Heating Help

oil filter

have 2, 40 hp  boilers running on #2 fuel oil  both tripped out today  checked everything out ok except for the gerbar fuel filters   both packed full of a black slim like substance looked like gel but was not gel like, also at first thought it might be sludge  but when touched does not smudge like sludge  it is in a 10,000 gal ust     any thoughts about this       thanks3

Oil

Collect some oil directly from the tank.Get some oil out of the outlet of the new oil filters. One/two pipe?Did you check if the oil pumps have screens/strainers? What size Gerbar's ? What size nozzle?If the tank oil is the same way ,then contact the oil provider.

how often

are the filters changed?

Garber

It should have a vacuum gauge to start. If it is 2 pipe, I would make it 1, and also test and treat the oil. There is probably a bacteria or algae issue with that size tank.

Filters:

I have an account like this. It had a UST installed in 1982. It had a serious case of sludgeitis. It has a pair of primary pumps to pump oil from and back to the tank. The oil went into a rail system and five burners ran off of it. All filters would plug up but the primary "J" pumps were the worst and would fail. I built a filter system with two sets of filters that then filtered the oil from the tank and a pig vacuum gauge on it. To change a filter, you could switch to the other side of the filter system without a shut down. It eliminated the clogging of the primary pumps.
I should have said that the original install had no filters on the primary pump system. The clogging was so bad that the return lines would sludge up and create high back pressure on the return. I put a pressure gauge on the return and a port to blow out the sludge. The filters stopped the return sludging. The filters would last two to three months. The tank was just replaced. The vacuum hasn't gone up yet.

Something to consider.