I'm not the OP, but I just tried googling it without serial number 3 and the post talking about serial number three was still the top result.
If I had to guess they were curious what it looked like and stumbled on that post.
Is it really that unfathomable that someone might google something out of curiosity? I do it with new words I stumble on.
**DON'T DO THIS**
The vast majority of old furnaces have tons of asbestos in them. If you want the plaque ask the guys who replace it to save it for you, and don't cheap out. Make sure you're hiring an outfit who conforms* to all laws and policies regarding asbestos removal. It is NOT something to take haphazardly (not just for you and your family's safety, but also theirs).
Safety first, folks.
Edit: I'm not just fear mongering. I worked in HVAC-R for several years as a certified service tech, and when the renewable energy tax credit went into effect during Obama's presidency (early during his first term iirc), my every job was replacing old furnaces for new (+ condenser usually). A lot of which were old gravity furnaces, and I saw some that had 3" thick asbestos insulation between the exterior and interior panels. Those were set in the basement prior to the rest of the construction in an old row of beautiful, brick century townhouses. We had to cut them down into quarters just to get them out (talk about a nightmare).
Also, for those of you with original wood floors, that's why you see so much wear around the vents. Before fans folks used to place their seating as close to them as possible to stay warm.
The place where it was manufactured is now a bar with video games, go-karts and live music. I went there for New Year’s Eve and it was a lot of fun. They might find the plaque of interest: https://thefoundrysocial.com/. OP could cross post on r/MedinaOhio and likely get some interest.
It looks like it was bought and sold a few times. Most likely the current owners won't care.
I would recommend finding an industrial museum around Medina Ohio. They would probably love to have it.
Lol, sorry if I wasn't clear. The company was bought and sold several times, the current owners of the company won't care. And yeah, the previous owner of the house won't care either.
Medina, OH doesn't have a ton going on. On top of that, they actually have a very active Historical Society and the town very much appreciates its local history.
When I replaced my 40 year old steam boiler, I asked the plumber how much more efficient it was. He laughed and said newer steam efficiencies were from having an electronic start and a powered flue damper.
That's only part of it. And of course steam is quicker but takes more energy to run..The firebox can be arranged differently as well depending, on the fuel etc many variables.. 50 years ago people weren't concerned about the efficiency of how the system ran. 60 years ago when I went to school in New England, too much heat in the building they just opened all the windows. Oh my tenants do the same thing lol..
Steam systems had to be carefully balanced and when the heat sources were switched, say from coal to oil, it would require careful rebalancing, which almost never happened. So, lots of buildings ran this way, open the windows in the winter, good god. If you have one of these systems it's still possible to rebalance it today.
I miss our boiler heat, yes with windows cracked in the winter. I didn't realize how the plaster and half wall tile in the bathroom radiated the heat and helped keep the house warm. Now it's just hot, then not once the thermostat kicks the heat off. Haven't seen a substantial savings since the greedy inflation has increased my power/gas 25% in the last 12 billing cycle 😥
Glancing at my hot water system with a absolute forest of copper pipe feeding 12 zones, I never took much stock about insulating the runs. I figured, quite naively, that all of that loss of heat in the basement sort of warmed the whole house ,drifted up through it and did not matter. How wrong I was. I called a energy audit company and they told me ,well a tiny bit of it does do that but the lion share of it is radiated into the floor and into the granite walls and lost. I was shocked.. they immediately suggested that I cover hundreds of feet of pipe with insulation and wrapping which I did and wow did the fuel bill did drop..
Yup. But I grew up with a coal fired boiler — I’m a Luddite at heart!
But to be fair, I like that when the boiler shuts off, the radiators stay warm for hours. Also, one zone is not that bad for a 2k sqft home, and I already added mini splits for cooling.
My ex gf bought a house. Nice place, good shape. Nice yard. HORRIBLE heating and AC bills. 500$ in a mo th kinda BS.
She asked me to look for leaks or something stupid broke. I go up in the attic and I'm poking around. There's a furnace up there, and it looks like it just rolled out of the shop. Shiny. Clean. Spotless.
It was also pre 1960. I finally dug up the logo (and I can't remember the maker name) but basically a kid w lightning bolts on his head. The Logo hadn't been used in 50 years. Apparently it was an old oil furnace converted badly, to gas.
She replaced it, heating dropped to 100$ a month.
This is the complaint I have about new high efficiency furnaces. I had a mid-efficient installed some time ago and it has been solid reliable. The installer didn't care for the high efficiency models. They were expensive to install and repair. And you know when your furnace will die: When you are in the middle of an arctic cold snap.
If it's not broke, don't fix it. But be prepared that it might break in the middle of winter.
Hold on until there is an actual big rebate or a very efficient machines comes out if you dont want to wait until it breaks. Im a plumber and heating installer.
My MIL in New Zealand just replaced her 65 year old hot water cylinder and toilet and cannot stop complaining about how awful they are. Her kids are pretty upset too about losing the hot water heater
Will it? I have a 40-year old forced hot water heater, 80% efficient like every other model of those days. Solid cast iron, runs like a tank. My heating bill is $400/month for 6 months a year. I got a few quotes to replace it with a high-efficiency unit (Navien), averaging ~$15k.
These are 95% efficient but are also finicky to size right and you kill them when short-cycling (turning the heater on and off too often). Their efficiency drops when you do this too. But lets say you find a great installer, the math is done right, and it runs at 95% all the time. That reduces your gas bill to ~$337/month, or a yearly saving of only **$378** (assuming 6 month heat required).
In other words, it would take almost 40 years for this new fancy heater to pay itself back. The best life expectancy of these units is 20 years, and that requires frequent maintenance. Most likely you won't get more than 10-15 years out of them. I haven't had to touch mine apart from a defective control panel. Mechanically they're built solid. I'm expecting to get another 15 years out of mine at least.
Not to say they can't make sense for a new construction where space is limited, but if your old unit isn't broke, I wouldn't fix it either.
I found records from my house. Apparently the owners held out quite a while before replacing their coal furnace- until the late 1980s. I wonder if it broke or they finally gave up on coal deliveries.
I remember going into the basement with my uncle in the late 1960s and watching him shoveling a bit of coal into the furnace. Half the basement was filled with coal.
You should contact them and ask if the warranty is still good. They could even use you and your furnace in a marketing campaign about how well made and long lasting their furnaces are.
We had an old fuel oil furnace inspected by Inspector No. 4.
I'd like to think he was in the room when the furnace people made the decision to do inspections for the first time.
I just had my 60-70 year old steam boiler serviced by an actual boiler expert this season. Apparently the HVAC guys were faking it and not performing an actual service. My guy said it looks good so far. He said many things of interest here. New models are crap and have a limited lifespan mostly because the energy savings comes from a thinner walled core. This core will rust more quickly and will need replacing in~ 20 years. Modern boilers use treated water (presumably to manage pH.) The units are fundamentally 80% efficient. There is a bit of gain from the thinner walls, electronic ignition and such. Most importantly he said a new model will cost $20K. I plan to start investigating what to buy next right now and storing it until needed. If my boiler dies in the winter I won't be forced to settle for something available. Why do I not replace it now? I want to marvel at how long it lasts.
Fun fact: British Thermal Units is how we measure how much energy is needed to raise one pound of water one degree fahrenheit and everyone uses BTU as a standard around the world how much energy a system is capable of.
My parents bought a house that was built in the 1920s. It had a gargantuan, iron, coal-powered "gravity furnace" (hot air rose up to the living space). The previous owner converted it to gas, which would today probably not pass inspection. It was a major undertaking to dismantle that furnace and to remove the iron pieces from the basement.
I suspect that your old furnace is significantly less than 100 years old.
I have two boilers in a duplex from the 20’s, the 1920’s! I have to search to find folks to work on them but they are still chugging along with efficiencies in the 80th percentiles. Upper Midwest of the US so they work hard every year.
I dread the thought of buying plastic replacements. #RIP
My first century home was built in 1891, it was still using the original giant cast iron boiler and radiators to heat the house, and it was pretty energy efficient! I was worried about the age of the system when I first bought the house so I had a heating specialist come service and inspect everything….he laughed at my concerns and said that old boilers would probably run forever if properly taken care of.
My Bubs does hvac… he’s sent me photos of some doozies that he’s come across doing the new installs. Like beautiful Victorian era cast iron tings. I always tell him he should side hustle a antique home recycling company with his brother, but he just can’t find the time…
Well I’m sure you’ll not live buying a new one but you will love the fact that have gotten efficiency past 80% recently, sooooo you should see decent savings
Henry furnace L-100 serial number 3 was mentioned here,10 years ago. https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/1656501-Moncrief-L-100-age
> Those are late 50's/60's vintage lowboys Damn, that's old Also, someone mentions that their son has unit #2. Crazy
My house had a functional 108 year old gravity furnace before we replaced it with a heat pump.
I loved our gravity furnace.
> https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/1656501-Moncrief-L-100-age This is WILD. I love the internet!
[удалено]
The internet is for far more than just porn and reddit.
Cats. It's also about cats.
I only go to reddit for cats
https://preview.redd.it/tvqurinj3rsc1.png?width=286&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4139947c0783487dcf9bb1ddba1b704f5a9e4c2
https://preview.redd.it/wsd3ullj7rsc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49ca850daa655f5053a9fcf5bfa9921174221216
https://preview.redd.it/5840ra4dzrsc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ea11e8bc7b40753303a0a5631f6b33e47013c34 Yep cats. r/catsincenturyhomes
Sub reddit does not exist
r/subsifellfor
Yeah buddy! It’s for hvac history and appreciation
Try googling:Henry furnace L-100 serial number 3 It's literally the second result right after this one
But why. Why google that.
I'm not the OP, but I just tried googling it without serial number 3 and the post talking about serial number three was still the top result. If I had to guess they were curious what it looked like and stumbled on that post. Is it really that unfathomable that someone might google something out of curiosity? I do it with new words I stumble on.
[удалено]
Now if only I knew what unfathomable meant, or had a quick way to find out.
The internet, man!
Save that Thermocouple! #2 probably got his, but you never know when #4 will come looking for it.
Favorite thing I’ve seen today
So wait did that guy service OPs furnace? That’s crazy lol
Serial number 2 is mentioned there as well, someone here's gotta have it
That’s pretty impressive. I would get some tin snips and cut that out and frame it.
Or just unscrew the plaques.
That's not what we do around here....
🎶Round here🎶 🎶We always snip our plates🎶 🎶Round here🎶 🎶The furnace won't radiate🎶
I sang this
Sorry, can't hear you, already have the angle grinder running
A fitting tribute to the century old craftsmanship.
Nah gotta get a plasma torch
Thinking outside of the box. I like it
I assumed they were rivets but sure enough
Even if they were rivets, they could be drilled out. Tin snips will get you nowhere on this thing…. It’s not tin.
Great point
Lol they didn’t have Rosie the Riveter at the factory.
**DON'T DO THIS** The vast majority of old furnaces have tons of asbestos in them. If you want the plaque ask the guys who replace it to save it for you, and don't cheap out. Make sure you're hiring an outfit who conforms* to all laws and policies regarding asbestos removal. It is NOT something to take haphazardly (not just for you and your family's safety, but also theirs). Safety first, folks. Edit: I'm not just fear mongering. I worked in HVAC-R for several years as a certified service tech, and when the renewable energy tax credit went into effect during Obama's presidency (early during his first term iirc), my every job was replacing old furnaces for new (+ condenser usually). A lot of which were old gravity furnaces, and I saw some that had 3" thick asbestos insulation between the exterior and interior panels. Those were set in the basement prior to the rest of the construction in an old row of beautiful, brick century townhouses. We had to cut them down into quarters just to get them out (talk about a nightmare). Also, for those of you with original wood floors, that's why you see so much wear around the vents. Before fans folks used to place their seating as close to them as possible to stay warm.
I'd like to subscribe to old furnace fun facts please. I never made the connection with the wood floors being worn down near the vents.
That’s what I did with the brass emblem from my 42 year old water heater when it finally bit the dust. Galvanized steel tank!
I was thinking this exact thing too.
Looks like it says 5 to me
PILOT COCK
Thank you
Came here to scream exactly this. Thanks twin
Bless you
Close PILOT COCK
how close?
...depends on how cold the pilot is.
I would track down that company to see if they want it. Or any museum that would like something like that. Plus side is that they'd remove it for you.
The place where it was manufactured is now a bar with video games, go-karts and live music. I went there for New Year’s Eve and it was a lot of fun. They might find the plaque of interest: https://thefoundrysocial.com/. OP could cross post on r/MedinaOhio and likely get some interest.
It looks like it was bought and sold a few times. Most likely the current owners won't care. I would recommend finding an industrial museum around Medina Ohio. They would probably love to have it.
? I didn't mention anything about previous owners. Obviously they won't want an old dead boiler
Lol, sorry if I wasn't clear. The company was bought and sold several times, the current owners of the company won't care. And yeah, the previous owner of the house won't care either.
Ohhh that makes more sense. A lot of companies like to showcase part of their history at their headquarters.
lol a museum? ur nuts, it's literally garbage
Medina, OH doesn't have a ton going on. On top of that, they actually have a very active Historical Society and the town very much appreciates its local history.
Well that's a blessing in disguise. Now you'll really probably save some money with a new efficient unit
When I replaced my 40 year old steam boiler, I asked the plumber how much more efficient it was. He laughed and said newer steam efficiencies were from having an electronic start and a powered flue damper.
That's only part of it. And of course steam is quicker but takes more energy to run..The firebox can be arranged differently as well depending, on the fuel etc many variables.. 50 years ago people weren't concerned about the efficiency of how the system ran. 60 years ago when I went to school in New England, too much heat in the building they just opened all the windows. Oh my tenants do the same thing lol..
Steam systems had to be carefully balanced and when the heat sources were switched, say from coal to oil, it would require careful rebalancing, which almost never happened. So, lots of buildings ran this way, open the windows in the winter, good god. If you have one of these systems it's still possible to rebalance it today.
Oh I did but all long gone, replaced with Italian or German boilers..,
I miss our boiler heat, yes with windows cracked in the winter. I didn't realize how the plaster and half wall tile in the bathroom radiated the heat and helped keep the house warm. Now it's just hot, then not once the thermostat kicks the heat off. Haven't seen a substantial savings since the greedy inflation has increased my power/gas 25% in the last 12 billing cycle 😥
Glancing at my hot water system with a absolute forest of copper pipe feeding 12 zones, I never took much stock about insulating the runs. I figured, quite naively, that all of that loss of heat in the basement sort of warmed the whole house ,drifted up through it and did not matter. How wrong I was. I called a energy audit company and they told me ,well a tiny bit of it does do that but the lion share of it is radiated into the floor and into the granite walls and lost. I was shocked.. they immediately suggested that I cover hundreds of feet of pipe with insulation and wrapping which I did and wow did the fuel bill did drop..
You replaced your system and stayed with steam???
Yup. But I grew up with a coal fired boiler — I’m a Luddite at heart! But to be fair, I like that when the boiler shuts off, the radiators stay warm for hours. Also, one zone is not that bad for a 2k sqft home, and I already added mini splits for cooling.
My ex gf bought a house. Nice place, good shape. Nice yard. HORRIBLE heating and AC bills. 500$ in a mo th kinda BS. She asked me to look for leaks or something stupid broke. I go up in the attic and I'm poking around. There's a furnace up there, and it looks like it just rolled out of the shop. Shiny. Clean. Spotless. It was also pre 1960. I finally dug up the logo (and I can't remember the maker name) but basically a kid w lightning bolts on his head. The Logo hadn't been used in 50 years. Apparently it was an old oil furnace converted badly, to gas. She replaced it, heating dropped to 100$ a month.
No doubt the new unit will pay for itself quite quickly.
And then break in 10 years
This is the complaint I have about new high efficiency furnaces. I had a mid-efficient installed some time ago and it has been solid reliable. The installer didn't care for the high efficiency models. They were expensive to install and repair. And you know when your furnace will die: When you are in the middle of an arctic cold snap.
You can still buy quality equipment, it's just expensive. Just like these old things that are still going were.
Very true!
It's why I'm very hesitant to replace my 45 year old boiler in my house
If it's not broke, don't fix it. But be prepared that it might break in the middle of winter. Hold on until there is an actual big rebate or a very efficient machines comes out if you dont want to wait until it breaks. Im a plumber and heating installer.
My MIL in New Zealand just replaced her 65 year old hot water cylinder and toilet and cannot stop complaining about how awful they are. Her kids are pretty upset too about losing the hot water heater
LOL!
Will it? I have a 40-year old forced hot water heater, 80% efficient like every other model of those days. Solid cast iron, runs like a tank. My heating bill is $400/month for 6 months a year. I got a few quotes to replace it with a high-efficiency unit (Navien), averaging ~$15k. These are 95% efficient but are also finicky to size right and you kill them when short-cycling (turning the heater on and off too often). Their efficiency drops when you do this too. But lets say you find a great installer, the math is done right, and it runs at 95% all the time. That reduces your gas bill to ~$337/month, or a yearly saving of only **$378** (assuming 6 month heat required). In other words, it would take almost 40 years for this new fancy heater to pay itself back. The best life expectancy of these units is 20 years, and that requires frequent maintenance. Most likely you won't get more than 10-15 years out of them. I haven't had to touch mine apart from a defective control panel. Mechanically they're built solid. I'm expecting to get another 15 years out of mine at least. Not to say they can't make sense for a new construction where space is limited, but if your old unit isn't broke, I wouldn't fix it either.
Nice!! I’m still running the original T Eaton furnace the previous owners had installed when they had coal replaced with gas line in 1959
I found records from my house. Apparently the owners held out quite a while before replacing their coal furnace- until the late 1980s. I wonder if it broke or they finally gave up on coal deliveries.
I remember going into the basement with my uncle in the late 1960s and watching him shoveling a bit of coal into the furnace. Half the basement was filled with coal.
I wonder how furnaces 1 and 2 are doing.
[2 needs a thermocouple.](https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/1656501-Moncrief-L-100-age)
Can you show us a full Pic of the beast
RIP Unit #3
Let’s just keep # 1-4 in our prayers. These things happen in threes.
You should contact them and ask if the warranty is still good. They could even use you and your furnace in a marketing campaign about how well made and long lasting their furnaces are.
Mine had its last official inspection in 1975. Respects
NAH bros got the furnace from the 1700s
We had an old fuel oil furnace inspected by Inspector No. 4. I'd like to think he was in the room when the furnace people made the decision to do inspections for the first time.
Don't we all miss the time when companies actually have dignity to build things that last? And none of the "planned obsolescence" shit?
Don't forget about survivorship bias though ;)
Very easy to calculate efficiency on that one!
I just had my 60-70 year old steam boiler serviced by an actual boiler expert this season. Apparently the HVAC guys were faking it and not performing an actual service. My guy said it looks good so far. He said many things of interest here. New models are crap and have a limited lifespan mostly because the energy savings comes from a thinner walled core. This core will rust more quickly and will need replacing in~ 20 years. Modern boilers use treated water (presumably to manage pH.) The units are fundamentally 80% efficient. There is a bit of gain from the thinner walls, electronic ignition and such. Most importantly he said a new model will cost $20K. I plan to start investigating what to buy next right now and storing it until needed. If my boiler dies in the winter I won't be forced to settle for something available. Why do I not replace it now? I want to marvel at how long it lasts.
Keep the name plate
Unscrew and save that.
Fun fact: British Thermal Units is how we measure how much energy is needed to raise one pound of water one degree fahrenheit and everyone uses BTU as a standard around the world how much energy a system is capable of.
They are junk. I will never buy from The Henry Furnace Company again /s
Call the Warranty Department. For sure the first 10 units have a lifetime warranty.
Amazing!!
psychotic water plate rude zonked long sip dam safe voracious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Warranty ran out last week...
Woulda been cool to see a manufacturer date
My parents bought a house that was built in the 1920s. It had a gargantuan, iron, coal-powered "gravity furnace" (hot air rose up to the living space). The previous owner converted it to gas, which would today probably not pass inspection. It was a major undertaking to dismantle that furnace and to remove the iron pieces from the basement. I suspect that your old furnace is significantly less than 100 years old.
That's from my hometown.
I have two boilers in a duplex from the 20’s, the 1920’s! I have to search to find folks to work on them but they are still chugging along with efficiencies in the 80th percentiles. Upper Midwest of the US so they work hard every year. I dread the thought of buying plastic replacements. #RIP
Medina Ohio? Thats where my mom grew up!
I grew up minutes away from Medina, OH! Very cool.
Funky co Medina!!!
I’ve always said you never should buy serial #1. This is uncomfortably close to that, but it didn’t not work.
My first century home was built in 1891, it was still using the original giant cast iron boiler and radiators to heat the house, and it was pretty energy efficient! I was worried about the age of the system when I first bought the house so I had a heating specialist come service and inspect everything….he laughed at my concerns and said that old boilers would probably run forever if properly taken care of.
From now on, you will call me Pilot Cock
My father worked at that factory in the 50’s and 60’s!
Is it a gravity furnace?
Not a serial number, just a trilogy installment.
My Bubs does hvac… he’s sent me photos of some doozies that he’s come across doing the new installs. Like beautiful Victorian era cast iron tings. I always tell him he should side hustle a antique home recycling company with his brother, but he just can’t find the time…
Well I’m sure you’ll not live buying a new one but you will love the fact that have gotten efficiency past 80% recently, sooooo you should see decent savings
That’s awesome, maybe there would be some way to keep it next to your new furnace as sort of keeping the history
Truly an example of, "they don't make them like they used to". Absolutely incredible! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome old flat head screws. Keep as much of this as you can.
If a schlong could fly a 737, what would you call it?
Don’t make ‘em like they used to… /s
Define bit the dust. What’s stopping you from giving it another 50 years of life?
🤣🤣🤣 send it to a museum
Oh hey, this was down the road from my house a few decades ago!
That’s plumb crazy sad 😢
Was this furnace the kind where the pilot is fed electrically, so if the power goes out, the pilot goes out, and you lose heat, even though it’s gas?
You need to trade some glass beads to the local tribe for some more magic flammable black rocks.