broken link removed)

it si for a Char Master wood boiler.

I am just wondering if this is a good price for the unit?

My folks are looking to build a new house and my dad wants to build a workshop area as well next to the House and they are looking at doing the wood boiler trick. They have heated the current house for years witha Thermo Pride Forced air furnance and no strangers to wood buring but for the new hosue they dont want the mess/dust/dirt/bugs of wood heat in the house and would set up the char master in the workshop and due the Pex lines to the house.

Just wondering if its a good price or not.

thanks

sublime out

 

[leaddog]

I don't know anything about those units but my thought is you are 1/2 way to a good gasifier for the money . That unit is at least 3yr's use and you know nothing how it was treated or used. I would wait and get a gasifier that was sized to the use you need and have a new unit. It wouldn't take long and the less wood usage would make up for the extra. Since I've had my gasifier I wouldn't recomend any thing else they are so far superior to other boilers. And if I was building a new home it would be even more important to build for the boiler and wood useage.
leaddog

 

[Eric Johnson]

I have a couple of concerns about this boiler, and used boilers in general.

First off, I have no idea what they mean by the statement "heats for days without a constant fire burning."

How can that be if they're trying to heat more space than the boiler has capacity for? Sounds like typical wood boiler BS to me.

If they're trying to heat more house than the boiler can handle, that suggests to me that it's been fired hard, if not overfired. That might or might not affect its condition, but I bet the grates are damn near burned out. There's nothing wrong with running a boiler hard and hot, but you can overdo it and damage the boiler if you're not careful. I'd also be concerned about low return water temp corrosion since it's probably not plumbed to avoid it, and it probably sees a lot of pretty cool water coming back from the zones.

You can't see that kind of problem, nor other potential corrosion problems, until the boiler fails, and then it's scrap.

I wouldn't risk $3,500 on any used conventional boiler unless I had intimate knowledge of how it was operated. My personal limit would be $500. I think there are used Tarms on Ebay for that much money, and Tarm is a proven high-quality boiler. If you're in southern Wisconsin, you might find a few used Royalls around. I had one that was 30 years old when I bought it, and it's probably still going strong for the guy I sold it to after two seasons.

Leaddog is right about the superiority of gasifiers.

 

[sublime68charger]

thanks for the replay's on this guy's,

yea I only spent $300.00 on my boiler when I got it used and it has been going strong since.
knock on the wood every time I load it that it stays that way.


I still think I go and look at it just to look at the setup that of there wood boiler system.

They have a storage tank with it as well I don't know if the tank will go with the boiler or not but also something to think about.

it's not avaible till heating season is over any way but My dad wants to go this route and the more things he can look at in person the better off he'll be able to make a choice when the time comes.

thanks again

sublime out.