The sleek Burnham Hydronics Freedom CM Condensing Modulating Gas Fired Boiler is a highly efficient boiler that can be either floor or, wall mounted. Burnham Hydronics has its foundry in Zanesville, Ohio and an assembly plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and their “Made in America” product line has had more new High Efficiency Energy Star rated boilers added to it in the last several years than any other company in the history of hydronic heating. Burnham’s boiler product line has so many efficient products in it that the efficiency for the whole line combined exceeds 85% and maximum efficiencies over 95%. They are a recognized industry leader with gas, oil, and even electric boilers, with both water and steam systems available.
The Burnham Hydronics Freedom CM Condensing Modulating Gas Fired Boiler is a sleek silver and black trimmed unit measuring only 32¾”H X 17 7/8”W X 17”D that can be either wall mounted or floor mounted. Inside this small 100 LB. package lies a Green Powerhouse available in 3 models with modulating burners that modulate between 30 and 120 MBH input and have DOE Heating Capacities of 63 – 107 MBH with efficiencies 94.5 – 95.4% AFUE. At the heart of the Burnham Freedom CM is a condensing boiler which unlike a non-condensing boiler extracts almost all the available heat out of the flue gases that would normally be wasted up the chimney. The condensing boiler takes so much heat out of the flue gases that steam in the flue gases condense into water. The Freedom CM has Low NOx emissions which help reduce the levels of Nitrogen Oxide in the atmosphere which is a major component of smog making this a very green machine. The high efficiencies of the Freedom CM give it the Energy Star seal making purchasers eligible to receive Appliance Stimulus Package Rebates of up to $200, Weatherization Assistance Program Grants up to $6500 per household if qualified, various state and utility rebates available in about 50% of the states, and a 30% Income Tax Credit making upgrading your heating system affordable now more than ever.
The Burnham Hydronics Freedom CM Condensing Modulating Gas Fired Boiler offers a cast aluminum mono block condensing boiler, fully modulating operating control with an outdoor reset, multiple venting options (polypropylene concentric vent, CPVC/PVC venting, stainless steel 2-pipe venting), a boiler circulator, a vent terminal, built-in outdoor reset, domestic hot water priority control, and a factory-installed low water cut-off device. The control panel with the MCBA control module located inside the front cover provides easy access to operating information and for troubleshooting. The pressure and temperature gauge is visible through the cover, and the Freedom CM has its air and fuel premixed in the blower assembly with modulation controlled by blower speed via the MCBA module for efficient operation. The unit has a negative pressure gas valve & venturi system designed to operate even with low gas pressures, a heavy duty aluminum sump designed to handle acidic condensate, and a polypropylene condensate trap. If you are floor mounting this unit you will need the optional matching floor mount base. The Freedom CM has a One year Limited Warranty on the unit and a 15 Year Pro Rated Warranty on the heat exchanger.
With the Rebates, Grants, and Tax Credits available now there probably never will be a better time to upgrade your heating system and save on your heating costs while being green and helping the environment.
wE ARE HAVING TROUBLE with our burnham freedom FCM070 over and over. keep getting a hard lock out. error E12 which means low water cutoff sensor shut the boiler down. able to turn off power and reset, turn on power. error 4 came up, power failure. in the past able to reset, now we are not able to reset. so no heat. no hot water. HELP!
Hi Kate,
Before resetting the power was the yellow light on?
Was the green light on?
The 04 code indicates that you shut off the power while on safety lock out.
Redwood
my burnham freedom 120 is coming up with a ” E 29 ” error code, the book says that means the blower fan speed has not returned to zero rpm. an it says the causes could be a miswied fan speed harness or a defective fan. how can i test to see wich one it is? if i unplug the fan and plug it back in the boiler will work, temporarily until it errors again.
the boiler is less than a year old and is covered under warranty but the diagnostics and labor are not.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thank you
Brian
Brian,
Unless you recently rewired the harness or there is physical damage to the wiring harness I’m going to say that the blower has a problem. The problem is that I don’t believe that you will get handed the part without a service call and diagnostics being performed. You can hope that by providing all the information on your unit and the error code that the tech will bring the part and install it all in one trip and pass on the labor savings.
thank you for responding, your answer to my question was helpful.
My Burnam Freedom is on its second blower motor. They last exactly one year, and cost at least $500 for the part alone. The local gas company told me that this is a constant issue with them. In addition, it throws various error codes from time to time, and the boiler will not reset on its own. If you leave your house and go on vacation, plan on coming home to a frozen house.
My last high efficiency wall mounted boiler (Potterton Nettaheat) ran for 25 years without a single maintenance call.
My friend that bought the slightly lower efficiency Burnam floor mount boiler at the same time has had no issues.
I need to find a way to get the gas company that sold me this $5,000 setup to come in and rip it out. Do not buy one, period.
Maybe someone can help me. My Freedom boiler has show error codes from time to time, and they are always different. Our local gas company that has my service contract, National Grid, does not make service calls at night. So, I turned the boiler off and on again, and now have an error 04 “power failure after lockout”. How does one go about resetting the 04 code, and getting back to the original complaint?
I have been 10 days without heat in two years with this brand new boiler; 5 last year, and 5 this year.
Any help would be appreciated
Hi Bill,
The “04″ code is the result of turning the power off to the unit while it was locked out on another code.
You need to press the reset button on the control panel which will clear the “04″ code then you can get back to the original code that caused the lockout when it reappears. The original code is the one you need to deal with.
Redwood
I have a Burnham CHG that was installed in Oct 2008. In Oct 2009, I was getting an E12 which the manual said was low water cutoff sensor shut the boiler down. This was caused by a defective pump on one of the three zones. I have a service contract with National Grid, the local gas utility and they were terrible. It took them two days to send a tech at all. All the technician did was reset the system and zoom out of the house as quickly as he could. That obviously did not help as the error returned. When I raised hell with National Grid management, they sent a second tech the next morning. I told him that I diagnosed it as a bad pump since that pump motor was burning hot while the pipe was cold. He replaced the pump and it was ok.
Now, in March 2010, I’m getting an E29 error, which the manual said means that “the blower fan speed has not returned to zero rpm.” I have a call in to the plumber who installed it (not National Grid.) I’m disheartened that I read that the blowers only last a year.
Can you use pvc for both the vent and air intake. Also do you need a special fitting for this?
Hi Eddie,
Yes, PVC can be used for both if you desire. There is an optional concentric vent kit that can be used.
Redwood
Similar to the top user I have the E 12 error continuing to come up. My plumbers came over once or twice, said there was low pressure, reset it and it worked for a bit. They won’t come over because now it has been over a year. Regardless, the pressure of the system is above the red arrow my plumber set and it keeps going to E 12. I used to manually reset and it was fine for a day but now it’s not resetting at all. As an engineer, this seems like faulty circuitry to me. I bought my Freedom CM through the National Grid program – had issues getting it delivered in time for winter and have had issues every since. Are these ultra efficient, high end boilers only built for 1 year? I have no idea how to get support. My plumber wants to charge me $140 an hour to come over but they have done enough damage already so I refuse to pay them more (already paid nearly $8k). They say to call Burnham. Burnham won’t talk to customers. Who does care to honor the 5yr warranty exactly? Service doesn’t just happen… Help! I am hot waterless and out of ideas. No one seems to stand by their word. I’ll try National Grid again but I can’t see having much hope in that. I bought this back in Sept 08, Installed Nov. 08, broken starting in Sept. 09 resulting in a totally non working boiler in April 2010. It seems everyone is having issues w/ this timeframe – perhaps there’s a bad batch which Burnham needs to recall? I work for one of the largest electronic manufacturers in the US and we always stand by warranties and do recalls when needed. Burnham should be concerned as to how they’re going to keep customers if all these fancy boilers they’re selling break after a year. Who is looking out for the consumer??