Now that we’ve decided to spread the word about Weil Mclain Boiler Hell, the site is getting it’s first burst of traffic. Thanks to those of you who have spread the word. Big thanks to Dominic, who has sent a heads up to home efficiency upgrade specialists in BC! Finally, we really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. We hope other homeowners can avoid Weil Mclain’s terrible “jet-engine” experience.
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Weil Mclain Boiler Hell 
Here is my nightmare story dealing with Weil McLain.
When my Weil McLain Ultra 230 had operating and safety problems, Weil-McLain made the problems worse.
My Weil McLain Ultra 230 High Efficiency boiler and Ultra Plus Indirect Fired Water Heater had critical problems from Day 1. It delivered 175 degree scalding water through our faucets. The temperature control on the water heater had no effect.
Six months later the incompetent heating contractor could still not fix critical problems. Here are two of the many Weil McLain problems.
1) Intermittent boiler shutdowns in subfreezing temps. If we were not home when this happened, our pipes would have frozen.
2) Exhaust gases venting into our home.
Plus the Weil McLain Ultra 230 was not much more energy efficient than the 25 year old boiler it replaced. I bought the Ultra 230 for energy efficiency. It performed nowhere near the hype. There were months when the Ultra 230 was less energy efficient than the old boiler.
Then I smelled the gas. It was coming out of the exhaust vent. This was a new problem created by the contractor when he re-routed intake/vent pipes that blew steam into a bedroom window or onto you if you used the door to the yard. The heating contractor I hired was hopelessly incompetent.
I contacted three heating contractors who had experience with Weil McLain Ultra 230 boilers to diagnose the problems. They concurred that the installation was so screwed up, it needed to be re-piped.
One heating contractor brought along a heating engineer to figure out the mess. The heating engineer contacted Weil McLain that I needed help. The heating engineer found significant problems that could damage and break the Ultra 230 boiler.
Weil-McLain sent a field rep, Tom, to my home. Tom comes with high credentials. I recently Googled him to discover he was leading a continuing education seminar for home inspectors. I, however, could give him no credibility after the antics he pulled.
I was devastated after having expectations of real help from Weil McLain.
First, he said the heating engineer who called Weil McLain should have talked to Tom before giving me an analysis of the Ultra 230 problems.
Tom turned the boiler on for a minute or two. Then he turned it off. He told me that showed the boiler works and does not shut itself down.
I pointed out the gas leak. He moved far from the leak and claimed he had no sense of smell. I told him he could feel a push of gas when the boiler is turned on. Tom would not come near the gas leak.
The heating contractors who inspected the system said the water intake valve should be open, whereas it was closed. Tom insisted it should be closed, as he “instructs his heating contractors that the valve is the last thing they should close when finishing an installation.” The heating contractors told me that because the valve was not properly installed, had it been left open, boiler water would have entered the domestic water supply. So Tom stopped my domestic water from being contaminated, but would not recognize the installation error that caused boiler shutdowns.
I attempted to contact Weil McLain engineers about this detail. Since Weil McLain does not want homeowners to contact its engineers about their problems, I had to use some cunning to talk to an engineer. He said the valve should be open, contradicting Tom.
I picked the best contractor I talked with to promptly fix the gas leak.
Fixing the Weil McLain Ultra 230 was another matter. It needed an expensive re-piping.
Anyone in my state can become a heating contractor. There is no organization providing professional oversight that could pressure the heating contractor to do right to his customer. The incompetent heating contractor hid behind Weil McLain’s field rep, who demonstrated no credibility denying obvious problems. The homeowner loses.
I took the only alternative that would force the incompetent heating contractor to pay for re-piping. I sued the heating contractor. Tom was one of the defense witnesses.
After receiving a cash settlement, I had the system re-piped. Now the Weil McLain Ultra 230 delivers energy efficiency. And it has not shut down once.
As I remain disturbed with Tom’s behavior and the likelihood that other homeowners will suffer from his lack of integrity, I wrote about my experience with Weil McLain to the CEO of SPX, the corporate parent of Weil McLain.
Promptly Weil McLain went into CYA mode. They sent Tom’s manager, Mike, and an engineer to my home to confirm there was no damage to the boiler from the multiple shutdowns.
I told Tom’s manager Mike details of my experience with Tom. Mike attempted to sooth this angry homeowner by promising that Weil McLain would extend the warranty. Mike never fulfilled his promise. I phoned, emailed and mailed him repeatedly to confirm his promise. But he never did. I wrote corporate executives and the conglomerate that owns Weil McLain. I never received a response.
When Mike was at my home, I urged him to implement systems at Weil McLain that will protect homeowners from the misconduct of its field reps such as what I experienced.
Mike called me to tell me he “talked” to Tom. Tom’s manager gave no details of what he talked about. He said nothing of any discipline. I asked how Weil McLain will protect consumers. He told me essentially gobbledygook about Weil McLain’s “Chicago method” and “Boston method.” I heard absolutely nothing that would stop misconduct in the future.
5 years and 2 months after installation, the Weil McLain Ultra heat exchanger started to leak. That means it had to be replaced.
Between six and 10 years, the Weil McLain warranty included replacing the heart exchanger for free, but not the labor. Of course, Mike and Weil McLain reneged on the promise to extend the warranty so I had to pay for the labor.
I should have video recorded Mike’s promise. My wife and the second heating contractor heard Mike’s promise.
Mike’s promise was to make up for the terrible experiences I had with Tom. Instead his reneging on the promise only reinforced the lack of ethics I experienced with Weil McLain’s people.
In conclusion, my experience demonstrates that Weil McLain Ultra boilers are not reliable and that Weil McLain people are not to be trusted. I seriously doubt that the Weil McLain Ultra boiler in my house will last 20 years.
My great grandfather, Isidor Weil, would be rolling in his grave if he knew of this dubious conduct. Part of the reason my family sold this company is because we felt it was being taken over by people who only cared about profit. Apparently we were right. I’ve tried to contact them in the past, telling them of my relation to the company, just seeing if they could tell me anything about the company’s origins or my great grandfather and they never even returned my calls. Way to go guys.
dr charles h heller…
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As a heating contractor I have been selling and installing Weil Mclean boilers for some ten years and have never had a problem with them. The major problem with and piece of heating equipment is the installation, read the book, do it rirght the first time and there should be no need to call the manufacturer.
Tom Lisinski
Lisinski’s Mechanical
Four years ago when our otherwise perfectly-working boiler developed a leak in the pump we had a Weil-McClain boiler installed. At a cost of several thousand dollars more than replacing only the pump. We did this primarily because we were lead to believe we would see a huge saving on our gas bill…up to 40%.
Well, the boiler has been nothing but trouble, the first two years shutting down multiple times each season during the coldest times. I finally called the home office and they sent their area rep along with someone from the hvac company that did the install. It was determined that the boiler needed a new computer board. That was done at the end of the second heating season and during the third heating season, which by the way was an extremely mild winter, 2011-2012, we had no problems. At least no problems with the shutting down.
During this entire time, we have had an air leak problem and must repeatedly bleed the radiators, an unpleasant and messy job. In addition, we set our thermostat at 68 daytime and 64 nighttime. At 8 am when we turn the heat back up, it does not reach the set temperature for three to four hours. HOURS.
And last but not least, we have had exactly zero savings on our gas bill. Not just money, but cubic foot usage of gas.
And now the problems have started again.
I consider this possibly the biggest mistake we have ever made and if it were possible to get our old boiler back I would gladly pay twice what we paid for this new piece of junk.
I have run CGI’s for years. Your recourse is on who incorrectly specified this boiler not Weil McClain for building it. I am sorry to hear of your experience and see crap like this all the time from installers that don’t know how to apply products to the application. For your situation the boiler I would have recommended is the IBC 15-150 it is the quietest most efficient boiler, and of incredible quality. You can stand in front of it and not tell it is running. (No kidding). The CGI is more of an industrial unit, but can and often is put into homes, so long as the venting is run up high or out to an open area where the noise won’t just bounce around (not always an option). Yes, I am a hydronic installer, one that cares for my customers more than your Plumber, and would be much obliged if you put blame where blame is due.
I’m a contractor also, all I have read comes down to very poor
Installation. Boiler have become fine tuned machines and if not properly installed they will fail, especially on the efficiency side..
Yes there will always be the few that have bugs and for some reason this is in every product. Make sure you know who the contractor is! Check them out! Cheapest is not the best!
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Its actually upsetting for me to read these kinds of postings. As a professional estimator I pride myself on my ability to try to guide the customer to a product that is best for their application. Only with this method and responsible follow through can a product be installed that will meet the customers ACTUAL NEEDS. I see a lot of internet adds today “find out how much a boiler should cost” and “find out what the average cost of boilers should be” Do you really want the average installation? Because this is what you will get. Its a tough complicated industry that takes a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to do it well. I have 600 seat of my pants in class hours vocationally and essentially two degrees. I know its hard for customers to figure out what is the right value for their project but this is what you are paying for you are not buying an appliance. These are like tools applied in the right way and used for the right way they can have significant advantages. Applied or installed the wrong way and you will loose your original investment and have to buy it twice usually at some time later when it also will cost more. Fortunately we all have better things to do. Beautiful days like today places to go wonderful things to concern ourselves with. I loose jobs frequently when customers choose to go other directions such as my prices are higher as I have discovered things that others have not or my methods or products are more complete but I don’t loose any sleep over that.
I have to comment on the expressions I see here made towards the manufacture. This manufacture has been in business for a long time. They make quality products.
The problem is that Weil McLain stands firmly behind bad installations and incompetent contractors.