Viessmann Gas Boiler
 

Anyone familiar with them? ratings / opinions??

Viessman Boilers
 

These are very sophisticated, extremely efficient systems. They are also fairly expensive to purchase, install, maintain. Additionally, because they are so sophisticated, they are also fairly complex, and it is imperative that the system be installed and maintained by a person/company who has been certified by Viessman, not just your average HVAC guy. However, overall Viessman is a great system.

I've got a price and someone who installs them. The person rates them over a Burnham. Would you agree? I guess their wall mounted which I'm not to sure of...Some people on the web like them and many frantically complain about them so I can't get a good bearing to make a decision.

Absolutely top of the line. Worth every penny and should you ever sell, make sure the buyer knows about the quality as it is a legitimate selling point.

You can also consider Buderus who also makes high end, high efficiency stuff.

Viessmann is a can't miss.

Doing a little more investigation I was quoted the "100 series" and I hear the "200 series" is the absolute Mercedes of Boilers. Not sure if that matters but the 100 series was kicked off for the "average home owner." Guess the 200 series units can run 15K or better.

Too much money & too many moving parts & Over-complicated IMO. Get a good Burnham for about 5K & you should be fine.

Not sure on the quote but be careful as some HVAC guys will want to push you with their "house" brand since they get deals and sales incentives.

Give these guys a call as they helped me when deciding and are straight-up no BS kind of guys: http://coastalwinair.com/ Most you lose is the time on the phone..... I have absolutely no affiliation with them, but they answered all my questions and working with my builder we were able to get a really good deal on my Buderus. They offered a deal in the Viessman as well but it was more money so I balked. It's a BMW vs Merecedes kind of comparison IMO.

If you ask those in the residential HVAC industry, Viessman and Buderus are the industry benchmarks in many ways. What sets them apart is the quality of construction and materials used and very efficient designs.

I am most familiar with the oil furnaces as opposed to gas. I researched this at great lengths and chose the Buderus based on price point. My next door neighbor has full-tilt Viessman system including stainless steel oil tank plus he has central A/C. Absolutely top of the line.

My previous house in New England which was smaller and had a "contractor" boiler (read: Burnham) we used between 900-1000 gallons every year. My new house which is 350 sq ft bigger plus full basement we used 580 gallons of oil this year. Both houses are same build quality and we built from new. Again, this is oil furnances but Viessmann also gets outstanding reviews on gas boilers.

It may not matter but there is also a legitimate resale point for these units as well. Even the look and finish of them is high-end.

I don't know why anyone would say a Viessmann is overly-complicated? In fact is makes no sense since all boilers have controllers.

Love to read about all the high tech stuff out there. All sorts of claims of efficiency. Great if all works.

Here is the Munchkin story MUNCHKIN BOILER Munchkins claim to fame is size and high efficiency.

A friend purchase a fancy home on the big lake from a very well known lake house builder. The home was a hot air heated home with a boiler in basement/crawl space. The new owner set up all sorts of internet connections that would send to this iPhone anytime the heat went below a certain temperature. The first call came in November. Munchkin boiler stopped working. Owner calls the builder who in turns calls the plumbing contractor who installed the Munchkin boiler. Plumber comes and "fixes" boiler. A month later another call to iPhone as heat has gone below set warning. Another call to plumber as boiler stopped working. This time the owner of house states to plumber to purchase a 2nd Munchkin. Fix the first Munchkin boiler and place the 2nd in tandum/relay so that if one breaks the other will start up. A double safe/redundant way to prevent any problems with heat in winter. Now owner has two boilers. Then January he gets a call that both Munchkin boilers are not working. Owner calls the plumber. The plumber does not return the calls. Owner calls the manufacturer of Munchkin in East Freetown, Massachusetts. They tell him that the only contractor in this area that can work on his TWO Munchkins is the same plumber that will not return his calls. So owner states that he will remove both boilers and take down to East Freetown, Massachusetts and have the factory technicians fix the boilers. No, ain't gonna happen. The Munchkin factory in East Freetown, Massachusetts does not have any repair/diagnose technicians and that he cannot bring down there to be fixed. So now he has two boilers that no one can or will fix. And a temporay hot air propane heater in basement provided by the propane company.

Owner of new home (over the 1 year builders warranty) goes out and buys a Weil-McLain. And no problems after that.

So you folks that love cutting edge technology go right ahead. Maybe "Joe" the plumber will be there forever to fix your high tech boiler and you will have zero issues.

Songkrai, Buderus has the factory training facility in *drum roll please*, Londonderry, NH. Yep.

You are referencing a different brand than what the OP is discussing.

This is also why you get an installer who knows the brands. No different than asking a Nissan mechanic to work on a Cadillac. He may know what he's doing but then again he may not.

My plumber who is contracted for all my builder's houses does extensive work with Viessmann and Buderus. About half my nieghborhood has one of these two brands. Zero problems.

Also, you can have the standard controllers and burners used on the contractor boilers so if they fail, brand doesn't matter. Your post also did not specify what failed. Odds are it was a controller or burner issue.

Any system is as good as the install.

For the OP, for S&grins I did a short search and the 100 series will satisfy most homeowners and much more palatable on the wallet. The 200 series is best of the best but if cost is an issue than consider the 100 series (or even a Buderus).

I highly recommend you call the folks at the link I provided and give them details of what you need, sq footage, house, insulation, etc. They can help you properly size the system as well.

I would poo-poo the naysayers;)

This product may be the best invention since sliced bread.

And yes, there is an address in Londonderry, New Hampshire. That is very good to know.

But it appears that this is a foreign manufactured item. And it does appear that this company in one form or another has been around for 250 years. Another good thing.

But these days of mergers and acquisitions this product may or may not continue to be around. This is true for all items of course. But names like Weil-Mclain, Goodman, etc. seem to just be there all of the time.

And yes, Munchkin is not the item mentioned in this posting. I just used that one as an example of new modern high tech boilers.

I purchased one of the best instantaneous on demand hot water heaters. And it is a great unit. Works flawlessly for many years. This instantaneous on demand water heater is a Myson 325. The company is gone. There is no one to repair this water heater. There are no parts for this water heater. Yes, there is one company in Florida that does stock [U]some[U] parts but not many. When this water heater breaks down. There is essentially no one to fix it and no parts to fix it with. A great on demand water heater that will have to be thrown away when it breaks.

But back to the original post. Yes this unit may be the best thing since sliced bread. And yes there may be all sorts of resources to get this unit fixed when time comes to fix it.

When it comes to HVAC and efficiency, the Europeans make us look like fools.

Viessmann and Buderus will be around for a looong time. They are used heavily in Europe.

songKrai I get what you are saying. I go by "the Roper theory" when I buy products: high quality & simple. Keep the electronic sensors & do-dads & extras off the machine if possible hence why I have had a Roper washer & dryer forever.

Same holds for a furnace IMO. I don't want to marry the "only" guy in central NH who can fix the product & hope I can get him when I need him. I would buy the best all-purpose bolier like a Burnham that anyone can fix & get parts for. The more complicted it gets the more it costs.

Check out some of the nightmare stories in this forum about high-end stoves.

Munchkin Boilers
 

Wildwood Condo Development units originally came with Hydrotherm Celtic boilers. Hydrotherm dicontinue importing them in 1988, but sells them in the European market. Celtic boilers were the first mass produced efficiency boilers and by today's standards, are very efficient.

Most Celtics parts are still available. A number of owners opt to replace thier boilers with Munchkin. Seymour & Sons Heating & Air Conditioning does an excellent job of evaluating our heating assesment and repairing Celtics as well as installing Munckin boilers. Wildwood heats with natural gas so we may be an exception to the rule.

Seymour advises Viessmann and Buderus are good products, but for our units Celtics and Munchkins are just right.

Give Jeff Seymour a call for an honest opinion.

Dgp are you just looking to do space heating or also domestic hot water? Also what are you using for radiation source- baseboar, radiant in floor, radiators? Tons of options when using gas and they all work good if set up correctly .

Jeff Seymour=excellence
 

I agree with Broadhopper: Jeff is very honest, reliant, trustworthy fellow.

Could someone start talking model numbers please, I'm looking at specs for Viessmann vs Burnham and I'm not overly impressed. Something ain't adding up.

Vitodens 100 and 200 series..... they have options in some of the sizes for built in on domestic water uses also triangle tube makes a good wall Hung condensing boiler and made in the usa

Two series:
100 = Vitodens
200 = Vitola

http://www.viessmann-us.com/

Also, for the oil fired boilers you don't have to use the Viessman or Buderus control boxes. They are expensive but are designed to give you max efficiency. You can use the same controls to run the ACME boilers to run the Viessmann or Buderus boilers.

However, the controller is where you max out the efficiency as it uses the outdoor reset (which you can get cheaper ones but I wanted the Buderus Logamatic). When outside temps are higher, it kicks down the firing of the boiler as it doesn't need to get as hot to heat the house.

http://www.buderus.us/files/20100223...ic_BTC0208.pdf

Viessmann has the same kind of set-ups.
http://www.viessmann.com/com/en/prod...itotronic.html

I stongly recommend the OP call WinnAir. The aren't just an individual plumber who is comfortable with certain brands. They also have a showroom and can show you the differences between brands. I am not here to sell HVAc equipment but the differences are considerable.

Be careful when comparing AFUE as the types of control such as the Logamatic or Vitotronic make a huge difference in true system efficiency.

In the end, you get what you pay for. All I know is we only used 580 gallons of oil last year for a ~2200 sq ft colonial without even trying to conserve oil by turning down the t-stat.

Just installed system 2000 .... (going with propane, but is easily convertible to oil by changing front module.

http://www.energykinetics.com/index.shtml

Using radiators ... Myson and Pensotti ... baseboard only in crawlspace and basement.

Find out this winter how well this works.

Boilers
 

I will begin by saying that I work directly for a European boiler manufacturer-one not mentioned in any of this post. I suppose that means that I have work to do in the Lakes Region.
The best advice that I can give you is to find a contractor that is recommended by others, as he or she is your first line of defense. If they are comfortable with a certain product and have several installations under their belt (without major issues), then there is no reason that your home should fare any differently with that boiler. Both Viessmann and Buderus are quality products, and properly installed and maintained should give you years of comfort and economy. Now I'm off to sell some of MY stuff......

RumGuy - please see your private message. Thanks.

Viessman vs. others....
 

I recently had to make the same decision... viessmann vs. more common brands when I replaced my FHW Boiler system here in my home in Massachusetts.

I was definitely impressed with the Viessmann system.. the efficiency ratings were great and their track record for reliability looked solid.

I was, however, very concerned about two potential issues: The initial cost of the system and the complexity of the sensors and controls that made the system so efficient.

My home is a modest 2400 sqft split entry with 4 zone FWH gas boiler in NE Masachusetts.... The Viessmann system was more than two times the cost of the conventional (Burnham) system, but with the increased efficiency, that may not have been too big an issue. The thing that concerned me most was servicing the unit.

My thoughts were that *IF* the installer was not available for emergency service on the Viessmann, it might be very difficult to find a general plumbing contractor that was familiar with that unit, while *any* HVAC guy could service the Burnham. Also, my smallish house would not benefit as greatly from the efficiency of the viessmann unit as perhaps a larger home might.

I have been *extremely* happy with the burnham unit for the last 4 years or so.

Cheers... and Good luck.... big investment either way.

Gusman

Thanks Gusman and thinking the exact same thing actually...About ready to "jump in" and go with the Burnham also. Mainly for the same reasons.

So it's been a few years, did you jump in? If so how did you like the process, and savings since you did? Which boiler did you get?

I put a Viessman oil burner in my house 18 months ago took out a Burnham. Night and day, love the system no issues at all.

My oil guy says he would never use Burnham. He say's he replaces a lot of Burnham's though.