New combi boiler/water heater system recommendations?

[Andy D.]

I'm replacing the aging boiler and hot water heater systems in a MA multi-family rental property in the next few months, going through the MassSave discount program. Does anyone have any feedback regarding combination boiler/water heater units? I'd love to have side-by-side wall-mounted units to free up basement floor space, but this would be my first time with combination units and I assume they're not all created equal. Feedback welcome and appreciated!

[Sean McKenna]

@John Menton do you have any details on the unit? I’m a little surprised no one has been answering this.

Here is my personal opinion on these things. On your own house. Personal residence. Go ahead, efficiency is the way of the future and they will save you good money.

However, when it comes to multi-family situations. Do not buy weird.

Picture a problem on a nice winter Saturday with the wind chill -17 and you’re getting an emergency call at 2am. You call for emergency service. The repair company wakes up the new guy and says get going. New guy arrives, sees weird equipment, doesn’t know how to fix it. Spends 2 hours on the internet searching for videos on how to repair the weird equipment, gets sketchy info.

Looks in the repair van for parts to make this work. Doesn’t have them, calls owner of HVAC company. They don’t have them in any van. You have to wait until Tuesday for parts because the supply house doesn’t have those parts on a shelf yet and have to overnight them.

Add up all those expenses. Big money repair. Ticked off tenant.

Or, you install a normal boiler that’s stocked at a local supply house. They have every repair part under the sun. A lot of the repair parts are already in the service van. Little money repair. Happy tenant.

Install a normal hot water heater.

This way, the heat goes down. New guy will be able to fix it quickly. The tenant will still have hot water to bath the new born baby.

When it comes to mechanical systems on a multi family. Keep it simple. Keep it easy to maintain.

If you want other HVAC techs opinions go to HVAC-TALK.com and post a question in the home owner section. Techs are more than happy to give an opinion on equipment.