Hoffman Water Heater Age?

[Michael Chambers]

Hi All;

I thought this little 50 year old ranch had a 75 gal. water heater at first, when I saw it. It was a monster. Turns out it appears to be a commercial quality, probably very old, 50 gal. The brand is Hoffman, the M/N is 50A, and the S/N is 5188AT.

It so old that the TPR is mounted in the discharge pipe instead of the tank itself. The gas service was turned off, so I couldn't say if it works or not, but the burner itself was huge for a 50 gal., and was cast iron instead of a stamping assembly.

I'm telling the buyer that it's way beyond its expected life span, but it would be nice to tell them just how old it really is. I can't find anything at the usual sources. Does anybody on the forum know anything about this brand, and how to determine its age? Thanks a lot for your help with this.

Mike

[Dom D'Agostino]

That's a real antique appliance, take a look at an old catalogue from Hoffman (http://archive.org/details/TheHoffmanHeaterCompanyLorainOhioManufacturersOfIn stantaneous_19).

Dom.

[Michael Chambers]

Good one Dom! :D

That catalog is from 1905, but I don't think this unit is quite that old. It certainly appears much more modern than the ones in that catalog, but it's probably still an antique. The house it's in was built in 1966.

That may be the same company however, but I can't find any information as to when they went out of business. This company, for any who are interested is: Hoffman Heater Company, Lorain, Ohio

Thanks for the chuckle!

[Mike Clarke]

some residential old water heaters had cast iron burners way back. Was a big thing here to rip them out when the tank failed, old steel tire rim, mount the burner and have the original deep fryer! we actually had one of those old black round cast iron huge pots worked perfectly, had a lot of fish fry parties back in the day.