gravity wall heater

teigyr

We have an older home. In the bedroom there is an old gravity wall heater. It's about 17" wide and 60" tall, mounted onto the wall. The pilot is at the bottom. It pulls air in the bottom, heats it and pushes it out vents at the top, though it has vents all the way up the front. It was originally run on natural gas, but we need to convert it ( if possible) to propane. My problem is there is nothing to identify the maker, model, etc. It is a dark tan color and the edges are rounded, not square like the newer models. The original part of our home was built in the mid 30's and it's been added on to 5 times. The bedroom with the heater was probably added in the 60's. Is there any way to find out what kind of heater it is or would our best bet be to replace it?

Paul48

In a bedroom

I wouldn't play around with it.

kcopp

Really...

ditch it. Rinnai makes really perfect units for this. My younger brother did just this thing for his bedroom... programmable, modulating and has a humidifier tray too.

http://www.rinnai.us/direct-vent-wall-furnaces/

Tim McElwain

That is a sealed unit called

a wall furnace. It gets its air through a concentric vent to outdoors and vents flue gases out through the center.



Remove the front cover and down in the burner area there is a rating plate it will give Make, Model and Serial number. Let me know what it is I may have a manual for it. As long as the unit is in good shape it should be okay. But lets wait and see once we get some more info.

VictoriaEnergy

heater in bedroom

If the pilot flame & burner are open to the bedroom, it is a"b-vent" unit and are usually not considered suitable for a bedroom.  If the burner and pilot is sealed from the room and it has a concentric vent it may be ok, but it's hard to say.  These units do have a limit to thier service life.  They will eventually crack the heat exchanger and start leaking exhaust into the room.