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waste oil heater plans?

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tylerae40

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Dec 1, 2009
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western Australia
g'day to all,
Strangley at the moment it is very cold down under -3 degrees celcius, yes thats cold for us, I want to make up a waste oil heater to heat the shed/ outside when having a few beers. I've been looking around on the net but haven't found a set of simple or discriptive enough plans. We have an out-door free-standing gas heater but it uses a barby bottle in a weekend, which out here (bush) is about $40- $50 exchange. We're on a farm so have a lot of used engine oil, we we could use, to power a heater. any help would be great, cheers
 
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demondriven

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Jun 21, 2010
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Buffalo, New York
You will have let us know how you made out I ave been thinking of making one myself for my shop (detached 2 car) Usually use kerosene but want to spend more time out there this winter. I have eyed up the mother earth one and some using the babington burners (I think thats what they are called) those seem like they could throw some serious heat but require air pressure.
 
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mdbeck1

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Norman, OK
fatrhino said:
that looks interesting, anyone here using one?
Click to expand...

I've got one and used it a couple times with the Boy Scouts. It was about 25 degrees F outside the GP medium tent and significantly above freezing (~50) on the inside. I had it running on kerosene at a low feed rate. We did not leave it on overnight due to scout rules about flames in tents.

I seem to recall that the conversion of the unit from kerosene to waste oil is to drill out the opening on the "regulator" slightly to allow for the oil to feed properly. I've also heard that if you use biodiesel the biodiesel tends to clog up the lines at colder temperature.

From what I have read these things will burn just about any flammable liquid.
 
F

fatrhino

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Rochester
mdbeck1 said:
I've got one and used it a couple times with the Boy Scouts. It was about 25 degrees F outside the GP medium tent and significantly above freezing (~50) on the inside. I had it running on kerosene at a low feed rate. We did not leave it on overnight due to scout rules about flames in tents.

I seem to recall that the conversion of the unit from kerosene to waste oil is to drill out the opening on the "regulator" slightly to allow for the oil to feed properly. I've also heard that if you use biodiesel the biodiesel tends to clog up the lines at colder temperature.

From what I have read these things will burn just about any flammable liquid.
Click to expand...

so the kit in the auction can be used as a standalone oil heater, but it can also be used as an addition to make the M1941 stove oil burning instead of wood burning?
 
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mdbeck1

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fatrhino said:
so the kit in the auction can be used as a standalone oil heater, but it can also be used as an addition to make the M1941 stove oil burning instead of wood burning?
Click to expand...

I went back to the link and what they show is the liquid fuel burner unit. Here's a link to one that just burns wood/coal.
http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-COAL-DIESA...731?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e356fe0b

I bought one off of the 'bay' and it had the liquid fuel burner unit AND the wood burner unit. To switch between the two you take the liquid fuel burner unit out, put the grates in and ignite it.

Note: For use in well ventilated areas only. In other words make sure you use the stove pipe through the roof.
 
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luvit

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mdbeck1 said:
I went back to the link and what they show is the liquid fuel burner unit. Here's a link to one that just burns wood/coal.
http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-COAL-DIESA...731?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53e356fe0b

I bought one off of the 'bay' and it had the liquid fuel burner unit AND the wood burner unit. To switch between the two you take the liquid fuel burner unit out, put the grates in and ignite it.

Note: For use in well ventilated areas only. In other words make sure you use the stove pipe through the roof.
Click to expand...

hey, mdbeck. how did this work-out for:
  • waste oil?
  • wood?
-tanks.
 
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M

mdbeck1

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luvit said:
hey, mdbeck. how did this work-out for:
  • waste oil?
  • wood?
-tanks.
Click to expand...

I only used it a couple of times. The first time I used it I tried gasoline. The smell of the preservative burning off was pretty intense. I let it burn for a couple of hours. Later I ran it with kerosene in an old army tent (on a winter boy scout event) and it raised the temperature a good 30F+. That was with the main door open (One of the leaders was afraid it would put off carbon monoxide).

There's a whole subculture out there that converts these things to waste oil, bio diesel, ... just type in M1941 in a search engine. From what I recall to make them work with waste oil or bio diesel you have to drill out the orifice. That will make it so that you can't use gasoline or kerosene any more.

WARNING.. These things have been blamed for years in the military for tent fires. Use them at your own risk.
 
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grego

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Apr 25, 2009
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Sac, CA
Nice to bring this one back, I went with the link and bought one of the kits off the auction site. I opened the box and it looked like it would do the job but I did not get around to firing it up this winter.
I have been storing my used oil so I have plenty of fuel.
 
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hdpusher

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Feb 1, 2010
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Central Pa
No I think it actually smells better... You can smell the Castrol waist oil in the air when it burns. At least thats what I think :thumbup:

..Dont use ATF or Brake fluid.. It will stink up the joint.
 
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williaty

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I give all my used oil (which is a LOT and would be a problem otherwise) to a friend who heats his garage exclusively with an oil burner.

He first built it as described in the Mother Earth News article linked earlier in this thread. After half a winter of use, he discovered some big problems with their design. He had someone custom fab him a modified version of the MEN design that addressed all the problems he found with it. That this is awesome now. Once I have a place I can modify like that, I fully intend to build one for myself.
 
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williaty

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No, not really. He talked about them once, but it's been a year or two ago. I remember a little bit, but not all the details.

He changed the oil feed routing so increased heat from the stove can't heat the oil. The original design can lead to a run-away condition where more heat from the stove thins the oil, which means more oil is burnt, which releases more heat, etc. He also altered the ratio of burner diameter to outflow diameter and changed the positioning. I remember him saying that made it burn MUCH better. That's all I remember.
 
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NUTTSGT

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A guy in HS used Mother Eart News plans to build one for a science project, that was 25+ years ago. It was a slick little heater back then being made out of a 20lb LP tank. He lit it up during his presentation and set off the fire alarm.


A neighbor uses a wood stove and drips waste oil through a line in the stove to heat his shop during the winter.
 
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trbomax

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starvation lake,mi.
NUTTSGT said:
A guy in HS used Mother Eart News plans to build one for a science project, that was 25+ years ago. It was a slick little heater back then being made out of a 20lb LP tank. He lit it up during his presentation and set off the fire alarm.


A neighbor uses a wood stove and drips waste oil through a line in the stove to heat his shop during the winter.
Click to expand...

I have the wood/coal stove in the ohio shop set up to do this. I hung a 7 gal tank on the back of the hot air jacket and piped the oil around to the side of the firebox. I found that the end of the drip pipe would carbon up and need cleaning rather often,so I made a new pipe, 1/2" dia and ran it past the piont where the oil enters it,then capped it. The oil is now introduced to the drip pipe useing a T, and the drip pipe can be easily rodded out by just removeing the cap.I have no way of knowing if the stove output was increased,but the burn time was. When the flame turned to coals though,you best be shutting down the dripper because the oil will vaporize and build up in the firebox and stack. Then when you open it to add wood or coal it will flash with vigor!
 
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trbomax

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starvation lake,mi.
:eek::eek::eek::eyecrazy::eyecrazy:
NUTTSGT said:
A guy in HS used Mother Eart News plans to build one for a science project, that was 25+ years ago. It was a slick little heater back then being made out of a 20lb LP tank. He lit it up during his presentation and set off the fire alarm.


A neighbor uses a wood stove and drips waste oil through a line in the stove to heat his shop during the winter.
Click to expand...

I have the wood/coal stove in the ohio shop set up to do this. I hung a 7 gal tank on the back of the hot air jacket and piped the oil around to the side of the firebox. I found that the end of the 1/4" drip pipe would carbon up and need cleaning rather often,so I made a new pipe, 1/2" dia and ran it past the piont where the oil enters it,then capped it. The oil is now introduced to the drip pipe useing a T, and the drip pipe can be easily rodded out by just removeing the cap.I have no way of knowing if the stove output was increased,but the burn time was. When the flame turned to coals though,you best be shutting down the dripper because the oil will vaporize and build up in the firebox and stack. Then when you open it to add wood or coal it will flash with vigor!

edit) it really laid down a smoke screen too,looked like an old coal fired laker! The guy next door really didnt like it but then he was a total knob and no one in the nieghborhood liked him anyway,so it didnt matter.
 
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