On a regular basis “The Monty Heat Treat News” looks at common, used heat treat furnaces and suggests what they are worth on the used market-today we look at electrically heated “Super 30 Allcase” furnaces.

 

The “Super 30 Allcase” furnace is manufactured by one of the largest new furnace builders in North America, Surface Combustion of Maumee, Ohio, USA (https://themonty.com/project/10-largest-north-american-heat-treat-furnace-builders/). With working dimensions of 30″ X 48″ X 30″ and an integral quench this furnace was at one time the most popular furnace in North America with literally thousands being built. While it has largely been superseded by larger models such as the “Super 36” with working dimensions of 36″ X 48″ X 36″ there still remains an awful lot of “Super 30” furnaces in operation and generally a buyer can be found with one caveat and that is heating configuration.

 

Generally, these furnaces were heated with natural gas rather than electricity-we would estimate that natural gas fired units outnumbered electric by a factor of 10:1 with electric versions relegated to just a handful of geographic areas such as the US Northwest and Quebec, Canada. The end result is that while gas fired Super 30 units in reasonable condition sell in the $75,000 to $95,000 USD range, an electric version is lucky if it can be sold at all. By the way the decision about whether to heat with gas or electricity is generally based almost entirely on economics with natural gas in most areas of North America being substantially cheaper than electricity.

 

A case in point is a recent auction held at now defunct commercial heat treater “M T Heat Treat” in Mentor, Ohio. The auction featured a number of electrically heated “Super 30” lines in varying condition, ranging anywhere from “very nice” right on down to “cannibalized” for spare parts with the heating elements removed. While most of the ancillary equipment such as tempers did sell at auction not a single one of the Allcases sold and our understanding is that they will be scrapped even though the auction was highly advertised and attracted a lot of attention.  

 

So in summary while a gas fired “Super 30” in reasonable condition can generally find a buyer, an electrically heated unit is not a popular item on the used furnace market and sale prices reflect this. (The attached photo shows a typical older, electrically heated “Super 30”).

 

Stay tuned for future editions of “What Is It Worth”?