Fowler & Republic Electric or Gas Water age, data tag decoder, and company history for Fowler Water Heaters & for Republic Transcon Industries.

We give history & other information for Fowler electric water heaters and Republic water heaters. We discuss both Fowler water heater and Republic waer heater age decoding from the heater serial numbers.

Age of a Fowler Water Heater & Republic Water Heaters

Fowler Electric Water Heater Age Decoding

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Question: age of Fowler glass-lined electric water heater ?

2019/11/18 Jeff said

My Fowler water heater is still working good. Wanted to find out how old it is? Serial no. 57X 2715

Reply:

I want to buess by looking for a reasonable candidate for year in the serial number, Jeff since we haven't found a complete Fowler serial number decoder.

57X2715 could be YYXsnnn or YYXWWnn wyere YY is year and WW is week.

Can we make a sanity check? What's the age of the building where this Fowler water heater is installed? What are the country and city?

Also I'd be grateful to see a photo of the actual data tag on the unit.

Keeping the post and your photos here we may invite help from other readers as well.

Question: how to decode the age of a Fowler Electric Water Heater - Republic Thermo-Glas

2016/02/09 jniehaus46@msn.com said:

Can you tell me the age of a water heater with Model number 52-E-LD-5

Serial number 41464? It has finally given out and needs to be replaced. I'm just curious about to how old it is.

The information on the front says Republic Thermo-glas, and mfg. tag says Fowler Manufacturing which I understand is, or was, a division of Republic.
Thank you.

Reply:

Fowler produced both electric and gas fired water heaters from as early as 1914, producing commercial water heaters starting in 1935, and operated until the 1960's.

The company produced gas and electric water heaters in 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 gallon sizes as well as in table top models.

For at least part of its life Fowler Water Heaters was a subsidiary of Republic Transcon Industries, Inc.

But the Fowler Manufacturing's Republic Thermo-Glas is not a brand for which we have a decoding chart.

I GUESS from what we know of the Fowler Water Heater company history and the serial number on your unit that it was made in

either: Fowler xxMYY = April of 1964 based on looking for a reasonable two digit year in the number and guessing that the manufacturing month precedes it.

OR 1952, perhaps May if 52-E is the decoder for YY-M. I'm researching further.

Fowler electric water heaters are dated as early as 1917 and continued into the 1960's. Patent research and trademark research give us some of these dates as well as the originator, Paul L. Fowler who is cited his 1958 patent for a concentric gas and air burner for water heaters, U.S. Patent No. US2564358 A filed in 1947.

Below: a Fowler Water Heater advertisement from the Prescott Evening Courier, 16 April, 1948. Excerpting from the same newspaper page on which this advertisement appeared:

Vaccaro, Ernest B., WASHINGTON - (AP) President Truman is getting down to fighting trim for the 1948 campaign after closing the books on his third year in office. To a man his intimates say he isn't even considering suggestions from within his dissension-swept [sic] party that he step aside in favor of some other Democrat for the presidential nomination. - Op. Cit.

From our patent research on Fowler's water heaters you'll see that Paul Fowler had a long history of water heating developments and may have been inspired by other heating equipment inventions by his antecedents. Thomas Fowler (1777 - 1843) ... was an English inventor whose most notable invention was the thermosiphon which formed the basis of early hot water central heating systems. - Wikipedia 2018/05/22

• Fowler, Paul L. "Clamp-on electric heater." U.S. Patent 1,642,197, issued September 13, 1927.
• Fowler, Paul L., "Concentric gas and air burner for water heaters", U.S. Patent US2564358 A Published 14 August 1951, Filed 29 Sept. 1947. Excerpt:
  
  The main object of this invention is to provide a water heater especially adapted to the burning of gas in direct contact with the exterior of the tank and to so apply the heat that the major portion of it will be absorbed by the water in the tank before it has had an opportunity to escape to the stack.
  
  The second object is to provide a special form of burner and baille box which will provide a long flame travel and which will afford a convenient way of cleaning or inspecting or replacing the burner element.
• Fowler, Paul L. "Electric water heater." U.S. Patent 2,498,950, issued February 28, 1950.
• Fowler, Paul L. "Concentric gas and air burner for water heaters." U.S. Patent 2,564,358, issued August 14, 1951.
• Fowler, Jonathan O. "Heating apparatus." U.S. Patent 1,167,894, issued January 11, 1916.
• Fowler, Walter, "GRAVITY-FEED DEVICE FOR BOILER FEED-WATER." U.S. Patent Application 1/280,435, filed October 4, 1916.
• Allan, J.R., Conners Ducker, Fowler, Albert C Fowler, Patrick Conners and Mary E Ducker, 1903. Combined gas stove and heater. U.S. Patent 743,412.
• Fowler, A.H., "Sectional Water-Tube Boiler", U.S. Patent 233,338, issued October 12, 1880 [Perhaps Paul Fowler's father or relatives are cited herea and below - Ed.]

Other citation excerpts give possible variations on the company name and history

• Fowler Manufacturing Company, a Corporation, Appellant, v. H. H. Gorlick et al., Appellees and Cross-appellants, 415 F.2d 1248 (9th Cir. 1969) retrieved 2018./05/23, original source https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/415/1248/280388/
  Excerpt:
  
  The named defendants were Fowler Manufacturing Co. (herein Fowler), a subsidiary of Republic Transcon Industries, Inc., and the three principal business competitors of Thrifty (herein Keller, Rosen and Mesher).... As noted at the start, Fowler was a manufacturer of electric water heaters.
• Reeves Plumbing & Heating Journal, 1958-Republic-Odin Appliance Corp
• Georgia Briefs, Beverly Hills Calif (AP) - Two top officials of Republic Transcon Industries Inc., scheduled meetings in Atlanta today and Tuesday to discuss plans for a new Republic plant in the Atlanta area. The firm manufactures gas and electric water heaters. Meeting with Atlanta banking officials and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce will be Milton J. Stevens, Republic board chairman and Wijlliam P. Lennon, president. - Rome News Tribune, 30 October 1961
• Republic-Transcon Industries, Inc. filed as a Foreign For-Profit Corporation in the State of Texas and is no longer active. This corporate entity was filed ... March 30, 1961 , according to public records filed with Texas Secretary of State.
  
  It is important to note that this is a foreign filing. A foreign filing is when an existing corporate entity files in a state other than the one they originally filed in. This does not necessarily mean that they are from outside the United States. - retrieved 2018/05/23, original source: https://www.corporationwiki.com/p/hjmsc/republic-transcon-industries-inc
  
  Republic-Transcon was a Pennsylvania company located at 123 S Broad St C/o C T Corp System Philadelphia Pa. The company was created 3/9/1961 and was dissolved on 1/24/1969. - retrieved 2018/05/23, original source http://www.companies-pennsylvania.com/republic-transcon-industries-inc-64z5/
  
  Other addresses for Republic water heaters included Fowler Manufacturing in Portland OR.

Republic Water Heater Age, Data Tag Decoder, History

Republic Glass-lined "Thermo-Glas" rust resistant water heaters may have been a re-brand of Fowler products. Republic brand electric water heaters, produced by Republic Transcon Industries in California and perhaps Atlanta, GA, were sold in the U.S. at least into the 1960's.

Fowler Water Heaters was a subsidiary of Republic Transcon Industries, Inc.

Examples of Republic water heater serial numbers and the age of the building where the heater was observed (setting a probable upper limit on the specific Republic brand water heater age) or found in various documents and reports.

• Fowler / Republic Water Heater 52-E-LD-5 41464 - Age of Home: unknown
• Republic Water Heater Serial number L3 404111 - Age of Home: 1965
• Republic Water Heater Serial Number 60-N 05535 - Age of building: a church built in 1946 and located in Argonia, Kansas, USA

Next we illustrate a Republic Water Heater data tag sent to us by a reader.

This 30-gallon Republic water heater is a model 3-SPP, with serial number 60-N- 05535. The building was built in 1946 Argonia, Kansas.

For the Republic Model 3-SPP, and not having found an absolute authoritative data tag decoder for Republic or Fowler Manufacturing- Republic water heaters, I speculate that the age is encoded in the 60-N as YY-M 1960.

I will continue to research Republic and Fowler water heater age decoding.

 

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Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2018-07-23 by (mod) - risks and rewards of replacing heater elements & - using a second-hand water heater element

This is one of those jobs for which my OPINION Is: if you'd enjoy trying to fix the old water heater it's worth a shot - but if you hate fooling around with plumbing, skip it. My reasoning is you are OK betting your own time and labor and maybe under $50. for parts, but to bet the cost of a plumbing call + parts and un-warranted work may not be the best investment in a very old electric water heater whose tank condition is unknown.

Heating elements are pretty standard. If you can find one that fits the treads, is the right voltage rating, and is about the right length so as not to stick too far into the heater such that it touches a dip tube or other parts, then you could figure "what's to lose?".

You would unscrew the old element, screw in the new one, wire it up and re-fill the heater completely (NO AIR in the water heater tank or the new element burns up immediately) and try it out.

Before buying a used water heater element I would test it to be sure the element is working.

ELECTRIC WATER HEATER ELEMENT TESTS may help.

Watch out: OK so here's what's to lose:

Don't try this repair on a Sunday afternoon when no parts stores are open.

Don't try this repair at a time when it'll be inconvenient to be without hot water for a day or three.

Don't try this repair if you cannot empty the water heater and avoid flooding the area where you're working. The water shutoffs need to work.

Don't try this repair if you are not trained and comfortable doing electrical work: making a mistake could kill yourself or burn down the house.

Don't try this repair if the old-house-plumbing-spaghetti-problem deters you: all of the plumbing parts are stuck together like spaghetti in a colander.

You cannot just pull out one strand of spaghetti - the whole ball will want to come out at once. In other words, once you touch old plumbing you may find a cascade of repairs needed such as: replacing shutoff valves, replacing a bad dip tube in a water heater tank, replacing the water heater thermostat, not just its heating elements, replacing supply piping, replacing damaged electrical wiring, replacing blown fuses, re-wiring a bad heater circuit, replacing a bad, unsafe, or unreliable temperature-pressure relief valve, and facing divorce over having flooded your wife's treasures stored on the basement floor.

Otherwise, go for it and keep me posted - send along some photos of your water heater and the project, for kudos or comment.

On 2018-07-23 by private email from anonymous:

After reading your topic on how to tell how old your water heater is, and Fowler Manufacturing, I have one, a 42 gallon model no. 42-E-LD-1 , SERIAL NO. 31179, I am wondering as I get ready to replace the heating elements, first is it worth it, seeing it could be over 40-50 years old, and is it that old, it works great yet, and no leaks , I've own this place with it going on 9 years and figure they (elements will be going out any time now.

After reading what you said, makes me wonder why they ever stop making them if there this good .

If there is any more than you can tell me about Fowlers electric hot water heaters please let me know.

PS, seeing this takes a element that 4000 watt, a second hand store has them for $3.00 each.

On 2016-12-27 by (mod) re: age of a Fowler electric water heater

I Speculate from the serial numnber 1989 - and will research further.

On 2016-12-27 by James McKenzie

Craftsman home built in 1930 has Fowler Porcelined Electric water heater, Model AFT-50, ser# OX2989. This unit has been in service a long time, and a fair bit larger than contemporary 50 gallon models. I'd like to know just how old it is.

...

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