Going to have a new fuel oil tank installed soon. The old one outdoors, 30 years old, plain steel. It's not leaking but I'm moving tank location to inside basement and so just a good time to switch to a new tank. The rub is, if you have them transfer the oil from your old tank into the new one, the 3 year tank warranty is void. I checked and it is the tank manufacturer that implemented this beginning Feb. last year (Granby). While the disposal of old oil is included in installation price, being a cheap ***, I'm loathe to throw away 25 - 50 gallons of oil. I happen to have an empty, clean 55 gallon drum and want to transfer most of what's left into it. I'll keep it as a back up in case I run out. The tank is 44" top to bottom, so I need a pump that can draw up that much. Any recommendations for an inexpensive transfer pump that could do this?
Inexpensive pump to transfer oil
- Thread starter MikeC55
- Start date
Not sure what is inexpensive hf or Amazon have a diesel transfer pump and I have seen shady waste oil recyclers used sump pump to a 250 gallon tote or what ever those are called.
I would be concern about the sludge or water at the bottom if anything. My old oil tank that is inside basement but probably 50+ year of age had about bottom 1/4 tank sludge. About 15 gallons when they cut it up
I would be concern about the sludge or water at the bottom if anything. My old oil tank that is inside basement but probably 50+ year of age had about bottom 1/4 tank sludge. About 15 gallons when they cut it up
TurnipTruck
Well-known member
Something like these?
wssix99
Well-known member
This is how Dad did it and it has worked well so far...
You can put a valve on your hose and once you get suction, start/stop the process so you can fill a smaller vessel and then fill your barrel at a slower pace. (So you can also carefully filter the fuel.)
You can put a valve on your hose and once you get suction, start/stop the process so you can fill a smaller vessel and then fill your barrel at a slower pace. (So you can also carefully filter the fuel.)
Rst277
Well-known member
Any cheap 12 volt transfer pump will do that as will any "barrel" pump. You just need a 48" pipe to thread to the pump so it reaches the bottom. In Canada, many insurance companies WILL NOT INSURE your house if it has a fuel oil tank in it. Check that before you do the install!
jonesg
Well-known member
i'm not sure where you're putting the pump pickup but i would pump from the tank feed where it goes to the furnace , through the water separator....not from the tank top bung. it will gravity prime the pump.
Spareparts
Well-known member
Got a vane type pump from HF put it on my cordless drill to transfer used oil from 275 gal. totes for my used oil stove
works fine
works fine
Yep, make sure you filter it, otherwise you're getting the sludge and crud.
Yep, assuming $3/gallon you're looking to spend $50 to save $150. Not worth it IMHO.
If it really 20 gallons the math gets even worse...
Good point on the warranty. It's very unlikely the thing would leak inside of 3 years. I've seen them go 50 years with no leaks... I was going to use the bung on top of the tank. I like the gravity feed idea but it might be a bit tricky to connect the copper line connector to the pump inlet hose. I haven't ever seen a water separator on oil tank. I'm going to probe with a stick to try and see how much sludge is on the bottom and adjust the intake hose length accordingly. Maybe I'm cheap, but 50 gallons of oil at $3 plus per gallon is over $150. It sounds like drill powered vane pump will do the trick. It's interesting that in Canada, HOI might balk at the oil tank in basement. It's very common in CT. It won't hurt to check tho. I wonder what they perceive as the main risk? Fire or oil spill clean up? I would think the typical concrete basement would go a long way to keeping the oil out of the ground, which could get very expensive to remidiate.
Mike in Ohio
Well-known member
Is this the one you got for your used oil?
Attachments
I bought one for ~$20 at the orange store a few years ago, it was a ************* and didn't work well on water.
I can't imagine trying it on fuel oil.
nadogail
Well-known member
It’s the principle of the thing that encourages you to spend money to save money. Contrary to popular belief, money doesn’t grow on trees.
RyanE
Well-known member
I went through something similar last year when I removed my oil furnace and still had 600L of fairly fresh oil in the tank.
I looked at buying a transfer pump and barrels and trying to save it to use in tractors or other stuff. Then I realized that I don't run a farm or have a huge need for it and bulk fuel storage is a PITA.
The oil company wouldn't buy it back, so I put it on FB marketplace and I sold it to a logger who came equipped with a transfer pump/hoses and he quickly pumped it out. Here at least, home heating oil is simply off-road diesel fuel and can be used in off road equipment. I imagine the logger fueled up his skidder with it. I gave the tank and the oil furnace (it was from 2008, so not terribly old) to the logger as well. He planned to heat his shop with the furnace and use the oil tank for something else.
Maybe you can just sell it to someone who is equipped to deal with it and not have the hassle. I'm generally the cheapest guy around and I sold the fuel for half price (600L here at the time was worth almost $1200 CAD!) to just be rid of it. For $150, I'm not sure I would bother to pump it out and store it in a barrel. Sell it for $100 to someone with a tractor.
I looked at buying a transfer pump and barrels and trying to save it to use in tractors or other stuff. Then I realized that I don't run a farm or have a huge need for it and bulk fuel storage is a PITA.
The oil company wouldn't buy it back, so I put it on FB marketplace and I sold it to a logger who came equipped with a transfer pump/hoses and he quickly pumped it out. Here at least, home heating oil is simply off-road diesel fuel and can be used in off road equipment. I imagine the logger fueled up his skidder with it. I gave the tank and the oil furnace (it was from 2008, so not terribly old) to the logger as well. He planned to heat his shop with the furnace and use the oil tank for something else.
Maybe you can just sell it to someone who is equipped to deal with it and not have the hassle. I'm generally the cheapest guy around and I sold the fuel for half price (600L here at the time was worth almost $1200 CAD!) to just be rid of it. For $150, I'm not sure I would bother to pump it out and store it in a barrel. Sell it for $100 to someone with a tractor.
Rst277
Well-known member
From what I understand, the fear is that if the oil tank leaks in the basement, it will run into the floor drain and contaminate water / well / local aquifer which would be very expensive to impossible to fix. I drain and remove oil tanks, I mostly get calls from sellers, people won't buy the house with the oil tank in the basement due to inability to get house insurance. In Ontario, I think it is illegal to sell a house with an oil tank in it. I don't think the stick probe will tell you much. Just pump the tank out, tip it to get the last oil out. The oil and other stuff will settle in the barrel. I use plastic 205 litre barrels as you can see inside them better. Pump the barrel out from the top and leave any junk on the bottom. You might be able to sell the tank for $50 to a guy that wants to make a crazy BBQ out of them. I have a local guy that buys the ones I get.
Where do new installs go?
Rst277
Well-known member
Nobody installs oil furnaces. Most HVAC companies won't even repair them. There was a big push here to move to electric and natural gas decades ago and now with the house insurance issues and cost of oil, the few oil furnaces that are left are being removed as houses sell or people upgrade. I don't know a single person with an oil furnace.
jonesg
Well-known member
if the tank is outside the water separator would be in the basement.
mine is the same type i had on my boat...tank is in the basement, we're men around here.
Selling the oil is an option I didn't think of... Interesting that Canada has moved away from oil heating, even with the tar sands oil production. As for a floor drain in the basement, I don't think that's too common here. Maybe in flood prone areas. The only real alternative I have is propane (electricity is much too expensive) and my wife says no way (she worries that the house will blow up. I know it does happen, but it's quite rare).
I was going to try not to pump from the very bottom. I'm hoping a stick in the tank will give me an idea how much crud is in the bottom and adjust the intake hose length accordingly. The water settles to the bottom of tank.
Rst277
Well-known member
The price of oil is global so even though Canada has oil there is no way they would sell it for less. Natural gas may be better for the environment than oil (questionable) and here in Manitoba all of our electricity comes from hydro electric dams and is pretty cheap and "green".
nadogail
Well-known member
Diesel engines run pretty good on waste oil.
Rst277
Well-known member
Diesel engines run pretty good on heating oil, which is essentially diesel fuel. I've probably put 100,000kms on two work trucks on heating oil.
wssix99
Well-known member
Ever heard of geothermal? Right now the government will cover the better part of the incremental cost you'll incur for the well if you switch from heating oil:
Geothermal State & Federal Tax Credits - Dandelion Energy
Learn more about geothermal heat pump incentives and tax credits here. Dandelion is an affordable geothermal energy installation company.
dandelionenergy.com
^ The heat is free. You only pay for the electricity to pump it out of the ground and blow it around your house.
Yes, I've heard of it. I know it involves digging a large hole, several feet deep for the pipes that are used to transfer heat from the warm(er) underground. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ledge rock on my property and so such digging could get quite expensive.
wssix99
Well-known member
There are different well designs, depending on the land you live on. My house has a single vertical well, drilled 460 feet straight down through rock.
I expect that a situation like yours would call for a similar well. The process is similar to drilling a water well and the drilling companies typically use the same equipment.
HoosierMark
Well-known member
My geo thermal is a five hundred foot loop of pipe four foot deep in my woods. A friend layed his pipe in the bottom of his pond. There are all kinds of ways to extract energy from the earth.
wssix99
Well-known member
You have the entire loop encased in a single well hole. I have a Rygan tube-in-tube system: https://rygancorp.com/our-process/
You can also simply sink a U-bend of pipe down the hole and grout it in.
Rygan touts this technology as being more efficient as there is greater exposure for heat exchange as the fluid travels through this annular system.
I have that exact one in my shop. I have a 55 gal drum in the shop with a drum funnel on top to dump used oil in and let filters empty out.....hose stuck in the barrel, pump screwed to the wall and then another hose going out the wall to 275 gallon totes outside. Works just fine for my lazy **** and if the pump quits working Ill throw it in the trash and go buy another one for 15 buck.