Check this out!

delta T

Just went to check out an old system, and saw this crazy old radiator.

At a guess the system is turn of the century (no good records on when the house was built), not sure if this radiator is or not, it is the only one in the house that looks like this. Any one have any idea what this is or when it was made? Cool looking old thing.

I will post some more pics of the system when I go back out there (putting in a thermostat that has a steam setting to increase the cycle length. 2 pipe steam, amazingly well taken care of, original boiler (American Radiator Co. Ideal steam boiler), 40's gas conversion burner. Love finding these old jewels, and still working like a champ.

Tinman

I love that radiator. I once pulled about 5 of those and re-used them on another job. Any of the Ideal boiler pics???

delta T

I will have them when I go back out, my phone crapped out on me and didn't save any of the pics I took, but I will definitely post them when I have them. I can't believe the kind of shape it is in though, someone really took care of this boiler!

Fred

I have one similar to that, not exact. Also turn of the century. Mine is a Niagara window seat radiator.

Steamhead

The one in the pic is an Aetna Flue Window Radiator, made by American Radiator Co. Ratings are on page 57 of "E.D.R.".

delta T

@Steamhead Thanks! I haven't looked it up yet appreciate the page number!

DanTHB

Nice looking Rad!

vaporvac

I think every Steamy on the wall would appreciate more pics of the rads, boiler and system in general when you get back there. Any ideas on what system this may be?

kcopp

The 1st floor of my parents house that I grew up in in VT has a few of those very radiators....
The one in the Living room under the bay window has to be 6' long.
They were nice to sit on in the winter!
They were connected to a gravity hot water system...nice even heat.

delta T

Got back out to this system again today for the t-stat. Here are a few pics of the boiler, they are not great, hard to take pics due to room layout/size.

Some strange things about it, no classic Hartford loop, but returns come back and tie into the equalizer through what looks like a check valve? low wet returns on the other side of the boiler. (see pics) strange set up (to me) I think I did find it in my dad's old Hoffman handbook, I will look up a page number and post the system schematic that I found tomorrow. Seems to be a match.

We don't get to do a ton of steam in my neck of the woods, but I love doing it when I can and am never afraid to ask for help when I need it. I love how every steamer I find I learn something new! Gotta get Lost Art out again and dig a little.

As it is currently, system works great, HO says she gets steam at the rads in about 5-7 mins on avg, all rads heat just fine with the exception of one that she claims usually does not heat all the way across. It is one of the largest in the house, and one of the farthest from the boiler. Thinking that maybe the change in thermostat (set at 2 cph now) will help it, if not I will check/rebuild the 17-C, but I don't think it is really a huge problem as the room stays plenty warm. There are TRV's on all the rads as well. Didn't think to take pics of the other rads (most are pretty standard looking old column rads). Set to 1.5 psi w/ 1 psi diff.

There is a bellows thing connected to the piping that I have to assume was used to control the damper when this thing used to be coal. Pretty cool!

Any insight would be awesome.

delta T

More pics:

delta T

whoops! really more pics this time: