Any Used Steam Boilers out there?

[Dave Weglarz]

Hello,

I'm in St. Louis and I'm looking around trying to find a used, nat-gas powered steam boiler that is in good working order. And obviously it needs to be relatively inexpensive to fit in my budget. Everything I've seen is $12-20+k. I'm looking for something in the 750,000-1,000,000 BTU range to heat my 500 gallon mash cooker and 200 gallon still. Up to 15 PSI (low/atmospheric pressure) is what my jacketed kettles are rated to. If it came with a blow down tank (if necessary) and/or a condensate return system, well that would be a huge plus. If you have a boiler, or maybe you're looking to size up and need to get rid of your current one, or if you know where one is, please let me know!

Feel free to contact me off the forum at: David@still630.com

Also, if you're in or around St. Louis area, and you know of a reputable, reliable, and cost-effective company to do the process piping for the boiler lines, please shoot me an email and let me know!

Thanks,

Dave

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

i installed a new steam boiler for our operation and it was delivered in pieces...so I'm going to assume a used one would arrive in pieces too? Disassembling, transporting, and then reassembling an essential piece of equipment that's been previously used (and maybe abused?) seems like you are setting yourself up for some major headaches...at the very least, setting yourself up to have "unknowns" always out there...

1.) can equipment like this travel assembled? That would eliminate a large part of my comment's concern.

2.) is your expected discount really greater than your expected service/repair/maintenance/discovery schedule that will come with a previoulsy owned piece of equipment like this?

3.) would you need to replace certain key components anyway (before turning it on in your location), making the used purchase a wash in the end?

4.) have you factored in connecting the used system and its configuration to your setup and configuration? No gaurantee it will be a drop and fit operation....

When i needed my steam boiler, i reached out to my local plumber. He sourced it, installed it, and visits it every year for a check up. Didn't need to reach out to a specialty vendor who did just steam boilers, but maybe I lucked out. What I do know is that for all the things I worry about, the lifespan or reliability of my boiler is not one of them.

Best of luck,

-Scott

[Jedd Haas]

I think Scott has some good points. I found a used boiler for sale locally. It was 15HP, which is 502,080 btu. The seller was asking $4500, as opposed to $15k or more for a new one of the same size. But the used one needed a bunch of parts; it didn't have any warranty, and our building would have required some work for it to meet code for the boiler. Not to mention the install cost. I think a used boiler might make sense if it were in really good condition and the seller warranted it as such. But there are a bunch of other costs associated with a boiler that make the initial cost a smaller portion of the overall outlay.

[ViolentBlue]

check local used kitchen equipment sales. I've seen some very good prices on low pressure steam boilers in places like that.

[Dave Weglarz]

Thanks for the input. After playing around with different set ups, I'm thinking a smaller new boiler might be the way to go.

Thanks,

Dave

[Southernhighlander]

I have a great buy on a used AJAX steam boiler. It is a low presure steam boiler that was used to run a jacketed still. It is 1.05 million BTUs and it produces 866lbs of steam per hour at 15psi max. It is Natural Gas fired. It is all set up and ready to go. It is a 2008 model but it was only used for 1year. It origanally sold for over $20,000 I will take 4,750.00 for it. Let me know if you are not interested so that I can list it for sale.

Paul 417-778-6908