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woodcutter's avatar

Does anyone here have a "Clow and Sons" gasteam heater in their home or workplace?

Asked by woodcutter (16382points) October 29th, 2011

Invented in the early 1920’s they were a solution to space heating separate rooms. Back in the day most furnaces had a main boiler in the basement with steam pipes routed to all the radiators. During the spring or fall that became wasteful because of all the effort needed to get the boiler up to temperature for maybe one day and then put it out. The Clow heaters were a furnace unto themselves that would allow the heating of a space without needing to crank up the main boiler. If you look in the background of Seinfeld’s apartment on his show, you will see a Clow.
Nowadays they are more of a novelty if they work at all.

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12 Answers

DrBill's avatar

I have one at home, bought it on e-bay

woodcutter's avatar

@DrBill Cool.Will it work?

DrBill's avatar

yes it does, I have a room that was added on to the house and it keeps it warm and toasty, very easily. wish I had more of them

woodcutter's avatar

@DrBill I would imagine they are pretty hard to come by.

DrBill's avatar

the one I have is the only one i have ever seen

woodcutter's avatar

I plan on scrapping a few badly aged ones. Totally FUBAR.@45 per lb for clean cast iron. These must weigh 300lbs each and can’t even move them without taking them apart first. I got some info off the brass label like lighting instructions and how to keep the water topped off.

DrBill's avatar

mine is taped into the water main and a float keeps the water level stable

woodcutter's avatar

Was it hard to find someone to get it running for you? And is yours the vented version? In my readings I found they cost much more to install so they were fewer in number. Most people just stuck with the theme of saving money and went with ventless. Not to be nosy, but how much does a functioning Clow go for these days?

DrBill's avatar

mine is vent-less, I installed it myself with some friends.

I paid $150, but the seller did not know what it was.

woodcutter's avatar

I plan on saving the air valves on these and anything else that may be used just in case. These here are in terrible shape but the air valves are aluminum and appeared to have remained intact, or they look like that from outside appearance.

DrBill's avatar

I’ll keep you in mind if I need parts….

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