I was planning on ordering the TS-590S right after Christmas and before the 31st.  Then the boiler on our radiant heating system sprung a leak on Friday 12/27.  We just got the repair estimate.  Even with the 50% parts coverage of the warranty it's going to cost about $6000!  We're looking into putting an electric element in the forced air system instead.  The HVAC guy says that will be significantly cheaper.

Oh, that's right, it's going to be ZERO FUCKING degrees here tonight and below freezing for the next several days at least.  The upstairs forced air system is still working, so we won't freeze, but it sucks big time.

Well that sucks.

That SOOOO SUCKS!    And I sorta feel your pain.   Twice since the end of summer I had funds allocated for a new 817 and things came up that ate up the money.

Sorry to hear that, bud.
On the subject of house heaters. It's hard to give advice without knowing your house layout but have you considered installing a heat pump system instead. Resistive heaters are cheap but use a whole a lot more electric energy per BTU of heat than heat pumps.

Sorry to hear.  I have a friend near St Louis and she says it's supposed to be the coldest in 20 years.  She also said their power always goes out when it gets that cold.

We just go outside when it gets in the double digits below zero and throw pitchers of hot water in the air and watch it disappear.
http://www.av8n.com/physics/ice-fog.htm

I feel for you.  Our ac needed replacing this July in MS.  Not comfortable either.  At least you have the chance tontell the SO you need to snuggle and keep her warm.  

We looked into heat pumps when we built the house, but when it gets down into single digits they don't work very well.  We also looked at geothermal and solar, but decided on the propane fired radiant heat system.  Since this isn't really an emergency, we have the time to rethink the whole thing.

We're about 40 miles outside St. Louis, and yeah it's supposed to be the coldest globally-warmed period in decades.  Our power is also inconsistent when it's too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc.  We have a backup generator for major things, but it won't heat the place.  If we do loose power, we're thoroughly screwed.

You can install a nice wood stove for under $5,000. We had a Woodstock Fireview installed recently. It works very well and looks very nice too.

The picture is from the manufacturer's website but we have the same model.

$6K!!! That sounds like a rip. An entire, top of the line, Buderus 200KBTU gas boiler is only $3K. What the hell are you replacing?

Have you thought about adding a wood stove? Not as a primary heat source but as a back up? Keep a cord of wood outback covered behind the garage. With it down stairs, it would heat your whole house if needed in a power out type of emergency.

The unit is called a Munchkin.  I don't have all the specs right now, but rest assured I don't put  out that kind of money without doing a lot of research and getting several opinions.

This is the unit I have:

Since you've already got propane, have you considered installing a couple of these in different parts of your house?

- Requires no electricity
- Inexpensive
- Simple, inherently reliable
- Easy to repair
- If one breaks, you've still got some heat from the other

I wouldn't think that whole unit would cost $6000, I saw one online a couple years ago for $4000 and it included the controls.  I though heat pumps and geo would work great with radiant heat

Due to the size of the house, we're at the bottom end of the commercial sized unit, which I just looked up and it's retail price is $8,500.  Since the boiler (heat exchanger) and burner are all one unit, replacing the two is just about the same as buying a new one.

Now for the good news.  I just got an e-mail from the HVAC company and the cost of a 25 KW heating element is $600.00.  Add a couple of hundred for installation, and we're still under the $1,000 mark.  The house is staying at 60-65 degrees even when it's under ten degrees out, so the backups are doing the job, and that buys some time. All options are on the table.

I also just looked online and entire Munchkin boilers are in the neighborhood of $4K. And it sounds like you only need to replace the coil, not the entire boiler? To use that tired old phrase, "Wow, just wow."

They are certainly fancy boilers, though. Lot's of stainless. Very high efficiency. My Buderus has only an 85 or 90% rating (can't remember which).

Best of luck on your heating plant project. I know a little bit about how you feel. I bought a new house and the 10 year old Weil McLain puked all over the floor two months later on Thanksgiving day when it was 20 degrees out. That's why I now have a Buderus. I could have replaced just the cast iron boiler for $1.5K, but for that much money I wanted a new, good quality boiler and so paid the $3K for the Buderus. And then a month later when it got properly cold out the plant couldn't heat the house because the heating coil in the air handler (hydronic system) had too small of a ton-rating. I have no idea how the previous owners actually stayed warm, but I think the antique cast iron cookstove in the kitchen was what you would call a clue . Basically the people that installed the plant were idiots and the people living there before us were idiots for not properly fixing it their first winter there. However it works great now and the cookstove has gone from EDH (every day heating ) to SHTF or for-fun only. It is really neat, though, the darn thing will actually heat the entire house.

Great news!

I feel the pain.
I was going to buy the new 100 Watt amp for the KX3 but the refrigerator croaked and the spousal unit just had to have a four-door-all-stainless new one, to the tune of $250.00 F---ing green backs.

(AAARRRGGGHHH)

Just had to spend over $600 for heat pump repair, that was going to go for more better shack stuff.  Stupid arctic vortex.  

Well if it was summer time....the freaking compressor would have burned up in you A/C and cost your $1000.00 !!

I'm semi-seriously considering telling the HVAC guys to get stuffed.  We had four days in a row below freezing with lows at 10 below and the house never dropped below 62 degrees using two quartz space heaters and the upstairs furnace.  The lower level dropped to 50 degrees, but was never in danger of freezing pipes.

I've got some serious thinking to do before spending tons of money replacing a big heating system that I may not need.

Radio>heat

Many radios = HEAT!  

When we built the house we had it super insulated.  I guess that's paying off.

In my 1st house I had no heat in my shack, it was heated by computer and radio heat
(with the amplifier on I had to open the door to outside to get the heat out)

My shack was always warm, when I packed up to move I went in
that room for a final look and was surprised it was so cold in there.

It is amazing how much heat this stuff puts out.


So In short, Get and Amplifier and pipe the heat to the rest of the house

Dang.....


I had my fun over summer, new fan for the compressor outside,
and a few months later a new fan for the air-handler insude.

For our 25th anniversary my wife got a diamond ring, and I got a new waterheater