Does anybody know anything about this style of heater? I’ve tried to do a quick Google search and cannot find a manual and see if it is approved for use in a garage. Before any one asks the ventpipe is a thin wall aluminum .
I’m definitely calling the unit out for non professional installation
What exactly is your issue?
Just because you haven’t seen something before, doesn’t make it wrong.
What did the inspection card on the wall behind the heater say?
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I can’t read it but it appears to have some comment under chimney approved. There is a metalbestos chimney in the attic and the vent pipe is attached to that in the garage, possible an old wood stove??? Maybe from the gas water heater that’d next to this. I would like to verify clearances, ducting materials…
I just found the old county permit that is legable
I see no record of gas water heater or gas heater in the garage
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I have seen that type of heater once, in a bedroom. About the same level of non standard installation. I could not find a manufacture date, at the time, but guessed the 50s-60s.
Garage: Bollards? Minimum height requirement for gas appliance? Firewall breach - any openings? You mentioned minimum flue/wall clearances. The one I looked at I was concerned with furnace to side/front combustible clearances as well. Gas supply line BTU size sufficiency? Hard to see, but is the WH flue pipe larger? The lower BTU appliance exhaust flue should offset into the larger BTU flue. The stand being built of blocks is of questionable stability. I might mention checking the exhaust flue CO, and the heat exchanger before closing due to the age of the appliance, and it likely not being grandfathered in. Possible condensation where the exhaust pipe goes from a smaller to larger size.
Maybe a HVAC specialist can chime in.
The permit seems to be for a wood stove chimney installed in 90, so it is obviously not a permitted gas appliance. Lists owner as contractor. Describe work section has the city inspector use a question mark.
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Common installation here in cabins, using propane. Look at it in the same way you’d evaluate the installation of that atmosphere vented water heater.
Evaluate the fllue: Lots of bends in the pipe, two appliances appear to vent in one chimney… I wonder if it passes a spillage/backdrafting test. I’d also make sure there is a CO alarm in the garage.
Agreed
Gas-fired appliances should be inspected at least annually. If it cannot be proven that the appliance has had a service/maintenance inspection within the last twelve months, recommend complete system evaluation by licensed HVAC contractor before close of escrow. Such an inspection typically involves partial dismantling of the appliance, a task that is reserved to licensed heating and cooling technicians, of which I am not.
Additionally, replacement parts may be obsolete or difficult to source which will increase repair costs.
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Just remembered one other thing, is the BTU total vs. a minimum size for the garage, if there are no supply air vents.