On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:11:33 GMT, "carl mciver"
wrote:
"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
.. .

| When someone finally noticed and went to relight the pilot, or the
| gas puddle grew big enough to spill over to the next furnace on either
| side, you could end up with a BOOM! instead of a 'whumpf!'

I was a kid then and didn't know better... A few years ago my brother
went to service them and couldn't find the parts he needed for one, so he
took it out of service and the other one he fixed up pretty good. I don't
recall what my mother (sole occupant now, with my brother and family living
next door) uses for heat now at that end of the house.

Gas Control Parts are still available, though you have to go to a
heating wholesale house to get them. Because improper assembly can
lead to some very nasty situations, they try to restrict access to
people with a clue. If the firebox cracks or rots out, or the cabinet
rusts through, it's curtains for the old unit.

They are still making new floor furnaces, sold primarily for
replacements - any ethical contractor asked to install a new one would
probably try to steer you over to another type equipment. If they
need another heater, I would strongly suggest removing the floor
furnaces and filling in the holes, and switching over to wall
furnaces. Much lower fire hazard, since it's harder to have things
fall and block the vents.

If putting a new vent stack through the roof is out, and you can't
intercept the old flue from the floor furnace in the wall (remove the
Transite and install B-vent in the same hole) and reuse it at that
location for the wall furnace, you can get direct-vent heaters that
exhaust horizontally through the outside wall.

There was always
good ventilation under the house (East Texas, and rarely really cold) so
either my father didn't know better or didn't worry about it. It only
happened every few weeks or so, so the leak must have been pretty tiny.

Lucky. ;-)

-- Bruce --

--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
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