I just bought a house and had it's old Crane boiler inspected. The tech wouldn't even touch it on account of a large amount of soot build up on the inside and some outside. He said that we need a new one and said that the current one is dangerous. Is this true?
The following pertains to gas boilers. Soot is easy to cleanup. You become a mess but that's a part of the job. But worry about what caused the soot buildup. There is either a vent problem, like a blockage, or there is something wrong with the boiler's burner assembly. Get the problem fixed first, then clean the boiler system up. Vent piping can be taken down and hosed out in the back yard. You can clean the boiler up using a vacuum, and air pressure. But when you can, wash it out without damaging anything else. That's that's the best way. Wear your worst clothes and maybe consider breathing protection.
Either that or you need a serious amount of maintenance on the old one. Depending on what that involves it would probably be less expensive to install a new high quality boiler.
