My father bought and installed a brand new system in a house he built in 1975 or so. It was an combo unit that had an oil burner and a wood compartment. It didn't have a huge volume of water, and it supplied domestic water too. The big mistake he made was to use a masonry chimney and burning chit wood. I think he is still using it, but oil only now. I saw the chimney/stove pipe this guy has and it's a full DW stainless heading out the roof. That unit is going to scare the crap out of home buyers, I bet as they won't even know what to do with it.
Ya probably Dad wanted to stop paying high oil bills. He bought 7 acres all with mostly hardwood. However, he needed wood right away so we were burning unseasoned wood most of the time. He could never get a year ahead. Also most of it was small, so we didn't split. And that chimney was a creosote nightmare. To clean it we dragged a small fir tree through it. Probably Dad wanted to save money. That's how I learned to use a chainsaw helping him.
My guess is there is a storage tank inside of the walled in area in the corner
Oh ya I know. I bought this place, and in the listing it said wood fireplace. Yes I have one, but could not get my insurance without capping the chimney. Too get it certified as it was would mean taking the masonry apart. I just stuck a cheap electric fireplace in the opening and put a pellet stove in the basement. The underwriters have hired a bunch of engineers and they look at every risk now.
OK that must be it as there are pipes going in there, and it was finished with plywood that you can unscrew. You could not circulate all that water just in a unit that size as the water would pass through too quickly
Its called a Franklin ,yes really goes threw the wood ,most of the heat goes up the chimney !
They are neighbors to my shop...
Those never make friends!
Might be a heat shield...the brick may be attached right to wood framing, so clearance to combustibles rules not met...and yes, those things are forest eaters!
I thought a masonry chimney had to be self supporting? Oh well, I'm thinking this farm house is pretty old. I have no idea why they would be trying to sell with that there. It obviously it can't be used if you want insurance. That is just one more expense for the buyers.
Ah, I see now that is the chimney itself...I didn't blow the picture up before and thought it was just brick laid up to be "fireplace-esque"
No, I'm pretty sure it's real as in the other pictures of the exterior there is a masonry chimney. If you were just going to have a chase and pipe there would be no exterior square masonry chimney. However I think I can see round stove pipe coming out. Maybe in the beginning 1894 or whatever, it was just masonry with some stove pipe to get it from the stove to the chimney. Then maybe after a few chimney fires they upgraded and put the stove pipe in it? I don't think it would fit? I can't get better pic's of the exterior. He probably figured he could heat up that metal and get more heat out of the stove pipe.
![[Hearth.com] There is a house for sale with this. Hot water system but is that it?](/talk/data/attachments/338/338651-9e567b42fa777315c7ca5cc63ff4ce0d.jpg?hash=HPatpYmfEi)
![[Hearth.com] There is a house for sale with this. Hot water system but is that it?](/talk/data/attachments/338/338662-78ee93e9661f62f2640eb136010c9fde.jpg?hash=Z_HfXnI1Dh)
