Heating Help

Waste oil burners can be great investments for any person or business.  Whether you get them in a boiler or furnace system they allow you to ability to totally "get off the grid" when it comes to heating.  The key is maintaining them.  Many people have bought these waste oil heating systems only have them break down every other month.  A major quick lubes (JiffyLube) who invested in these devices uninstalled them because after six months the owner had spent almost of much money in repairs and the actually machine had cost.

For your waste oil burner to be trouble-free and work over a long period of time you need to filter the used motor oil going into it.  You have to be very diligent in this respect.  You cannot take a barrel of oil and dump it into your tank.  Major issues will follow.  I have owned my waste-oil boiler for three years and I have never had any problems with it.  But ever since I first bought it, I make sure every drop of oil is double and triple filtered before it goes into my 250-gallon holding tank.

Here is what I do:

·         I collect all my oil in 30-gallon totes.  I have a mobile oil-change business and when I drain the oil from a vehicle I pour it into these containers.  When I get back to the shop I let these totes sit for at least two days.  The same goes when I get a huge tote from a local tire shop.  I let the large 250-gallon tank sit for several days.  Why do I do this?  When I am ready to suck the oil out all the sludge and dirt has settled to the bottom.

·         I have a powerful pump set-up in which I used to suck the oil from these totes to another tote.  As I suck it the oil passes through a 30-micron Dahl filter.  This gets out any major particles that did not settle.  I never pump all the oil completely out of the tote.  I stop short a couple inches from the bottom so I do not suck up the sludge.

·         Caution:  I discard any tote or drum I get that is contaminated with coolant or excessive amounts of water.  I let the recycling company pick these barrels up.  Water and antifreeze are terrible for your system.

·         All the oil is then transferred from this second tote to my main holding tank that is attached to my waste oil boiler.  On the way it passes through another 30-micron Dahl filter.  By this the time it gets here most of the particles are gone.

·         There is a little oil filter that the oil passes through when the oil pump is sucking the oil from the holding tank to the oil burner.

This was the process I used for two years.  Quite recently I have purchased a waste-oil centrifuge, which totally bypasses this lengthy process. This device spins the oil at thousands of revolutions per minute and all the moisture and dirt is completely taken out.  It's amazing.  The oil that comes out is about as clean (still dark in color though) as when you first buy it at the store, but it doesn't have its additive package. 

I have seen many people devise creative systems for filtering their waste oil.  It is really one of the fun parts about having this machine.  Since you have to stay on top of its maintenance you can come up with innovative ways of doing it.  Some people run their oil through four tanks and four filters before going in their waste oil burner.  That's a lot, but I like where their head is.  Used motor oil is dirty and you do not want anything clogging up your nozzles.

As long as you are diligent in filtering your oil, I would say, all other things being constant, you will have a waste oil burner system that lasts for a long time and will be virtually maintenance free.  If not, well, I hope you have a friend who is a heating technician who will give you a good deal.

Article written and copyrighted by Wesley Barras, owner and author of Oil Burner Guide, which talks about maintaining your oil burner (conventional) heating system and ones (alternative energy) which run off used motor oil.  A waste oil burner can either eliminate or reduce your heating bill in a significant way and his blog talks about not only the savings but the actual maintenance of these heating systems.