Royall Boiler Questions

[trashcan]

My wife and I want to buy a Royall 6130. Does anyone know the retail price of the boiler itself? Also, the estimate we received for the installation, the unit, a modine heater for unattached garage (with underground piping), hot water heater, chimney repair (with stainless steel liner) came to $8400 total cost. Does this seem to be a fair estimate in your opinions?

Since this is our first boiler, do you think a unit of this size will adequately meet our heating and hot water needs? Total square feet of house and room in garage is about 1900, but we realize the Royall will also be heating water, and we have an older farmhouse in Wisconsin. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[webbie]

It's really hard to review such estimates from afar because there are so many variables. At first glance it certainly seems like a good price for all the various work that is involved.

As to the capability of the boiler - as you probably know, it is not the boiler but the amount of wood you put into it that ends up doing the work! A Modine in an uninsulated garage can really suck up some BTUs, so that concerns me a bit

As to the 6 cubic foot firebox heating 1900 square feet - that seems about right. But it really depends on how well insulated and tight your house is. One house can use 4x as much heat as another of the same exact size. It might be good to look at what fuel you used in previous years - and how much of it you used - to make a determination as to the approx. heat load. You also presumably have some backup heat? Sometimes it is best not to size a boiler for the very coldest week of the year, since that could mean it is oversized for other weather.

Our forum moderator, Eric, has a Royal (I think) for many years until he recently upgraded to a gasification-type (more heat, less wood). Perhaps he will chime in with the model he had and what kind of heating he did with it.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I had an old 6150 that heated our 3,000 square foot 150-year-old semi-insulated farmhouse for about 3 years. It couldn't keep up if the temps stayed below zero for long. Extended cold snaps meant changing back over to gas. The first year we burned no gas and burned about 21 full cords of dry wood. The second year, we didn't burn any gas and used 16 cords. The third year I got a complaint from the neighbors about smoke, so I only burned wood when the wind was blowing from the west, which it usually does. We burned 13 cords.

I couldn't figure out now to burn it without smoke, pretty intense at times.

That total cost installed is probably a good quote. It cost me $3,000 to do the Royall, and that was doing all the work myself about 4 years ago. I think those boilers sell in the low $4,000 range, but that may have changed. It's a really well-built boiler. Mine was over 30 years old and still going strong.