We had a Crane hot water heater in our house that was built in 1950.  It was in the middle of the house in the furnance room.  That thing was great supplied 3 baths room kitchen an utility (wringer washer then Maytag automatics.  Was still going strong in 1978 when the furnace went out it had to be tken out to get the ol durnace out and new one in so dad decided to replace it.  One thing I think that kept it going so long was that dad did the drain out of it twice a year.  One thing he did teach me well to do. 

All our fixtures were Crane in the bath rooms and kitchen sink.  Have never seen another Crane hot water tank again.

My grand parents had one of the uninsulated water heaters in their attice and one night they heard this big swoosh and bang and the heater rook off like a roocket through the roof.  No safery valve and it did not stop heating til the tank blew.  The tank landed in the back yard.  Water all in the house from broken pipes. 

A440 wrote:

"Retired after 52 Years of use. Nothing wrong with it. Gas company said it was way too old and red tagged it."

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Oh that's great, now you'll be replacing it every 7 years or so from now on.  Everything new is JUNK !  This sort of thing burns my a**.

Ken D.

hose pipe for the garden hose!

What was the rumble rumble in the water heater when someone started running hot water at the kitchen sink?  

When I moved in I had a gas man come to the house and inspect my ancient gas furnace to make sure it was safe.  It was called Torid Heat.  Don't you just love that name?!  In chrome lettering too.  Be still my heart.  Anything with chrome lettering!!  LOL  He said the furnace even though it was about 40 years old was safe and sound.  Said there was not much to wear out in that furnace.  Said it would probably rust out before it wore out.    While there I asked him about my old Hotpoint water heater and he said they don't make 'em like they used to.  He said that I needed to drain some of the water out of it evey now and then.  So I did that a couple of times, but it wasn't murky or discolored so I never did it again and it has been running fine.  That was about 15 years ago.  Like I said in an earlier post, my sweet baby is 47 years old and still putting out!  LOL            

The Torid Heat went bye bye in the summer of 2008.  My central a/c unit outside was acting up and I opted to have the furnace replaced with a high efficiency gas furnace since the heat and a/c were tied in together.  Tbe old GE a/c unit outside was 30 years old.  My gas bill decreased to less than one half!  Only thing is the new furnace is as toasty as the old one.     

The same aunt and uncle that had the Sears Homart water heater also had a cool lawnmower.  It was aqua colored.  Self-propelled.  It was a Sunbeam brand.  It had a heavy cloth leaf catcher that fit over a metal frame.  You started the engine by winding it up with a hand crank positioned on top of the engine.  That was a good arrangement as long as the engine was tuned and it had a fresh spark plug.  Otherwise it was almost impossible to start.  My aunt and uncle were very elderly and that lawnmower mostly sat in their garage and they paid a neighborhood high school kid to mow for them.  I've never seen another Sunbeam brand mower since and I have been looking.  Another aunt of mine had a self-propelled lawnmower with the same wind-up mechanism.  It was red and the handle bar grips curved inward.  It gave it a funky modern appearance.  She too had trouble starting her mower and eventually gave it to a man that worked for her.  She replaced it with a Sears Craftsman.  It was funky too in that it had an on/off  switch and a pull cord.  There was no way to adjust the engine speed.  There was no choke that I can recall.  It started every time.   It took me a while to get used to the fact that the engine speed was set and there was nothing for me to adjust once it was started.     

...new furnace is not as toasty as the new one.  

LOLLL!

Thanks for the photo and info, but I never saw the Warm Morning heater that my mother described.  I don't know if it was a stove because it was either in the kitchen or back hall.  I'm not sure.  I think she said kitchen.  I know she said they had a wood burning stove for cooking and also a kerosene stove which she called an oil stove.  She clarified that for me that it burned kerosene.  Yes.  Can you imagine how HOT it must have been in the summer here in the South in a kitchen with a wood burning stove AND no air conditioning.  Speaking of hot climates.  My grandparents built a new home in 1946.  In 1950 we had a heat wave and the temp stayed around 100 degrees for a few days.  My grandfather had central air put in their home.  My parents bought the house out of the estate in 1957 when my grandfather died.  Grandmama had already passed away in 1948.  Anyway, the central air was complicated.  There was this monster of a contraption in the furnace room that droned and vibrated, etc, etc.  Outside in the yard on the utility side of the property was something called a water tower. that had to do with the air conditioning.   It made a racket also.  In the late 60's it caught on fire.  A neighbor called that that contraption at the side was smoking.  All that got ripped out and replaced with a big Carrier unit.  After all that fuss and expense of tearing out the old ac and putting in the new system my mother said it was too expensive to run and half the time didn't turn it on unless we had a heat wave.  At least we had tall ceilings and floor fans in every room.         

Is that cool or what.  You win!  :)