Our apologies but we've been looking for Thatcher furnace manuals for years and haven't yet found downloadable free to the public PDFs to share with you here at InspectAPedia. We invite any reader contributions or suggestions if a source for these manuals is known or found.

Thatcher furnace & boiler age, history, search for Thatcher manuals, parts lists, wiring diagrams.

This article series includes immediate downloads of example installation & repair manuals and wiring diagrams for air conditioners, heat pumps, and heating equipment from various HVAC companies as well as contact information to obtain the exact manual or wiring diagram for your unit if such are availble.

Thatcher Comfortmaker Air Conditioners & Furnaces

The Thatcher Heater Company produced boilers, furnaces, and cookstoves (ranges) and was headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, with offices in New York and Chicago.

Thatcher Company History

The Thatcher Company was founded in Newark in 1850 by John M. Thatcher (1850-1890), where its offices remained until 1946 when the company moved to Garwood New Jersey.

Above, a Thatcher tubular furnace advertisement.

[Click to enlarge any image]

The company's earliest heater was the Thatcher Tubular Furnace, shown here, and sold beginning in 1850, changing its name soon to Thatcher and Haviland Furnaces.

From the late 1860s the company did business as Thatcher Haviland (ca 1868), changing its name in 1890 to the Thatcher Furnace Company . From 1925-1937 the company's name was simply "Thatcher Company", and after a 1937 financial reorganization, Thatcher Furnace Company again until 1964. The company was operated briefly by the T.F.C. Holding Corporation.

Thatcher was purchased by the Holland Furnace Company in 1963, subsequently, in the very next year (1964) by the Crane Corporation, operated by Crane until the company closed its doors in 1968.

Above: A Thatcher "Dream House" advertisement from 1941. See also this BUILDING YOUR OWN HOME book (build your own "Dream Home" from the same era.

Some old Thatcher boilers / furnaces are still in use today.

In some sales literature from the 1940s, the company's equipment was described as "automatic winter air conditioners". Examples of Thatcher heating equipment included:

• Thatcher 481-series all purpose "winter air conditioner" that was originally designed for coal but was later converted to be fired by an automatic coal stoker or to use an oil burner or gas burner
• Thatcher A-204, an automatic oil-fired heater described as a "winter air conditioner". The A-series Thatcher heaters were introduced in 1948.
• Thatcher C-174H, a coal-fired forced warm air heating furnace
• Thatcher V-Series Comfort master, an automatic gas-fired "winter air conditioner"

Details about the company are in several historical documents including nice historical notes from the New Jersey Historical Society cited below.

Excerpts:

The Thatcher Furnace Company was born with the development of the “Tubular Furnace” by John M. Thatcher in 1850.

For the majority of the company’s early life, its main offices were in various locations throughout New York City, and its main foundry was located in Newark, NJ. By the mid-twentieth century, the much larger plant in Garwood, NJ, had become the primary base of manufacturing and administrative operations.

In the years immediately following the Civil War, John Haviland became an associate of the company, and it operated briefly as Thatcher and Haviland.

After John M. Thatcher’s son, L.M. Thatcher, joined the firm, the company continued as the Thatcher Heating Company.

With the retirement of John M. Thatcher in 1890, the name changed once again to the Thatcher Furnace Company.
...
Before closing in 1968, the company had been purchased first by the Holland Furnace Company and later by the Crane Company, but it retained its name throughout these changes.

Editors's note: some Thatcher furnaces like this Thatcher Comfortmaker (above) were still in use when the editor serviced heating systems in New York's Hudson Valley in the 1980s-1990s!

Thatcher Furnace participated in war production efforts and in supplying heating equipment to military installations in both WWI and WWII.

The "Official U.S. Bulletin list of Government Contracts and Purchase Orders, 11 March, 1919, p. 16, under its "Construction Division" listed several contracts awarded to the Thatcher Furnace Co. - illustrated below. [Click to enlarge any image]

...

Watch out: asbestos was commonly used as an insulating barrier in the furnace or boiler jacket, and the author [DF] at least once found asbestos insulating panels in a Thatcher furnace hot air plenum.

Thatcher boiler or Furnace Age

Sorry, we have no age decoder for Thatcher heating equipment. Readers are invited to post photos of their Thatcher equipment and of its data tag, on which we may be abel to offer a useful comment.

Often you can put bounds on the age of your heating equipment by observing basic contextual data such as

• Age of the building in which the equipment is installed
• Records of building remodeling or modification
• Notes on data tags attached to the equipment
• Notes sometimes found on service manuals or documentation often stored nearby such as in the cross-bracing of floor joists overhead and near the heater.

Thatcher Heater Documents & History Resources

• Contact: Because Thatcher Furnace Company ceased operations in 1968 there is no current contact information for the Thatcher company.
  
  The Thatcher company's headquarters were in New Jersey as cited above on this page. The company manufactured air conditioners, forced warm air furnaces, heating boilers (forced hot water), and also cooking ranges.
  
  The company operated at
  
  Thatcher Furnace Co. Thatcher Building, 39-41 Francis St., Newark NJ
  
  Thatcher Furnace Co., 110-116 Beekman St. New York, NY and 133-135 W. 35th St., New York NY (1924 display room)
  
  Thatcher Furnace Co., 154 Lake St., Chicago, IL. and 341 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL (1924 display room)
  
• Thatcher YOUR HEATING & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT [PDF] (1950) Thatcher Furnace Co., describes the company's 1950 product line of heating equipment.
• Thatcher OIL MASTER A-SERIES CATALOG [PDF]
• "Guide to the Thatcher Furnace Company Papers 1882-1968 MG 1647" , New Jersey Historical Society [citation and accessible coy needed]
  

...

Continue reading at MANUALS for HEATING & A/C SYSTEM CONTROLS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• AGE of WATER HEATERS - data tag decoding, contact information for water heater manufacturers, water heater manuals
• AGE of HEATERS, BOILERS, FURNACES
• AIR CONDITIONING & HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS - home
• BOILERS, HEATING - home
• BOILER CONTROLS & SWITCHES
• DATA TAGS on AIR CONDITIONERS for help decoding the equipment age and other specification
• FURNACES, HEATING - home
• GUIAS & MANUALES SISTEMS MECANICOS in Spanish
• MANUALS & PARTS GUIDES - HVAC - home - Master Index to All Brand Names & HVAC manuals, wiring diagrams, installation and repair guides
• OIL BURNER MANUALS
• STEAM HEATING SYSTEMS & CONTROLS - home
• ARTICLE INDEX to HVAC THERMOSTATS for a complete list of thermostat instructions by brand and type
• WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS

Suggested citation for this web page

THATCHER COMFORTMAKER HVAC Heaters & Air Conditioners, at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to AIR CONDITIONING & HEAT PUMPS

Or use the SEARCH BOX found below to Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Or see

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to HEATING SYSTEMS

Or use the SEARCH BOX found below to Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Try the search box just below, or if you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly.

Comments & Questions are Welcome Here

If you posted comments here and no longer see what you wrote, please check for your comment in the Reader Q&A found above on this page.

Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

---

ADVERTISEMENT

---