Miracle Iron Holland Furnace

Natalie28

I recently purchased a home built in 1910, which has a fully functional Miracle Iron furnace in it. I hear they are rare and people are interested in them. If you would like more information or photos please let me know

Steamhead

@Natalie28 , how about some pics?

EdTheHeaterMan

The Holland furnace company founded in Holland Michigan in 1906, made a decent product, but the unethical sales tactics landed the owner, P.T. Cheff, in jail.  A great success story until the founders died and the next generation took over and drove the company into bankruptcy. I remember stories of the salesmen in dress fire department uniforms, knocking on the door to offer a "free fire inspection" of the home. After recommending a few easy to do fire safety ideas, they would take a look at the furnace and ask "How can you feel safe sleeping in this house with this time bomb burning coal in your basement?" Then his partner, an other Holland Furnace representative, would sell a new, over priced, furnace on the time payment plan.

Once the job was done, the laws of the day were such that the customer had no recourse and needed to make all the payments. That is the main reason there is a three day right to recision statement in every contract that is signed in the consumers home today. Siding, windows, all kinds of home improvements were using the same kind of tactics and the federal government needed to crack down on this practice.

Holland Furnace went out of business in 1966.

I have removed my fair share of old Holland furnaces, and other brands like it in my time.

We used to call them Octopus furnaces.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@EdTheHeaterMan I remember growing up that Holland Furnace had a bad rap (maybe deserved) in my area

In your pic the return drop looks newer than the rest of the ductwork. It probably was converted from taking outside air in for the return.

The only good thing about the octopus was they kept the basement nice and warm

EdTheHeaterMan

@EBEBRATT-Ed The returns, as a rule, were not insulated with Asbestos, so they looked better because they did not hold on the the dust as much as the supply runs did.

mattmia2

Looks like they painted the returns and the furnace jacket up to the bonnet with silver paint. looks like the returns have asbestos tape on the joints even thought they are just open to the basement anyhow.

pecmsg

it is a classic

Value

$0

costs more for asbestos removal and then the weight then it’s worth!

JUGHNE

I have seen a few of the gravity flows like that.

One notable system had return air tunnels under the basement floor and the furnace set over a plenum pit. The returns were on the outside walls under windows (as was common until the 60's even with forced air). They were ducted down under the floor with wooden boxes. This saved a lot of head room in the basement.

Some shallow basements had a pit for the beast so there would be adequate slope for the supplies. There was an after market blower assembly most often added on to the top.

The inside wall supplies with ornate sloping registers made for excellent return air grills whenever the furnace was updated. I would then cut in floor registers around the perimeter of the house for supplies.

PC7060

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1864160#Comment_1864160

@JUGHNE - We had one of the large gravity hot air monsters in the 1880’s Victorian where I grew up in Nebraska. Always wondered why that room was 2’ lower than rest of basement. Now I know. 🙃

EBEBRATT-Ed

I saw a few of those where a blower was added but it was always on the return. Those furnace and the ductwork took up so much space the basements were almost unusable

mattmia2

One of the stores here in ann arbor was heated with a gravity furnace that had the blower in the bonnet, it had a huge sheave on the blower on top of the bonnet with a motor mounted to the side and a really long belt, it was a standard L series belt. It had a honeywell fan control that looked to be from the late 40's to early 50's. I don't remember what conversion burner was on it other than it was a gas atmospheric. It might have been a bryant.

Grallert

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/202031/miracle-iron-holland-furnace

Yes Please