Oldest steam boiler still in use

SamG

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.

SamG

BTW, I know this boiler is about 95 years old because I recognized the address as the house my father grew up in. The house was built by my grandfather in the mid 1920’s.

ScottSecor

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

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.

ScottSecor

Wow, that's a plot twist.  Very interesting 

Steamhead

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?

SamG

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

Built like an Abrams Tank!  Mad Dog 🐕 

SamG

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.

mattmia2

I doubt you'll save 50% if the conversion was done right and the baffles are in place.

EBEBRATT-Ed

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

If it don't leak, I ain't changing it!  Mad Dog 🐕 

Mad Dog_2

Tank, Tank, Tank...Mad Dog 🐕 

SamG

Thank you for highlighting this story.

Labenaqui

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 .....

Kentucky_Steam

We replaced what (we believe) was the original steam boiler in our home in 2009. House was built in 1910 and boiler was working. We've lived here since 1977. If it was original, it was 99 years old when we had it removed. We still love our steam heat, which is now provided by a Weil-McLain EG-65. I've attached a photo of the American Radiator boiler that we had taken out. It was originally coal fired and was converted to Natural Gas with an "Iron Fireman" unit. I wish I had taken better pictures. I kept the old pressure gauge (dial, 5" across) from the old unit as a souvenir.

PatNH

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.

Fewer_Boiler_Chicago

Your (admittedly beautiful) American Radiator Ideal is a teenager. In Chicago, we work on dozens of Kewanee Brickset firebox steel boilers that are well over 100 years old. Rarely does a week pass that we are not working on a boiler over a century old. We stock all parts to repair these boilers and expect many of them to go on for many more years. Many of these are as large as a bus with tubes exceeding 12' in length. Interestingly enough, the efficiency is not bad, normally in the mid-70s with proper gas burner.
Scott Fewer, grandson of founder
Fewer Boiler Inc (est. 1895)

Erin Holohan Haskell

Wow! Thanks for sharing @Kentucky_Steam and @Fewer_Boiler_Chicago.

CLamb

@Fewer_Boiler_Chicago I love the brick vaulting and the try cocks. I wonder when the practice (requirement?) of using try cocks ended.

JUGHNE

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.

Waher

Anthony Menafro

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!!

SteamHeatTech

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_2

I love em...Those were true "Boilermakers" back then..They were built like Sherman Tanks...Mad Dog 🐕 

ScottSecor

@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

And I thought mine was getting old.