The majority of homes in the United States are heated with either a furnace or boiler, and boilers are commonly seen in the Northeast, including All Season Chimney’s service area. The difference between a furnace and a boiler is that furnaces heat air and distribute this heated air throughout a house via ducts, and boilers heat water and provide either steam of hot water to heat the home. Steam heats a house via pipes to steam radiators, and hot water heats via baseboard radiators or radiant floor systems. If you have an older furnace or boiler, you have a naturally drafting chimney through which the combustion gases exit your home using only their buoyancy combined with the height of the chimney. Many homeowners believe that since there is no fireplace, there is no need for maintaining a chimney of a boiler or furnace. This is not exactly true as these chimneys also need to be taken care of just like the chimney of a fireplace. Our chimney sweeps at All Season Chimney can take care of your boiler’s chimney as we clean and install boiler liners, which are a necessity for boilers’ chimneys. We would like to share some information with you from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to tell you why it is so important to maintain the chimney of your boiler.
What will All Seasons Chimney perform during a maintenance check of my boiler’s chimney?
When one of our certified chimney sweeps visits your home, he will do the following maintenance tasks:
Check the condition of the vent connector pipe and chimney.
Over time, parts of the venting system may become damaged or deteriorated. Our sweep will look for any damage or other problems.
Look for any blockages that may be present in your chimney.
If there is a blockages in your chimney, it could lower the heating efficiency of your boiler.
Clean and examine the condition of the liner of your chimney.
Just as the venting system, the liner of your boiler’s chimney can deteriorate over the years. Quite possibly, the chimney may not even have a liner. If the liner is damaged beyond repair or if there is no liner, we can reline the chimney with a lifetime-guaranteed stainless steel liner.
If my boiler system needs to be replaced, does my chimney liner need to be replaced as well?
When you replace your old boiler with a new one with an efficiency rating of 80% or higher, your chimney needs to be prepared to handle the higher risk for deposits of acidic condensation droplets that comes with these heating appliances. All Seasons Chimney can size a new stainless steel liner to fit both your new boiler and the combustion water heater, if present. If a chimney is larger than the heating appliance and/or water heater, you can experience problems with condensation and inadequate draft. We want your new boiler to be as efficient as possible, and installing a custom-sized liner is the best way to get the most out of your new heating appliance.
If you have an old boiler, contact All Seasons Chimney today. We will be happy to clean its chimney liner as well as examine it to see if it needs repairs or replacing.