waste oil furnace

[wheelinguy]

Does anyone have any experience/opinions (good or bad) about the eliminator waste oil furnace?  Thinking about purchasing one to heat a 40x40 garage.

[moosehunter]

No eliminator experience but,..
Had a Lanair for about 4 years. Nothing but trouble.
Use a Reznor now for about 12 years. Had to replace a part here and there but over all very happy with it. There are many makes that are good. A friend has a Clean Burn and is very happy with it.
They all need a LOT of maintanence. My Reznor needs to be taken apart and cleaned every 500 hours.

[Taylortractornut]

We have the Clean burn at the shop at work with 2000 hours on it and once we  got the kinks out it was fine.  I have a 55 gallon drum I added a 110 hotwater heater element and a dual filter outlet.   It will heat the oil to thin it for the filters, then  I have 2 drains  low to the bottom  on 2 levels to let the water and sludge out.       Idont care how clean it is we till get a little water off the bottom.      We have a 100 gallon fuel transfer tanks from a pick up.       Its in the shop and about 12 feet under the heater.      I also  have a barrel  pump in the  shop that I stick on the bottom to  pump out accumulated water.         The main office sent a maintenance man to  install ours.   He used compression fittings on the suction side and I didnt know it.       It would run a few hours and die never run over night.       We tried every thing and CLeanburn  came down and found our problem.     

Its run for a week un atended now.      Our biggest problem at the shop was every one couldnt keep their hands off it.    We had to have one board replaced as theres a  jumper they instal for the intial light up that ou can make it arc better.      THeres 2 other terminals that you dont touch or it fries the board.  Well one of the drivers we had  didnt know what he was doing and jumped the wrong one.   

THat was fixed in the first visit.    Cleaning it is pretty simple  vacuum out the  flame chamber and ones a year vacuum around inside the  housing or blow it out and vacumm the  blower.  This is in a 40by40 shop thats about a 30 foot to the peak in the ceiling.   It can get it about 92 degrees in there if the doors stay shut.   

Im acutally looking for one for the house now.

[thecfarm]

One guy at work was thinking about getting a a waste oil furnace for his house. The state of Maine would not let him. Forgot why now,fumes maybe? But he probably had a mortgage on his home too. That might of had something to do with it. This was about 15 years ago too. He was all bummed out about when he could not do it. Thought he could heat his house for nothing.

[Al_Smith]

I have two friends who have black oil burners .One has welding shop ,40 by 60 .The other has a 60 by 100 shop with probabley at least a  half million dollars worth of Corvettes and Camaros in it .

Both say that oil filtration is the one thing you have to be especially carefull of because if any problems they havehad  that has always been the cause .They both use inside transfer or "day" tanks so the oil can be warmed a bit before it's burned .

[Taylortractornut]

Shouldnt be any fumes in the home,  I want to mount mine outside and  duct the air inside.      I  think Clean burn also makes an inhome unit now its  very small.  I have a friend that had a Clean burn  in an out building and ducted it to the main house  to the central unit to get by all this.
       One maker also make a waste oil ac unit.      That would be nice to.      At the landfill we used to have to  show DEQ  receipts of oil pick ups and  it was specific  how many gallons, where when and who type of thing.  Now they see the clean burn and they nod and walk on. 

I think CB also makes a waterheating unit to.       

[Al_Smith]

There's a lot of BTU's in a gallon of black oil which really isn't much good for much of anything but fuel .Of course some use it for chain lube but that's another subject .

The problem is having a supply of it .If everyone used it there wouldn't be enough old crankcase oil to go around .

They used to use it to oil down railroad sidings etc. until the EPA put the stops to it .The oilers used to get a nickle or dime a gallon to spread it of which they paid nothing for it having collected it from service stations etc for free .

[Taylortractornut]

Ours actually burns several oils like transmission,  hydraulic, and waste fuel.   We got several drums of  waste oil from a service station.       The  oil had alot of gasoline in it and we mixed it with some  poorer  oil we had.  Even parts washer solvent is added to the oil.         It will also run on fuel or kerosene  as a substitute.    We have a paying oil pick service around here but they are picky.    We take the good with the bad and filter it  and then  pump it into  260 gallon totes.       When we need oil I take the lift truck in there and  hold the tote over  a big funnel I made and fill it up.    Works pretty good.

[Al_Smith]

My old buddy Darrel may he rest in peace along with farming 1500 acres also was the broker for several tank lines including Coastal and Matlack .

With a fleet of 40 trucks for the black oil plus the small amount of diesel or other flamable remains hauled in the tankers he had oodles of fuel which he heated his repair shops plus office area with .

Forced air in the repair bays and hydronic in the office area which was over 1500 square feet in itself .Worked out great .

Now old Darrel was one of those situations were you never judge  a book by it's cover because he was a genious .Easy going old country boy of about 300 pounds  .Built the first articulated steered tractor in the US over 400 HP .Fact John Deere used part of his design .

We used to discuss stuff by the hour in a local pub .Spent way too much time doing that but the exchange of knowledge was priceless at the cost of a few hangovers .

[maple flats]

My brother has a used oil burner that heats part of his shop, plus his home and hot water. He has very few problems. He does have a hard time getting enough fuel. Some places he used to haul from stopped giving him the iol because their insurance companies insisted they pay a certified recycler to haul it. He now only gets it from smaller shops, 2 x 55 gal/trip. In his shop he has several tanks and uses them as settling tanks. He drains the water/antifreeze off and hauls it to the places that refuse to let him haul oil out. He uses a 3 or 4 time settlings before pumping to a 275 gal tank in his office which is heated. Then the oil is pumped underground to the waste oil boiler which is in a separate building, the lines are in the same tile as the hot water heat lines coming from the boiler to heat the office. He has no filtering nor cold oil issues. His waste oil unit is a boiler. I'm not sure of the brand. He is an aircraft mechanic and from time to time he gets a tank or 2 of jet fuel. It seems if the work on a fuel tank or replace a fuel tank they are not allowed to put it back in, the fuel must be disposed of. He also uses that in his ASV skid steer when he gets some.

[Al_Smith]

The main problem with a waste oil burner is getting the oil .

Now if you have access to a lot of it is one thing .If you have to buy it is another .Most of the cases I mentioned the oil was a by product of the businesses or on some way connected to them .If you had to buy the stuff you'd just as well use natural gas or profane er propane .

[wheelinguy]

Got the furnace, it arrived during a week of high 70 degree weather in march?  But we installed it just in time for temps to return to normal.  Aside from the noise it has been awesome, just dump in the waste oil from all the oil changes and its just nice and warm all the time.

[sparky1]

My father in law has one. Its dirty, but cant beat free heat.  assuming you have a free supply of junk oil.

[rowerwet]

I worked with a guy who was taking waste oil from work and burning it in his furnace at home, he added a heated nozzle to a plain old magic chef "disposable" furnace, he just had to clean it once a month

[Al_Smith]

The idea of burning old crankcase oil has been around since there was crankcase oil to burn .

My grandfather owned a commercial garage and car dealership in Pittsburgh Pa  during the depression .The heat was just a drip system in an old coal fired gravity furnace .Home spun but worked like a charm .

If a person wanted too I'm sure you could go to "Google land " and find numerious ideas on building a system .