Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Oldest steam boiler still in use

SamG
SamG Member Posts: 20
I was asked to look at a boiler and make a replacement recommendation. What I found was a 95 year old American Radiator Ideal 2098 series 5K cast iron, originally coal fired converted to oil fired beauty still in use.

This monster is over 5’ tall and the size of a small SUV. (Note the size of the oil burner in the bottom of the photo.). Thankfully the domestic hot water side arm heater had been capped off.



Mad Dog_2ottostingray

Comments

  • ScottSecor
    ScottSecor Member Posts: 897
    Removed and replaced at least a few of these in my career. My back still remembers going up the stairs with the front and rear sections, Perhaps the heaviest cast iron residential/ light commercial boiler I've touched.
  • SamG
    SamG Member Posts: 20
    I’ve replaced a few myself but I now have a great scrap metal crew to do the heavy lifting.

    I never imagined working in the house of the man I was named after.
    CLamb
  • ScottSecor
    ScottSecor Member Posts: 897
    Wow, that's a plot twist.  Very interesting 
  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 17,342
    That was one of the better boilers of its day. My 1925 "Ideal Fitter" shows it is rated 2800 square feet EDR on steam. That Wayne Blue Angel burner must be maxed out. Does the system have that much radiation in it?
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • SamG
    SamG Member Posts: 20
    I did a radiation survey but haven’t added it up yet. The house was split into a 2 family in the 1950’s when my grandmother sold it. The boiler is only serving half the building. There was an oil burner service tag saying it had a 1.75 gph nozzle. Customer was expecting the summer service/cleaning, not a new boiler recommendation. I explained that they would expect a 50% savings on fuel.
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 7,487
    Built like an Abrams Tank!  Mad Dog 🐕 
  • SamG
    SamG Member Posts: 20
    edited July 2023
    I pulled out my original 30 yr old Lost Art of Steam Heating (I have newer copies) in honor of this boiler.

    Installed radiation adds up to 460 sq, ft.

    A modern oil boiler firing 1.75 would be about 650 sq. ft.

    Larry Weingarten
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,794
    I doubt you'll save 50% if the conversion was done right and the baffles are in place.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,329
    I had the exact same boiler in a school in Belchertown, MA. It gave out about 7 or 8 years ago.

    They were built like tanks.

    Unfortunately designed for coal they had flue passages you could drive a semi-truck through.
    Mad Dog_2
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 7,487
    If it don't leak, I ain't changing it!  Mad Dog 🐕 
    mattmia2CLambSteamDrew
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 7,487
    Tank, Tank, Tank...Mad Dog 🐕 
  • SamG
    SamG Member Posts: 20
    Thank you for highlighting this story.
  • Labenaqui
    Labenaqui Member Posts: 72
    Attending NEFI School in the 1950's, the Smith-Mills Rep boasted they had the oldest operational boiler in the country. A Mills Steam Boiler installed in a Cotton Mill in 1835 had been recently refitted. It had been fired with peat, cotton waste, corn stover, coal, wood and oil in it's lifetime, and was still going.
    Have wondered since if it has yet survived? Would make a good story .....
    Alan (California Radiant) ForbesMad Dog_2
  • PatNH
    PatNH Member Posts: 4
    The one I remember as the most "fun" to remove was an W/M SO-12. Took it out in 1999, fired at 17 gph. 2 days for white insulation removal, 2 days for boiler removal.
  • Erin Holohan Haskell
    Erin Holohan Haskell Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 2,354
    Wow! Thanks for sharing @Kentucky_Steam and @Fewer_Boiler_Chicago.

    President
    HeatingHelp.com

  • CLamb
    CLamb Member Posts: 319
    @Fewer_Boiler_Chicago I love the brick vaulting and the try cocks. I wonder when the practice (requirement?) of using try cocks ended.
    Mad Dog_2
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,265
    Mr. Scott Fewer, are those fire tube or water tube?

    I have seen these brick vaulting boilers and wondered what the bricks do.
    Are they holding in the gases or just insulation?

    Having worked on some baby Kewanee boilers and ridden the Amtrak thru Kewanee Ill. enroute to Chicago I get nostalgic as we pass thru that city.

    It has said that Amtrak takes you thru the back yards and down the alleys of America.
    Mad Dog_2reggi
  • Waher
    Waher Member Posts: 279

    Mad Dog_2
  • Anthony Menafro
    Anthony Menafro Member Posts: 199
    edited July 2023
    SamG said:

    I was asked to look at a boiler and make a replacement recommendation. What I found was a 95 year old American Radiator Ideal 2098 series 5K cast iron, originally coal fired converted to oil fired beauty still in use.

    This monster is over 5’ tall and the size of a small SUV. (Note the size of the oil burner in the bottom of the photo.). Thankfully the domestic hot water side arm heater had been capped off.

    I can't even begin to tell you how many of this very boiler that I replaced in Hudson County, NJ. It was always an adventure as well as a sooty mess. Thankfully, we were able to provide the homeowner the proper service and size the replacement boiler with something MUCH smaller and certainly more efficient. It has been many years since I have seen one. Thanks for the memories!!

    Mad Dog_2
  • SteamHeatTech
    SteamHeatTech Member Posts: 2
    edited August 2023
    They are fire tubes. The brick directs flue gates up the outside of the boiler shell about 2/3’s of the way then allows it to travel back over the top of the boiler to the breeching. There are “smoke shelves” inside arch to guide flue gases. Definitely attempting to improve efficiency. 

    Scott Fewer
    Mad Dog_2JUGHNE
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 7,487
    I love em...Those were true "Boilermakers" back then..They were built like Sherman Tanks...Mad Dog 🐕 
  • ScottSecor
    ScottSecor Member Posts: 897
    @SteamHeatTech I 'm amazed at the efficiency you can get out of those older boilers. I didn't notice rope on the doors and I remember similar boilers with those flame inspection ports on the doors leaking like a sieve. I gues the brick and other unique features certainly help.
  • TerryClark
    TerryClark Member Posts: 1


    And I thought mine was getting old.