Chair made out of antique radiators

My friend Emily spotted this fantastic radiator-chair, a one-of-a-kind sculpture from Von Thiel and Co. at a shop in Toronto. At CDN$1,490, it's a little pricier than you might want to spend on a chair that probably won't be all that comfortable for protracted use (Emily assures me it was great for a short sit-down, though!), but it's a better world that has this radiator-cum-chair in it.

The Radiator Chair (Thanks, Emily!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Jerril

I’m not sure why everyone automagically assumes this would be uncomfortable. I’ve got plastic lawn chairs with the same sort of seating surface – a bunch of spaced bars – although they’re arranged from “side to side” rather than “front to back” so perhaps that’s the difference.

A huge echo on the weight concerns though. You don’t want good friends, you want good friends with FORKLIFTS for that thing.

I think I can understand the pricetag (the crafter had to sling around freeking radiators, that’s hard work)… I wouldn’t buy one, though.
franko

how much does that chair WEIGH? our house is heated with radiator, and they are cast iron, and weigh a TON. i’d hate to have to move that sucka to vacuum.
TheCrawNotTheCraw

I can’t wait for Emily’s next piece: a chair made out of porcupine quills and shark’s teeth.
gross

Sorry this isn’t a one of a kind. Sareed Furniture Importers makes sells it wholesale.

It might be one of a kind with those particular radiators but there are many for sale out there.
InsertFingerHere

Is this how they executed people before electricity?
ill lich

“That’s hot.”

– Paris Hilton (model, actress, Nobel-prize winner)
bcsizemo

I agree with everyone on the weight. Myself and a friend had a hell of a time getting a much smaller radiator down stairs…

I guess they are somewhat efficient, if the house you live in isn’t 98 years old and when the wind blows outside you feel it inside…
Falcon_Seven

Sssss! Available with or without cushions?
userw014

The house I lived in growing up in the ’60s and ’70s had hot water heat with radiators like that, as well as radiators 2 or three times as wide. The wide ones made a very nice bench like thing to lay on, especially with a board (or wooden cover), blankets, or pillows. Very warm and cozy in the winter time – when the heat was on.

The water heater, the water pump, and various fittings to turn this thing into a heated chair would be quite a clutter.

Hot water heat is (relatively) low pressure stuff – pretty much atmospheric pressure or a little bit more. Less than water-service/water-line pressure.

Steam heat is very hot – much too hot to cozy up up. However, it can be designed with only one pipe between the boiler and the radiator – as long as the pipe gravity-drains back to the boiler. (Steam from the boiler expands through the pipes – then when the steam condenses back to water, gravity lets it return to the boiler.)

I wouldn’t be surprised if this chair weighed 500 lbs, if it were made from iron or steel. Check the supports of the floor before you decide to put it somewhere in an old house!
- Antinous
  
  We used to sit on the radiators at school during the energy crisis of the seventies. It was warm, but it was quite popular to booby-trap them with pre-chewed gum which would heat up and become embedded in your pants.
userw014

P.S.: It’d be really cool in the summer! A huge heat-sink!
Anonymous

– and with a little discrete hacking it could be a functional radiator as well.
raisedbywolves

Oooh, I have a radiator like this in my room… I think I’m gonna build a cushioned bench so I can use the radiator as a chair back!
zuzu

I feel like a Whopper. Turn me over, I’m done and ready. I’m afraid to look at my ass. There’ll be grill marks.

— Del Griffith
Rinchen

Grate for pile sufferers!
vamidus

It’d be nice if this was a heated chair. With an antique thermostat to regulate the temp.
Quill

OMG you have to run hot water through that thing.

A heated radiator chair? Throw a sheepskin on it and oh man.

I need one right NOW.
shmengie

[monty python]put her in….the comfy chair!![/monty python]
Brother Provisional

My first thought seeing this was that you’d have to ask your friends very, very nicely before they’d help you move.
wolfrider

as the site says:
“$1,430 on a chair that no one will ever sit in”

no thanks, and anyone who purchases this would be the same type that would own two xbox 360s or PS3s. Kick some more dirt in the eyes of the poor please.

If I spend $1400 on a chair it better be comfortable to sit in for hours on end.
Rezpect

My ass hurts just from looking at it.
IWood

Do you confess!
Evil Jim

I can’t decide whether that chair would be comfortable or not but it certainly looks great. Run some hot water through it, throw a blanket over it & I’d be set for a while.
Anonymous

Do those radiators really qualify as antiques? I’m not that old, and I’ve lived in several houses and apartments with radiators that look quite similar to those.