Burnham Oil Boilers: MPO-IQ, EMP, V8H and MegaSteam
You get a boiler that every supply house on Long Island stocks parts for, which is the thing that matters most on the night it stops. Burnham's residential oil boilers come from U.S. Boiler Company and fall into four lines:
- MPO-IQ: a three-pass cast iron water boiler rated at 87 percent AFUE and ENERGY STAR certified. The three-pass design pulls more heat out of the flue gases than a conventional boiler, and the IQ control panel handles the limit and low water cutoff functions in one unit.
- EMP: a second three-pass cast iron oil boiler at 87 percent, also ENERGY STAR, in a more compact package.
- V8H: the traditional cast iron oil boiler, rated at 85 percent and upgradeable to 87, available for hot water or steam. The V8 and the older V7 before it are the Burnham boilers most often found in Long Island basements.
- MegaSteam: a three-pass oil steam boiler at 86 percent for the steam-heated houses on the North Shore and in Nassau County.
All four are chimney vented and take a Beckett, Riello or Carlin burner, which is why the parts on every Domino truck fit them. Domino installs the current models and services every generation back to the V7.
Burnham Gas Boilers
For gas houses and oil to gas conversions, Burnham's cast iron gas line includes the Series 2 and Series 3 at 84 percent, the ES2 at 85 percent, the X-PV and X-2, and the Independence and SteamMax gas steam boilers. The Alpine, Alta and Aspen are condensing boilers with stainless steel heat exchangers at 95 to 96 percent AFUE that vent through a side wall, and the Alta comes in a combi version that makes the house's hot water. The Alliance line of indirect water heaters pairs with any of them.
Common Burnham Boiler Problems and Their Causes
Most Burnham repairs are the burner and the controls, not the cast iron. What Domino technicians see most:
- No heat with the burner locked out: a worn nozzle, sooted cad cell or weak igniter, which is a burner parts repair on any oil boiler.
- An older V7 or V8 with a tankless coil giving lukewarm water: the coil has limed up, or the coil plate gasket is weeping.
- Relief valve dripping: a waterlogged expansion tank pushing the pressure past 30 psi.
- Water between the sections on an older boiler: a section seal or push nipple that aged, usually after the boiler ran dry or took cold water while hot.
- A MegaSteam or V8 steam boiler banging, flooding or short cycling: the low water cutoff, the pressuretrol or sludge in the near-boiler piping.
- An MPO-IQ showing a fault on its control: usually a sensor or a burner problem the panel is reporting, not a failure of the panel itself.
Burnham Boiler Warranty
U.S. Boiler Company backs its residential cast iron boilers with a limited lifetime manufacturer's warranty on the boiler, and offers optional five and ten-year parts and limited labor plans that are purchased through the installer. The full terms, including registration requirements and what is excluded, are published on usboiler.net and come with the boiler. The burner, circulator and controls follow their own makers' warranties.
Burnham Boilers in Long Island Homes
A Burnham V8 from the 1990s is still a common sight on Long Island, and many of them are worth keeping: a yearly cleaning, a new burner when the old one wears out, and they run for decades. When one has a cracked section or has become the third repair of the winter, the MPO-IQ drops into the same footprint, vents into the same chimney and takes the same burner family, with a higher efficiency rating. For a gas house, the Alpine or Alta is the step up to side-wall venting and condensing efficiency.
Burnham Boiler Installation and Replacement
A new Burnham starts with a free written estimate. The technician sizes the boiler to the house as it is now, checks the chimney and piping, and recommends a model. The old boiler is removed as part of the job, the new one is piped, wired and fired, and the combustion is set with instruments. Financing is available through Wisetack, subject to its terms, and the boiler replacement page explains what decides the price.
Burnham Boiler Repair and Annual Service
Repairs are $189 plus parts, priced before they go in, 24 hours a day with no contract. The yearly $219 tune-up replaces the nozzle, filter and strainer, vacuums the sections and flue passages, and sets the burner. On a three-pass boiler the cleaning matters even more, because the extra passes collect soot that a skipped year leaves behind. Every price is on the pricing page.
Call for Burnham Boiler Service
Call (631) 867-2231 any time for a repair, or request a free estimate for a new Burnham boiler anywhere in Suffolk County, Nassau County or Queens.
Source: U.S. Boiler Company residential product pages and manufacturer's warranty, usboiler.net.