I took apart a 20 year old boiler and found this inside

I was working on a old cast iron boiler last month at a house in Cleveland. The customer said it was making a weird knocking sound. I opened up the access panel and pulled out about 3 pounds of scale and sediment. What surprised me was I found a 1957 dime stuck in the bottom of the heat exchanger. No idea how it got there but the boiler was built in 2004 so that coin was older than the unit. I showed it to the homeowner and he laughed said his grandpa must have dropped it in during a repair. That dime probably sat in there for almost 20 years without causing problems until the buildup got bad enough. Has anyone else ever found random objects inside a boiler during a service call?

2 comments

2 Comments

craig.tessa2d ago

Wow, that is wild. A dime from 1957 just chilling in a boiler from 2004? I can't believe it survived that long without getting completely crushed or dissolved by the heat and sediment. You'd think the water and temperature changes would have turned it into a blob of nothing. The fact that it was the homeowner's grandpa who probably dropped it makes it even crazier, like a little time capsule in there.

aaron7081d ago

I had a similar thing happen with a 1964 quarter in a hot water tank from 2003, @craig.tessa. I mean, these old silver coins are tougher than people give them credit for. The dime is probably 90% silver, so it doesn't rust or corrode like a penny would. It just gets a little dark from the minerals. For real though, if you find one in a boiler, just rinse it off with some vinegar. That black gunk comes right off and you'll see it's still in decent shape. The heat might warp it a tiny bit, but they usually survive better than you'd think.