Did grandparent's coal-fired steam heat boiler also heat domestic hot water?

[Robert Gift]

173 Pannebaker Ave, Lewistown, Pennsylvania.
As a little boy I was allowed to put a few lumps of anthracite coal in the furnace.
I do not recall a separate water heater.
Their bathroom pedestal sink had separate facets. Hot water was scaldingly hot!! Could only cool mixing in the sink bowl.

Thank you.

 

[Sylvan]

173 Pannebaker Ave, Lewistown, Pennsylvania.
As a little boy I was allowed to put a few lumps of anthracite coal in the furnace.
I do not recall a separate water heater.
Their bathroom pedestal sink had separate facets. Hot water was scaldingly hot!! Could only cool mixing in the sink bowl.

Thank you.

There was usually a manual mixing by using 2 valves at the boiler, and they supplied HW through

Y H W outlet was usually mixed tested by hand

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Fitter30]

1971 graduated from trade school worked for a small contractor done a lot of service 4 + apartment buildings in the city of St. Louis never worked on a coal fired boiler but saw a bunch of abandoned ones. Few had mechanical stoker rest were hand fired and had to clean the clinkers out of them. Janitor would have a sleeping room , shower, sink and toilet in the basement. Walls made of painted cardboard.

 

[Robert Gift]

... Janitor would have a sleeping room , shower, sink and toilet in the basement. Walls made of painted cardboard.

Why waste cardboard? Surprised thatheyen painted it.
Presume 173 Pannebaker was converted to natural gas. But no gas meter visible.
~1965 Thanksgiving visiting grandmother, a house up the street had a chimney fire.
Grandmother could discern it was her street by the curfew horn's code.
Never saw any fire but a volunteer firefighter was on a ladder spraying water down the chimney.
I told parents he was probably damaging the chimney with cold water on hot bricks.

 

[Sylvan]

Why waste cardboard? Surprised thatheyen painted it.
Presume 173 Pannebaker was converted to natural gas. But no gas meter visible.
~1965 Thanksgiving visiting grandmother, a house up the street had a chimney fire.
Grandmother could discern it was her street by the curfew horn's code.
Never saw any fire but a volunteer firefighter was on a ladder spraying water down the chimney.
I told parents he was probably damaging the chimney with cold water on hot bricks.

When converting from Coal, wood, or oil to gas, the chimney needs to have a certified (licensed) chimney sweep to clean the chimney to remove the soot buildup and then certify that it is clean enough to burn gas

Or to have the chimney relined to prevent these types of fires.
A lot of older chimneys, such as oil or coal, did not have a cover to redirect the fumes like gas has, and rainwater or snow would go down with zero damage to the bricks

 

[Robert Gift]

When converting from Coal, wood, or oil to gas, the chimney needs to have a certified (licensed) chimney sweep to clean the chimney to remove the soot buildup and then certify that it is clean enough to burn gas

Or to have the chimney relined to prevent these types of fires.
A lot of older chimneys, such as oil or coal, did not have a cover to redirect the fumes like gas has, and rainwater or snow would go down with zero damage to the bricks

The little amount of rain getting into a hot flue would be of no consequence.
But voluminous cold water down a hot flue, especially after a chimney fire, wouldikely crack hot bricks.
Doubt that any of those old chimneys had flue liners.

Zillow indicates built 1930. (thought much earlier). Now oil heat. (Expected natural gas.)
Is there a way to find floor plan and dimensions?
Thank you.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

I think that they used to be called "side arm" water heaters that came off the
boiler and they heated the water in the home off the heat from the boiler.....

I have asked about this before and wondered how this was efficient in the summer time
when most boilers for heat were turned off or turned down to low...??

I have found a number of them thrown out in crawl spaces over the years
and I have cleaned them up for my store front.... I had to give them away
to some supply houses in town due to the crack heads trying to break the glass and
steal them for copper

Now I need to cal the places I gave them to and get some pictures of them to post on here
I got a brand new one that was a barn find still in the box that was sweet....

 

[John Gayewski]

They did/ do have coils inside of them.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

They did/ do have coils inside of them.

Being that they were thrown way back in a crawl space all of mine still had the copper coils in them....

WW1 and WW2 scrap drives for metal made them pretty scarce and hard to find. .intact

 

[Robert Gift]

I would gut REX #5 and make it an attractive waste basket.
Makes more sense to painthem white so they radiate less heat away.

 

[Eman85]

Ours did in the house I grew up in, Not a lot of hot water. Even worse when the coil went bad and my Dad bent soft copper and made a coil. Very happy when I was older and moved back and replaced all of the galvanized plumbing and put a water heater in.