Unitentified age of furnace

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Hi. guys;
Inspection yesterday of an old Victorian house built in 1892 showed me a boiler that even I haven't seen before. Although the client is not buying the house, I am curious if anyone has any clue as to how old this converted steam boiler is. Took pictures but do not know how to present it.

Here is the information I put in the report.

Need help on this one.

I bet you Jae can help. ha. Don't know why I did not think of that sooner.

All jokes aside, I would appreciate any comment from anyone. Thanks in advance.

Heating System: Oil-fired appeared to be an old coal steam boiler, perhaps, converted to oil. In drastic need of cleaning and from the looks of it appears to be on it’s last leg. Strongly recommend an Oil furnace technician to evaluate.


Manufacturer: Ideal #7 American Radiator Corp.
#254 H. D39-3


Heating capacity: no listing


System age: unknown


</IMG></IMG></IMG>

[Ted Allen]

I tried and I tried. No, luck. Sorry.

When you do find out please be kind and post it for all of us to see.

[gbeaumont]

Hi to all,

Marcel,

When I inspected many older properties in New England I saw very many old steam boilers that had been converted to oil. Especially in old multi-family property.

I was told by a boiler guy that solid fuel boilers started to be converted to oil in the 1930's and by the 50's practically no one was using coal and coke.

I know from my own observations that most if not all of the old coal to oil steam boilers were of the same age as the property, and I have seen casting dates back to the 1910's.

I bet the one you saw was of that age

Regards

Gerry

[Jae Williams]

American Standard traces its roots back to 1872, when John B. Pierce opened a tinware shop in Ware, Massachusetts. With the business skills he forged in this shop, he would later found the Pierce Steam Heating Company, one of three companies that would merge in 1892 to become the American Radiator Company.
In 1929, the American Radiator Company merged with The Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company. Products from the combined company could be found in about half of the homes in the U.S. and Europe. For the next 18 years, the business was known as the American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corporation.
By 1948, people had informally shortened the name of the company to American-Standard, so the company began to refer to itself by that name.

The hyphen was later dropped from the name.


That boiler must be at least pre-1929, which is older than I am--sort of.

That's the best I can do for you, Marcel

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Thank you Gerry and Jae, with this information and the client reading the writing on the chimney that said the furnace was replaced in 1925, now falls into place. I just did not think at the moment that a furnace of that age still existed. I was amazed at the site of this thing. Three inches of soot accummulated on the upper chamber, barely enough room for the oil-fired burner to achieve a flame, rust on the jacketing up four inches from the floor. And to beat it all the two apartments were being fed by a 52 gal. tank electric. Don't that beat all.

Inspection of that place involved the exterior, attic, and basement. The client said to not waste my time in the rest of it, and I said, well let me make a quike walk through and make a generalistic inspection. He said OK.
First floor apartment. Walk in and at the top of the stairs was a black dog with no owner in the apartment. I told the Client, well, today we are not inspecting the second floor are we? ha. ha. I didn't.
Estimated repairs for a $145,000 house. = $50,000 Did not buy it.