Burnham Alpine Boiler Overview

Purchased the Alpine 150F in November 2011. The first day after being installed by a very reputable heating company, the control board failed and shut the unit down on the day of installment. Luckily, the installing contractor had the sales rep come out and he found that the board needed to be replaced, resolving the issue! It was delivered with a faulty board right out of the box! Jump forward 2 years. The unit shut down with an error code EFRR, which even the installing contractor could not find until he contacted the sales rep. The EFRR code means a catastrophic failure that even the installer can't figure out. So, we're waiting to see what the sales rep, who Burnham says has the authority to either authorize a new unit or a different boiler brand all together, will do. Where do we go from here? This boiler is 2 years old and we were told that when the warranty runs out and the board fails, you're looking at close to $2,000.00 to replace it, including labor! So we want a different boiler, but after the nightmares I've been reading they're junk, and I should be grateful I got 2 years of heat from a $12,000.00 investment. I was told by the reputable installer that they will talk to the rep to see what my options are, because they don't want to pay to replace this very expensive board every year or so under a maintenance contract.

Don't buy from this company. No one told us to register our boiler. Two years after getting it installed, the control board failed. There are only certain companies around who deal with this. We got stuck paying for the pricey repair. They would do absolutely nothing to help us… We are very angry about this.

I am a Licensed Plumber who has installed many Burnham Alpine boilers. The "fog horn" or groan you hear on the Alpines when they fire is common if your contractor did not set the oxygen correctly. Every Alpine we install is checked by us with an electronic device to measure the Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen settings. If you attend the Burnham training classes at their factory in Pennsylvania, they teach us how to adjust, correct, and service these units. They even teach us about the "groan" you hear and how to correct it.

After reading the previous post I double checked my Alpine warranty. It states the 5 year parts is in effect only if the serial number warranty is activated within 90 days. I checked with my contractor if he registered my warranty and he said he did online. I called Burnham to verify and they said, yes. I asked what the warranty was if not registered. They stated 1 year parts and 12 years on the heat exchanger. Maybe your warranty was not registered.

I bought a new house with a Burnham Alpine boiler in March 2011. This year the boiler stopped working in the winter and its control board needed to be replaced at a cost of $1100. It was not covered under warranty because I was not the initial purchaser. After the control board was replaced it started leaking water out of the cold air intake pipe. I am now told that it was installed correctly when installed but Burnham has come out with a revised plan for the intake and exhaust pipes to remedy this problem and I must pay the cost of fixing the piping. My other house had a Buderus boiler and I had 0 issues over the last 6 years.