Weil McLain

So, I’m trying to find out how old a boiler is. It’s in a house that I made an offer on and I want to know how old it is and any other information that would be helpful.

When I viewed the house, I took a photo of the model information so I could look it up later. I thought this especially clever since the owners didn’t know how old it was; only that it pre-dated their purchasing of the house in 2003.

I did the obvious and Googled for the maker and model. The first link was Weil McLain’s home page. Unfortunately, the web-site didn’t have any dates or time-line for the product. Oh well.

I did notice that the newer models (like the CGa) look just like the one I’m looking from, but are a different color. I thought that maybe I could use their information to figure out any problems I might have with the boiler.

After trying to search for the model number, etc. and finding nothing helpful, I called up their technical support line. I was asked for an extension or I could wait for an operator. I waited. A gentleman answered and when I described what I wanted he told me that Mary was who I wanted and forwarded me to her before I could even thank him (I try to be polite on the phone; you never know when it’ll come in handy.)

Mary answered and I explained what I wanted and she said no problem. In fact, if I had the “CP number” she could even tell me when it shipped from the factory! Wow, cool! Good thing the CP number is readable in the photo!

I gave her the number and she said that she had to get someone else to run the program that will tell her exactly how old it was and that person wasn’t there at that moment. She said she could call me back if I gave her my info, which I did. Meanwhile she was able to tell me that the CG series 11 was produced between November 1991 and December 1995. So I knew it wasn’t older than November 1991.

I hung up and assumed I wouldn’t hear from her for a while, if ever. Yeah, I’m cynical but it’s due to conditioning by Verizon and the other masters of customer support.

Five minutes later she called back to tell me the boiler was shipped August 1995, one of the last ones. Nifty! It’s about 12 years old!

She then went beyond merely answering my question and asked if I had the manual for the boiler. “Nope, where can I get one?”

She showed where the contractor manual was (titled ”CG Series 11/CGX Series 1 Manual”) and an appropriate user manual (title ”CGa Boiler Manual”) was. The user manual is actually important for an owner of the boiler to have.

Apparently, the CGa model is the same design for all intents and purposes. Wow. That’s cool. They’ve been making nearly the same boiler since the 60s because it still works.

Anyway, Mary was great and the company deserves kudos for having good customer support! Thanks, Mary!

Ciao!