Anyone use a waste oil?

[theblur98ss]

I think I've narrowed my heating ideas down to a wood burner or a waste oil furnace. I do HVAC for a living so I can get good prices on either. The waste oil will still be a good bit more up front but I have alot of family in the restaurant business so cooking oil is a plenty.

 

[SHELCO]

I think I've narrowed my heating ideas down to a wood burner or a waste oil furnace. I do HVAC for a living so I can get good prices on either. The waste oil will still be a good bit more up front but I have alot of family in the restaurant business so cooking oil is a plenty.

I have been running waste oil in my repair shop for ten years now. i would not be in business paying the oil bills in the north east,

The heaters have come along way in the last 5 years. We start the heater in mid dec and it does not shut off all winter( 24x7). every friday i clean the filters and drain the water filters from the shop air line and the system keeps running.
The key is to run the cleanest waste oil you can get your hands on . we filter it before it goes in the 250 gallon tank under heater. most repair shops will tell you there there full of it you will always find traces of coolant brake clean etc.. we lost a 100000 unit because a body shop had lacquar thinner in the barrel of waste oil we picked up.
cooking oil from restraunts is ideal if it is clean no chicken fingers bits floating around, burns cleaner longer and its not illegial to store hundreds of gallons of cooking oil...
ajust make sure the box is cleaned every year along with a qualified tech lloking at nozzle etc. we run clean burn, very well built and highly recommend the heaters, plus they have a water heater option to heat radiant floors.

 

[RobKong]

how many gallons do you burn over the winter? I've been considering this, but I don't go through oil as much as I once did, so I'd hate to be without a fuel source or have to trust somebody else's waste oil isn't polluted...

 

[PAToyota]

Homebrew waste oil heater: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html

 

[SHELCO]

the heater ( clean burn 280 ) uses 2.4 gallons a hour. quite a bit over the course of the winter!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

the heater ( clean burn 280 ) uses 2.4 gallons a hour. quite a bit over the course of the winter!

This is for continous operation. Using a thermostat and depending on building insulation, number of times per hour you open/close doors and let heat out, and outside air temp, the heater may be off 50% of the time, so cut this fuel burn in half if that is the case. Still alot of fuel, but you cite a rather large heater for a home shop. Clean Burn no longer makes a 2800. Their CD-2500 (250,000 btu) burns 1.7 GPH max.

http://www.cleanburn.com/CBFurnaceSpecs.pdf

Charles

 

[Deerediesel]

I have been running waste oil in my repair shop for ten years now. i would not be in business paying the oil bills in the north east,



The heaters have come along way in the last 5 years. We start the heater in mid dec and it does not shut off all winter( 24x7). every friday i clean the filters and drain the water filters from the shop air line and the system keeps running.

The key is to run the cleanest waste oil you can get your hands on . we filter it before it goes in the 250 gallon tank under heater. most repair shops will tell you there there full of it you will always find traces of coolant brake clean etc.. we lost a 100000 unit because a body shop had lacquar thinner in the barrel of waste oil we picked up.

cooking oil from restraunts is ideal if it is clean no chicken fingers bits floating around, burns cleaner longer and its not illegial to store hundreds of gallons of cooking oil...

ajust make sure the box is cleaned every year along with a qualified tech lloking at nozzle etc. we run clean burn, very well built and highly recommend the heaters, plus they have a water heater option to heat radiant floors.

Question: On filtering your waste oil? Do you filter before you put into main tank? Also what do you use for filtration system?


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[Ole Slewfoot]

If you have a restaurant connection, you ask them to drain the fryer through a shortening filter.

Its not the whole solution, but its a huge help.

 

[biggziff]

My buddy has a new one in his repair shop. He says it's a pain to maintain and doesn't turn it on until he knows he can leave it running 24/7 The new one is much better than the old one he had, but still is a pain. He installed an outside wood furnace which gets used the most.

 

[Shop Specialties]

Question: On filtering your waste oil? Do you filter before you put into main tank? Also what do you use for filtration system?


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The best thing we have found to do is let it settle and all the water/antifreeze/sludge etc go to the bottom. We have a customer who burns approximately 15,000 gallons a Winter. All oil gets dumped into a large tank first to settle out all the bad and then by staying so far off the bottom pumping it to the burn tank. The heater comes with 2 stainless steel washable filters that have never been more than 1/2 plugged after that volume of oil.

 

[TractorJeff]

My neighbor maintains 50 degrees all winter, turning up to 62 when he is working. His 30 by 50 by 12H shop burns approximately 600 gallons for a Wisconsin winter. Another guy with a 40 by 50 by 14H runs close to the same figure.

 

[Bruce Amacker]

I ran 2 units for years when I had the shop. They are a tremendous PITA to maintain and supply- every couple of days pumping oil back and forth between tanks and the associated small spills and mess. They are also very thirsty- you have to generate a LOT of waste oil and you'll still be constantly looking for free oil sources. Like a previous poster said, everyone claims the oil they're bringing is clean but it never is. The drums sat outside and got water in them, which creates sludge, or they have coolant in them also. Probably 2-3 times a month I'd come into a cold shop in the morning because the furnace had shut off during the night from air or contaminates. I had a HD truck shop and still couldn't generate enough to keep them happy, I had a 140k that burned 1.0 gal/hr and a 235K that burned 1.7/hr IIRC. A typical Ohio winter I went through 3000 gallons+ of oil with the stat at 62. You can't shut the furnace off when you're not there because the tanks have to be kept warm so it's a 24/7 thing, not a "I'll turn it on when I'm working" thing. If you're family is in the restaurant business that means you'll also be in the oil hauling business so you'll need a truck and the associated **** to move the oil back and forth. Also you have to deal with disposal of the sludge- luckily open burning was permitted where my shop was (rural) so I started a big wood fire in the back once or twice a year and poured the sludge on a few gallons at a time to burn it. What a f'ing mess. With the legal issues today you'll also be responsible for spills or if a tank leaks out overnight, luckily that never happened to me. There is a permanent oil slick in the back of my old shop that I'm sure will never go away, and the guy I sold it to still uses waste oil. I know he's constantly looking for more sources. There's no NG at that location so there's no choices.

You mentioned wood burner, unless you're running a remote boiler it's neither safe or legal. Any flame source probably has to be 8' up according to code if there's vehicles in the building. Check your insurance policy, they probably won't allow it. I know 2 guys whose shops burned because of wood burners.


I have natural gas now and never look back. Good luck, whichever you pick.

 

[86turbodsl]

While some of the posters here don't like waste oil, i do, but i have planned ahead for a lot of contingencies. I store the oil i'll be burning anytime soon inside, in one of three fuel oil barrels in a pallet rack off the floor. They take up room i wasn't going to use anyway. You can see this setup in my thread. As far as usage goes, waste oil has about 140,000 BTU's per gallon just like fuel oil. Maybe a hair more due to carbon content. You can't go by "I burned XXXX gallons a year it sucked." If you are using a lot of fuel, it's because you have a large building or you have poor insulation, period. BTUs don't care where they come from. My fuel choices where i am are propane, or wood, or oil. If i had NG, i would probably have it because it's dirt cheap right now.

There *IS* more to deal with on waste oil, but if you want cheap and you can't get NG, it may be a good deal. INSULATE well, and you won't use any more than a normal fuel source.

 

[gtabasso]

We have a business that buys all the waste oil that we drain from used equipment that comes in. He uses that to heat his building. Win win.

 

[Randy in Maine]

Make sure there is not much gasoline in the waste oil....I have seen bad things happen.

 

[tdkkart]

"Ma'am, unfortunately it seems that your frame has a bit of a tweak to it, however it won't affect the way it drives........."

 

[Low50s]

If I could find a deal on a good used clean burn I would have one in my garage. I just can not justify the cost of a new one for my situation.

 

[justinthurn]

I got a smoking good deal on a lanair mx150 last year. There is a learning curve but I've worked out all the bugs and would recommend a waste oil heater to anyone who has access to enough oil. I bought used and didn't clean anything before I started. Bad idea. Clean the suction strainer and filter at least a few times a year. Almost all waste oil in any quantity will have some water in it. Drain the water off the bottom first before pumping to eliminate any chance of putting it in the main tank. That was my biggest problem, that and keeping the oil hot when the furnace was running like ****. If you happen to run low on used oil, they will burn #2 fuel just fine too. I'm betting you know a guy who knows a guy that works at a construction company or shop that goes through plenty of oil they would gladly give you.

 

[Spareparts]

Altec Industries in St. Joe Mo. has a 32 bay shop tall enough to service aerial trucks, they have used oil heaters Black Gold was the brand. They have one in every 2 bays, it is a pedestal mount unit about 8' up and the base is 300 gal tank with a 1/2" plate top for a workbench that is drilled for a large vise. It is a very good design and makes use of a product they had to pay to dispose of, hydraulic oil, 10,000 gal silos, more than 1 so the heaters payed for themselves several times. They worked so good they added them to several other areas of the facility. They purchased a tank truck that keeps the units filled, each unit burns between 50 to 70 gals a week. Their is a BUT to this and it a plus, they use 1 type of oil, very consistent, filtered and plentiful. It will work but you have to do maintenance on them it is not plug and play, but it will save you $$$$ as in Altec's case Millions.

 

[Jazz1]

I burned used oil mixed with 30 to 50% fuel oil in my carb type oil heater in garage for 5 years until I decided I wanted to spend too much time processing fire wood
BIL adapted a oil furnace to run exclusively on used motor oil to heat his 50x100 shop

 

[Deerediesel]

The best thing we have found to do is let it settle and all the water/antifreeze/sludge etc go to the bottom. We have a customer who burns approximately 15,000 gallons a Winter. All oil gets dumped into a large tank first to settle out all the bad and then by staying so far off the bottom pumping it to the burn tank. The heater comes with 2 stainless steel washable filters that have never been more than 1/2 plugged after that volume of oil.

Thanks, that what I planned on doing also didn’t kno if there was another trick. All my waste oil comes from my service crew so hopefully we keep the junk out


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[Bruce Amacker]

The best thing we have found to do is let it settle and all the water/antifreeze/sludge etc go to the bottom.
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You might think that oil and water separate cleanly but that's not the case in my experience. If you put 50 gallons of waste oil and 5 gallons of water in a drum you end up with 45 gallons of waste oil, 7 gallons of gray goopy sludge and 3 gallons of water.

Separating and disposing of the sludge is just one of the benefits of a waste oil heater.

 

[Shop Specialties]

You might think that oil and water separate cleanly but that's not the case in my experience. If you put 50 gallons of waste oil and 5 gallons of water in a drum you end up with 45 gallons of waste oil, 7 gallons of gray goopy sludge and 3 gallons of water.

Separating and disposing of the sludge is just one of the benefits of a waste oil heater.

Gray goopy sludge is a combination of more than just water and waste oil. Disposing of the sludge is simple by making a phone call to the recycling company. My customer that burns 15,000 gallons a year has their bulk storage tank pumped clean every Spring for a small fee. I have other customers that do it once every 5 years and I have others that have never done it in 20 years. Like I tell my customers it is very simple, if you do want to have water/antifreeze problems then do not put it in the tank.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

A conical bottom tank with a drain in the bottom may be the best thing ever.

 

[86turbodsl]

Amazingly, if you settle oil and water long enough, you get a separation layer that is not too thick. Plan ahead and don't worry about it.

 

[burright]

I got a waste oil heater for my shop - Omni OHW-75 (20x40 with 16' ceilings, insulated) about two years ago. Made me a very happy camper. A couple of issues on start up and learning how to use well. My friends appreciated that I recycle their used oil for them, I get a warm shop.

 

[platypus20]

We sell and service waste oil burners, the biggest problem is some of the operators, they believe any fluid coming out of the vehicle is fuel. Antifreeze/coolant laden water does not burn worth a ****, brake fluid can screw up pump seals, gear oil is too thick. Dirty motor oil (if it’s truly just oil), if filtered properly burns great, ****** fluid burns great. Most shops have a series of barrels, that become the receptacle for any liquid, then it’s my fault the burner does not run.

Navistar and couple of others sells a type of synthetic motor oils that have a flame suppressant, so the oil doesn’t burn or char in the turbos on engine shut down. Needless to say these oils are incredible hard to burn. We have a few burners that burn this oil, the heated oil is sprayed through a hollow gas flame, as long there is a constant ignition source it will burn, but the leftover ash/soot is a little heavier than regular used oil. This is on jobs where they are heating large service garages, burning 30-75 gph of used oil.

 

[BKB]

I have heated with waste oil for a long time. Started making my own using pressure nozzle set at 130psi F0 head and a heater block set to 270'F. Heater my house with a boiler and the attached 3 car garage with a furnace. Burned 1000s of gallons keeping the garage 80'F and the house 75'F. The nozzles would last 4-6 weeks then coke up and need cleaned. 15 min and I would swap them out. I now use siphon nozzles with metering pumps and everything is out in the barn 40x64x16. My equipment is no different then a normal #2 oil heater, set the T-stat and leave. It never fails and I clean them once every 2 years, filters maybe every 5. I have never had dirt clog a nozzle. Tank is outside to keep floor space and heaters are on a shelf off the floor. Ill try and add pictures.

 

[walrus]

I use it to get my woodstove going. Burn 5 gallons a year maybe?