Need help identifying my boiler

Erik_D_Schmid

12 years ago I purchased a house built in 1906. It originally had coal

stoves in various rooms when it was constructed, but at some point these

were removed and a coal boiler was installed. This boiler was

eventually converted to oil by having a Beckett burner installed. After

nearly going broke buying fuel oil I decided to use wood instead. Worked

great at first, but that is now getting expensive as well. I want to

switch it back to coal. However, I need to know what the make is so that

I can find replacement grates for it as the originals are long gone.

The only thing that has been changed is the ash door. Since that was the

opening where the oil burner was installed, it was discarded. What is

in its place is the firebox door. The door now covering the firebox was

from an old US Radiator Capitol - Red Top. I'm located in MN, so pretty

much anything related to coal burning is confined strictly to steam

trains and tractors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.



I posted this at NEPACrossroads, but they were not able to help as much as I'd hoped. I called Heather Furnace and based off the casting number from the small door he concluded that it was indeed a Red Top. "A" series to be exact. However, it never had a red top. It is a sectional covered in asbestos. He quoted me a price on the grate assembly, but it would more than likely come close to around $1,500, so I may be forced to craft something myself from various cast iron grates provided I can find some thick enough and cheap enough.



Thoughts?

kcopp

It is a nice....

old boiler but why are you putting anymore money into it? It has outlived its usefullness. A new high eff unit would work very well. Is Gas available? There are some nice oil units if not....kcopp

Erik_D_Schmid

Because it...

...heats my house rather well for one thing. Another is that it is far cheaper to keep this one than to "upgrade" to something else. Yes gas is available, but the cost of putting in a new unit is extremely high. Coal is around $7 for 40# and all I need are a few grates and it's done. Putting in a new unit regardless of what fuel it burned would be well over ten grand just to start. Then the several hundred a month fuel cost on top of that. Nope, I'll just keep the house as original as possible and save money at the same time.