Used motor oil in oil boiler

Anonymous-0 · Mar 3, 2009

Just wondering, has anyone ever attempted to pour used engine oil in there oil tank with home heating oil for the furnance to burn? I got to thinking the other day, why buy a waste oil furance, maybe I can add used oil to the home heating oil say 75%HH to 25% used oil. Would it go threw the oil burner pump? Just a thought. J

Pitch · Mar 3, 2009

75/25 may be a bit thick, try 90/10 and if that works 85/15 but filter it real well before you do it. I have put about 2 gallons in a 175 tank with no problem but never anything stronger.

Bob · Mar 3, 2009

It'll go through the PUMP a lot better than it'll go through the sintered bronze screen on the nozzle and the nozzle itself.

Once things get gummed up at the screen or nozzle and the spray pattern gets messed up and the furnace loses efficiency, you'll be losing instead of gaining by adding the dirty oil.

There's some guys making conversion parts for waste oil burners that I've been looking into... they look interesting. They use a nozzle with a larger, less critical hole for oil flow and use compressed air to atomize the oil. Also, a heater to lower the oil's viscosity.
ONE guys site

olgentdc · Mar 3, 2009

jay , I would not intermix the fuel ,, I think Bob is correct from My experience these nozzles are delicate ,,. I would investigate the link for a possible supplement .

Paul in MN · Mar 4, 2009

I heard about some guys in Northern Minnesota using the 25/75 mix, but only if the fuel tank is in the basement or garage. If it is outside at the many subzero temps it makes the heating oil too thick to flow through the skinny copper lines. They did caution about careful filtering the oil and settling it out for a few months in 5 gal pails to get the water and little bits of antifreeze to the bottom of the pail. They recommended setting up some kind of big funnel with a roll of toilet paper for the filtering.

I heat with wood and sometimes with oil, but I haven't tried this .....yet.

Paul in MN

Owen Aaland · Mar 4, 2009

The nozzle in my waste oil furnace has no filter or screen in it. There is a water trap and a 10 micron filter to clean the oil. Oil is pumped at 55 - 60 PSI to a preheater block. It then goes to a two stage regulator to drop the pressure to about 3 - 4 PSI. The nozzle is mounted in an aluminum block with another heater. 14 PSI of air pressure is used to atomize the oil as it passes through the nozzle.

Greenday · Mar 4, 2009

you would be asking for alot of trouble!

Anonymous-0 · Mar 4, 2009

My drain oil goes into my in-cellar tank and is burned. One gallon per oil change to 250 gallons of fuel oil that gets filtered. Been doing this for over a year and still running. After seeing some of the contaminants that come in the fuel oil the drain oil is a treat for the system. When fuel oil got to $4.50 a gallon it was more than I could take. Your mileage may vary. Best of luck! joe in ny

Brian Jasper co. Ia · Mar 4, 2009

I think I would definitely filter it with something like a hydraulic filter to get as much out of it as possible. The other concern is if you have quite a bit of oil vs fuel. Motor oil has more BTU's in it than #1 furnace oil.
Thats one of the things you need to be aware of when running a waste oil furnace. If the flame gets too high, you can melt the heat exchanger.

Used motor oil in oil boiler

Anonymous-0

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Pitch

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Bob

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olgentdc

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Paul in MN

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Owen Aaland

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Greenday

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Anonymous-0

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Brian Jasper co. Ia

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