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Saw a boiler from the 1940s still running in a school basement in Cleveland
It was a massive Cleaver-Brooks unit, and the caretaker said they just keep up with the water treatment and basic upkeep. Part of me thinks if it's safe and works, why replace a beast that's lasted this long, but the other part worries about efficiency and finding parts if it goes down. Where do you all stand on running old boilers versus pushing for a new install?
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henry1507mo ago
Guess they're still waiting for the warranty to run out.
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morgan_stone337mo ago
Man, that's a tough call. I've seen a few of those old Cleaver-Brooks units still chugging along. The big risk is a heat exchanger crack, and good luck finding that part. You're also burning way more fuel than a modern mod-con boiler. But if the school budget is tight and it passes inspection, I get the keep-it-running mindset. Would you gamble on another winter with it?
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johnson.eva5mo ago
Hold up though, @henry150 might be onto something - aren't a lot of those old boilers grandfathered in on efficiency standards? Even if you swap it, the new one has to meet way stricter codes, which is a whole other headache. Plus the fuel savings on a mod-con might take years to actually pay off if your gas rates are decent.
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