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
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.
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.
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.
Came across an American Radiator Company furnace yesterday (July 2013), 9 years after the last post…they’re still out there! (This one was in South Central PA) Amazing…and pretty cool, actually!
Here’s an American Radiator Company furnace, Ideal No. 7 in a house built in 1928. Seems like they kept it up pretty well! I’m thinking about buying this house, but haven’t had anything inspected yet.
I have bought a home in North Eastern Pennsylvania with really nice put together furnace that I believe dates back to pre 1929 I can’t figure out how to put up a picture from my phone on here though. The badge on the back of the furnace says
AMERICAN RADIATOR COMPANY
Number - 825
Model- T-2
I have done tons of research and I end up finding furnaces that are used and abused this one is non functional but looks like a show piece on the outside with beautiful metal plating that looks like wood.
If someone can walk me through how to post a picture from my phone I would love to have you guys check this thing out and give me your thoughts on it.
My apologies Gentlemen, I searched alot for any information on my furnace and this was the only topic I found other than wikipedia. Sorry for inconveniencing you all but I thought maybe any help was better than wikipedia.
So, if you inspected a home tomorrow with one of these systems, and you didn’t have any knowledge of them, you would ignore this thread because it is 9.7 years old?
I bet you Jae can help. ha. 
Don’t know why I did not think of that sooner.
