jimmygmartin

With the abundance of waste oil around here I've always wanted a waste oil heater,however; their price tag always has me putting it off til next year. Is there anyone knowegable enough in the fuel oil heating field, to say if it is feasable to convert a fuel oil furnace/boiler into a waste oil heater??? If so How ??

comp

JoeRags

I dont believe you can burn waste motor oil.... this list is on this site:

http://www.wasteoilheat.com/?ppcsource=adwords

Vegetable Oil
Grade #2 Oil
Used Crankcase Oils
Transmission & Hydraulic Oils
As Well As...
Synthetic Oils
Commercial & Military Jet Fuels
Crankcase Oil w/10% Gasoline
90 Weight Gear Box Oil
175 Weight Heat Transfer Oil
Mineral Spirits Solvent
Machine Shop Cutting Oil

Grades #1, #3, #4 Heating Oils


I guess you may be able to burn synthetic, but I would make sure before you drop the cash on one of these. I dont even use synthetic in the vette, but do in other cars..... I still would not produce enough waste oil to adequatley heat my garage. If you have a shop and produce large amounts of any of these types of oil, I'd say go for it. If you are a regular garage nut turner like most of us, I'd say forget it, get a conventional heater and deal with the high cost of fuel.

Also take into consideration... are you looking to keep your garage warm 24-7, or just when your working on the car?

just some thoughts..

Joe

Grinchia

If you're handy (and face it, if you're posting on this forum, you probably are ;-) you might read through this:

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_...earth/me4.html


...interesting stuff!

-Roy

jimmygmartin

JoeRags, you can absolutely burn waste oil. There are several manufacturers of waste oil furnaces including the one you put in your post. The problem is that they are expensive.
Grinchia, I am familure with Mothers waste oil heater, I got plans last year with the idea of building my own, the problem is that it is extreamly crude (oil literly dripping from a tube onto a flame), I can't imagine this thing working without constant attention and 2 or more heating seasons of adjustment. I just thought that if you got a used fuel oil furnace, and face it there are lots around, maybe by changing the jet size, maybe the pump, adding filters, ect. you may be able to convert one. I was hoping some HVAC expert/Corvette owner would know somthing about this.

comp

plans ??????

GTR1999

Joe, Harte Chervolet burns it in a furnace setup to heat their service dept.

Gary

Big Fish

I have worked on several of these. They use a special oil burner with a built in air compressor for air-atomizing the fuel to get it to burn. The burners will absolutely not burn if you get any water into them. Cost is the bottom line though. You need to look at how much one costs, plus some dirty work doing maintenance on it a couple times each season VS. the cost of a natural gas or LP unit with far less maintenance.

my72vette454

Kagi waste oil burners 509-456-3319, they are located in washington state. I sell heatmor wood furnaces and heatmor makes several models with kagi waste oil burners in them that will burn oil or wood. You might consider somthing like that and heat your house and domestic hot water as well as your shop/garage. I put one in for a lube shop a few months back and the guy loves it. They dont work for everybody but for the ones they do....hard to beat free fuel for heat.

proracr

BTW, the list shown above has crankcase oil on it. The last time I checked, crankcase oil is just plain old used motor oil.

comp

how much does it use a day (avg.) ??

jdmick

Does that mean if someone dumps a couple gallons of old antifreeze into a 55 gallon drum it's not going to work?

comp

i think so,,,, need a water separator

GUSTO14

I have a friend in New Jersey who installed one in his garage a few years ago. He also specializes in Mercedes so he has a lot of synthetic oil to burn... the first thing he found was it doesn't like synthetic oil. He has to add fuel oil to get it to burn. It's still better than paying to dispose of waste oil, but you might want to discuss it with someone that has one before you spring for it.

Good luck... GUSTO

carl a

My Cousin Owns A Trans Shop, He Saves The Fluid All Year And Uses It For Heating Fuel In Winter .they Sell Those Kinds Of Heaters

JoeRags

I guess that beats paying to dispose of it ehh?

my72vette454

Comp, his building is about 3500 sq ft and he has an automtic car wash in one bay and does oil changes and such in the other bay so the doors are up and down all day long and he figgures he is burning about 5 gallons of oil a day. The way to deal with antifreeze in the oil is to pump it into a tank and let it settle to the bottom and drain it out and have the pickup for the burner 6 or 8 inches off the bottom of the tank. Some synthetics dont burn very good as their flash point is alot higher than regular oil. Amsoil seems to burn ok in his furnace.