Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-19
Engineer Gives
Some Rules on Care
OF Coal Furnace
Tells How to Prevent
Having to Make
Costly Repairs

If anybody should know how to
get best results from a furnace
it should be the chief engineer OF
a furnace manufacturer with fac
tory branches in nearly 500 cities.
Home owners might well listen,
therefore, to the advice of such an
engineer.
I'VE have learned through many
years experience he said, that the
right size furnace correctly installed
will last almost indefinitely without
major repairs. Nevertheless, our
branches are called upon to replace
thousands Of castings every year in
lust such furnaces. OF course, II
furnace is too small for the home
its in, it must be kept overheated
almost constantly during the cold
est weather, and that burns out
castings quickly. But I'm talking
now about castings burned out in
well-installed furnaces castings
that never should have burned out
at all
Usually, this is due either to
careleSsnesS or lack of knowledge.
In either case, it's costly, especially
If the casting is firepot or COM
buStion chamber. That neceSSltates
taking down the whole furnace in
order to set the new part in place.
When these castings are replaced,
1t Is almost invariably due to i'm
proper firing. Many people have
the idea that they are saving trips
to the basement if they pile in all
the coal they can get into furnace
when it needs fresh fuel. Actually
they are wasting a good part OF
the fuel values in their coal and
inviting damage to the furnace.
Gives Safe Rules.
For a long time the coal merely
smolders sending unused heat units
up the chimney in the form of valu-
able gases. Since the chokedup
fire doesn't give off enough heat,
drafts are left open and presently
there is a white hot fuel bed eX-
tending we'll above the top of the
fire pot. The combustion chamber
casting, which is the one just above
the top of the fire pot, was never
Intended for such intense heat. 1t
may cause much greater extremes
Of expansion and contraction than
the metal can stand causing dan
gerous cracks: the casting may be
warped out of shape or the joint be-
tween it and the fire pot may be
opened in some other way. In
oil cronLyn aN6 G0nunrnIlS
gases may be released into the air
that the family must breathe.
The safe rule is always to keep
the top Of your firebed we'll below
the upper edge of the fire pot. That
not only prevents damage to the
combustion chamber casting but it
saves fuel and doesn't cause any
more furnace tending either. It's
more likely to cause less because
the coal is burned so much more
efficiently.
ut is also fairly common for folks
to leave the house and forget to
close furnace drafts. They may
intend to be gone for only a few
moments but something detains
them. ii tne stay IS SuIllClently pro-
longed. the fire pot may be white
hot before anything is done about
It. One time probably won't
damage the castings enough to
make replacement necessary but
every overheating takes something
out of the metal-really burns it.
Surprisingly few will put a hole
through the best fire pot any
foundry ever turned out. The safe
and economical rule is, first of all,
to have your furnace large enough