look what i found in the shed

[jazzaD1]

http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/2162/s5d7.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img38/9150/4x6x.jpg

I found this above the masonite ceiling in my garage that i was pulling down today,it looks like an early hot water heater, can anyone tell me more about it and if it has any value?

[loanrangie]

Thats a beauty, i'd be holding onto it if for nothing more than an ornament.

[BMKal]

I remember one of these at my Grandmother's place in Port Pirie. Was mounted above the bath.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2684/66t3.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/266/66t3.jpg/)


Antique Metters Viceroy Water Heater (http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/whh/pages/historypages/metters-viceroy.html)

[warren9981]

Looks like something which might have fallen off Skylab when it crashed in Southwest WA.:p

[iClick]

Looks like you've found your answer - just one tip, could you kindly resize the images you post in the future. Those gargantuan images play havoc for us poor tablet users :eek:

[BathurstTom]

Looks like an old (wood) chip heater. I remember splitting kindling when I was a kid to run one like this. Great find!

Tom.

[Saitch]

Maybe turn it into a still???

[Barefoot Dave]

What a score!
Clean it up, get it serviceable and have the Flashest Camp water heater for miles!

[Boofla]

I thought it was a still at first!

[Bigbjorn]

what was known as a gas geyser, or bath heater. The water and gas cocks were arranged so the water started flowing through the heating coil as the gas was turned on and lit by a pilot light. Very economical, usually fitted with a bath outlet and a selectable shower rose. Still being made and sold until quite recent times until instantaneous hot water systems became affordable. That one looks near new.

[DeeJay]

We had exactly that one in our 30's style flat that Granny used to live in. I moved in after she passed away & one day had a rather long shower with the door closed, the water kept getting colder, I kept turning up the flame & getting dizzier and it all ended with me falling out of the shower & spending the morning vomiting. I called the Gas & Fuel & reported a faulty heater & the technician rocked up & closed off the gas pipe & slapped a "do not connect" sign on it. Dad wasn't too happy at replacing a perfectly good heater with one that's flued to the outside.
How was I to know??
Anyway thanks for the reminder...:D

[roverrescue]

I reckon I would be gutting that beauty and turning it into a water fountain for the kitchen
Fill it with rain water et al

Looks awesome!

Or better still as mentioned above somehow turn it into a still or port dispenser!!!

S

[BMKal]

We had exactly that one in our 30's style flat that Granny used to live in. I moved in after she passed away & one day had a rather long shower with the door closed, the water kept getting colder, I kept turning up the flame & getting dizzier and it all ended with me falling out of the shower & spending the morning vomiting. I called the Gas & Fuel & reported a faulty heater & the technician rocked up & closed off the gas pipe & slapped a "do not connect" sign on it. Dad wasn't too happy at replacing a perfectly good heater with one that's flued to the outside.
How was I to know??
Anyway thanks for the reminder...:D

From memory - I think that's why the one in my Grandmother's house was eventually replaced. The flue was internal so all exhaust gases accumulated in the bathroom - my Grandmother always used to tell us to leave the window open when we were having a shower.

I vaguely recall that internal flue gas heaters were made illegal at around the time that hers was replaced.

[Bigbjorn]

They were supposed to have external flues. If you had your gas company supply and install one, you got an external flue as a matter of course. People bought elsewhere on price and either installed them themselves (illegal!) or got a cut price local to change them over. Ethnic landlords were notorious for this. As a young fitter I worked on and off for a gas company and saw and reported lots of shonky installations. Gas fires were another potential death trap once the portable ones with flex hose and bayonet fittings became popular. An unflued gas fire in a room with all windows and doors closed in cold weather was a disaster in the making.

[superquag]

... I remember them....:eek:

[UncleHo]

Yup,and so do I,grandparents had one in their home in Ascot Brisbane,was a "B" having a shower with the little thin window open particularly with a westerly blowing.

[DeeJay]

They were supposed to have external flues. If you had your gas company supply and install one, you got an external flue as a matter of course. People bought elsewhere on price and either installed them themselves (illegal!) or got a cut price local to change them over. Ethnic landlords were notorious for this. As a young fitter I worked on and off for a gas company and saw and reported lots of shonky installations. Gas fires were another potential death trap once the portable ones with flex hose and bayonet fittings became popular. An unflued gas fire in a room with all windows and doors closed in cold weather was a disaster in the making.

Well the outside laundry had a concrete tub with a wringer & there was bare flame gas lights on the walls as granny "didn't trust electricity", so I doubt there were rules in the 30's about these heaters and I would guess most "ethnics" were tenants !!

[digger]

I reckon plumb it into the gas on the back wall or inside your shed and use it over an out door/or shed sink.

Its a beaut looking thing.

[Bigbjorn]

Well the outside laundry had a concrete tub with a wringer & there was bare flame gas lights on the walls as granny "didn't trust electricity", so I doubt there were rules in the 30's about these heaters and I would guess most "ethnics" were tenants !!

Maybe in Melbourne but up here the ethnics owned the properties and us poor white trash were the tenants. In my time at gas companies in Sydney and Brisbane, most flats were owned by people with distinctly Italian, Greek, Yugoslav names.

Jet lamps (no mantles, just a Bray burner) used bugger all gas and produced little noxious or harmful fumes. Geysers and gas fires used quite a bit and discharged carbon monoxide and other bad for you fumes. The real danger though, was operating them in a closed up room where they consumed the available oxygen and people could and did become asphyxiated.