Vintage in House Gas Incinerator

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Just bought a house circa 1956 and while tearing out all the old basement walls I found this. Enjoy.
I was initially thinking that I could occasionally use it to burn receipts, and other sensitive documents but it's looks like it hasn't been used in 40 yrs.
Also it appears to be leaking internally somehow. Maybe I need to check the chimney cap.
The gas was all hooked up and working when valves are opened.
My options are take it out and fill chimney with cement.
Clean it up in the hopes of actually using it for fun(not actual garbage)
Only clean the exterior for a conversation piece.
Detroit Incinerator Products
IMAG1954.jpg

IMAG1956.jpg

The top looks OK but the bottom looks to have been rusting for years unfortunately.
 
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Looks like a serial killer may have owned the house before you!

Pretty cool, I'd leave it as a conversation piece.
 
I would clean it up and get the gas lines serviced. Since it was hidden behind a wall who knows when the last time it was inspected. Touch up that paint and you have a super fancy paper incinerator.
 
Get rid of it.

If not just for the safety factor (that thing is a rotted out mess), but unless you're in a rural area I can't imagine it being legal to run a home incinerator. There is a pretty big potential fire/CO hazard with it if you were foolish enough to actually try to use it. Now that you've uncovered it, when the day comes you want to sell the house you may well be required to remove it. It doesn't matter if it's disconnected, in many areas it has to be removed. Not to mention the insurance liabilities associated with something like that-it's no wonder the previous owner hid it from you.

As far as a conversation piece, yeah, not so much. Some antiques and vintage home details are great conversation pieces, but that's not one. It's right up there with knob and tube wiring and asbestos. If you want a conversation piece, save the door and hang it in your garage when you scrap the rest of it.

Originally Posted By: Run
I would clean it up and get the gas lines serviced. Since it was hidden behind a wall who knows when the last time it was inspected. Touch up that paint and you have a super fancy paper incinerator.


That's very bad advice. You won't find anyone who will service something like that or the gas lines to it. Many municipalities require that it be removed entirely from the house-they are no longer legal, and I can't imagine the insurance liability of something like that. Why do you suppose the previous owner hid it?
 
Not too long ago (5-7 years) a friend moved to the northern reaches of New York's Chinatown. The building was set back due to its 6 story height. It was in a neighborhood of 3 story buildings.
The front of the building had an incinerator attached with a flue pipe all the way up.

It didn't look too different than your unit.

While we moved him in we watched a couple of guys remove it. No camera.....too bad.

Judging by the absence of smell and ash we concluded it hadn't been in recent use.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Get rid of it.

If not just for the safety factor (that thing is a rotted out mess), but unless you're in a rural area I can't imagine it being legal to run a home incinerator. There is a pretty big potential fire/CO hazard with it if you were foolish enough to actually try to use it. Now that you've uncovered it, when the day comes you want to sell the house you may well be required to remove it. It doesn't matter if it's disconnected, in many areas it has to be removed. Not to mention the insurance liabilities associated with something like that-it's no wonder the previous owner hid it from you.

As far as a conversation piece, yeah, not so much. Some antiques and vintage home details are great conversation pieces, but that's not one. It's right up there with knob and tube wiring and asbestos. If you want a conversation piece, save the door and hang it in your garage when you scrap the rest of it.

Originally Posted By: Run
I would clean it up and get the gas lines serviced. Since it was hidden behind a wall who knows when the last time it was inspected. Touch up that paint and you have a super fancy paper incinerator.


That's very bad advice. You won't find anyone who will service something like that or the gas lines to it. Many municipalities require that it be removed entirely from the house-they are no longer legal, and I can't imagine the insurance liability of something like that. Why do you suppose the previous owner hid it?


I'm sure the scrap guys would be all over this. So yank it out and put a piece of plywood over the hole and fill concrete in the top of the chimney?

There is another chimney flue that is right next to it. So from the outside it is like a double wide rectangle chimney. The furnace and hot water vent go into the other side.
 
I know you have better sense than to consider putting this thing back into use.
It also looks a lot older than circa 1956, so it may have come from an older structure or may have been NOS at a builder's supply house.
The house I grew up in was of about the same vintage and had a gas incinerator that looked a lot more modern. It was apparently considered a bit of a luxury to burn trash rather than haul it out to the curb to be picked up. We children played with the thing some but our parents soon had it removed. The Lord apparently protects children at least as well as He protects fools and drunks.
As it happened, the suburb in which we lived soon equipped the trash guys with Cushmans having little dump bodies. You no longer had to take your trash out to the curb, only put it in front of the garage doors and the guys would drive up on their Cushmans and get it. They would then dump the Cushmans as needed in a big mother ship compactor truck. This service continues to this day.
 
I don't think you need to cement up the flue.

Inspect the flue for soundness then cut your house in half and make two apartments out of it.

Make the idle flue the heater flue for the tenant. The extra flue is your cue to cut your house in two.

Then sell it empty. You'll get a huge price premium for selling an empty, converted building.
 
I wonder if it is encased with asbestos.
If so, legally getting rid of it suddenly got a lot more expensive.
 
Is it bad to have an unused chimney?
I could vent the furnace to one and hot water to the other.
Or what about venting the dryer vent into the extra chimney?
I don't like the look of the dryer vent on the side of the house.
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
Is it bad to have an unused chimney?
I could vent the furnace to one and hot water to the other.
Or what about venting the dryer vent into the extra chimney?
I don't like the look of the dryer vent on the side of the house.


Where i live, 1 device / flue.

Dryer vent into the chimney? No way IMHO. I would not pump hot moist air into long cold duct expecting anything but condensation.
 
That's pretty neat, but no way I'd consider trying to put it in service. I'd seal the whole thing up and then perhaps refinish the front doors and the. Reinstall them and seal them tight. It would be an interesting thing to see in the wall if the decor and style of home supports it.

I too would want to know about asbestos.
 
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