New boiler

[iwasjustwondering]

Does anyone know anything about heating systems?  The boiler for my house is apparently 20+ years old, and is on its last legs.  It stopped working a few weeks ago.  I had a contractor come in and give me prices for repairing it.  The cost to repair the problem (a problem with the starter and the gas intake) was going to be $1200.  The repairman said it might be silly to invest the money into such an old system, as he is pretty sure the control panel is going to go soon.  I'm all for DIY, but a gas intake problem for a boiler is a bit outside my comfort zone.

So if you were to buy a boiler to supply forced hot water into baseboard heating in a 3bd, 1ba, 1700 sqft home, what would you buy? 

The contractor quoted me $9800 for a new boiler, fyi.  The system ended up kicking back on *while* a guy from the gas company was in my house to give me a second opinion.  So far, so good, and with any luck I will defer this purchase till the fall.  But I know my time is coming.

TIA for any advice.

[BigHammah]

Would need more information, such as what are you paying per therm for gas...or are we talking propane? When you say gas intake, do you mean the gas valve? These can run anywhere from $100 to $400 plus, depending on the model. When you say starter, do you mean the pilot or thermocouple (conventional boiler) or the ignitor (condensing)? Either way, none of these parts should be very expensive. $1200 seems steep unless there's more to it.

$9800 is going to be pretty steep for what you need, especially if we're talking a simple one-day swap out. I'm assuming this is a condensing boiler - if you're going conventional you're wasting your money for the small price difference.

Don't know where you are but you should be able to heat a house that size with something like this - http://www.supplyhouse.com/Buderus-GB142-24-GB142-65000-BTU-Output-Wall-Hung-Modulating-Condensing-Gas-Boiler-Nat-Gas-or-LP. This is a nice model and the good thing about the newer condensing boilers is that you can't oversize them because of reasons too long to go into right here.