domestic gas heat

[Fritz]

Time to redo the 25 or older Slant Fin.
3 contractors quoted Burnhams, 1 a Slant Fin again.
I've been told by a few people that the high AFUE may not be the best choice, because if it does break down, the parts are not always in stock. Plus whether the $ difference will pay itself back.
We're in NY/LI area. It gets cold.
We have gas. About 1200 sq feet and what will be 3 zones, up from 2.

Indirect (Heat-Flo was one choice) hot water seems to be the popular choice with all contractors.
Well-McLain and Amtrol were tossed around for this as well.

Any thoughts or recent experience with the hardware?

[testcase]

Those slant fin units have very little mass. They seem to cool off way too fast and, the furnace has to keep cycling on to bring the heat back up.

My120 year old house (on Long Island), had gravity feed hot water heat with BIG cast iron radiators. Took a long time to heat the house after we returned from ski vacations (6~10 hours to rise from 50 to 67 degrees). I had some major work done several years ago and replaced the furnace. Every room where work was done got upgraded to new, in wall, cast iron radiators. My gas fired system now has circulators and two zones. Heat is up in minutes now (when away, I now leave the system set at 65. The new copper pipes have NO tolerance for freezing so, its cheaper to keep the heat up than pay for a burst pipe).

[mrbigstuff]

I've been told by a few people that the high AFUE may not be the best choice, because if it does break down, the parts are not always in stock. Plus whether the $ difference will pay itself back.

Fritz, FWIW, plumbers (and other trades) say these things All The Time, as they don't want to learn about new equipment or methods. It borders on the pathetic, which is why we can't have new technology in our homes. I think this is endemic to the northeast (Boston here), and out west tradespeople are more willing to try newer methods and the resulting bit of education that may be required to correctly install such equipment.

My own experience is installing a boiler that should have been more efficient but I was talked "out of it" by my plumber who was not familiar with it. Now, it does work great (and should as it's only two years old) but I certainly could have installed a more efficient boiler but would have had to find someone else to do it and it was November.

[Fritz]

thanks guys.
I'm on LI too. The core is 90 years young. I think this is prolly the first heat this place had.
We have slant fin rads. I never thought about the mass of the unit. Good point.
My old house on LI had an old slant fin too. Cast iron on the top floor and slant fins on the ground, but with circulators.
That top floor was hotter the habanero on the coldest days and in minutes, set for 60º.