If you have any sort of oil change business you should really give some thought into investing in a waste oil burner. It will save you literally thousands of dollars in heating costs over the course of several years. The rate of return on a waste oil boiler is at least 33% so you will get your money back within 3 years. Most people will get their money back on their waste oil burner much sooner than that.
I built a huge 1100 square ft garage right next door to my 2400 quart ft house to store the vehicles and equipment for my mobile oil change business and carpet cleaning business. If I had to heat these two buildings with natural gas it would be an complete nightmare every time I got a bill in the mail. $500 in heating costs would be a good month. I have three kids who live in with me and I’m always having visitors. The hot showers alone account for $150 of the natural gas bill. Since 2007 my natural gas bills from Enstar gave been $8-$16. Like I said before the only reason I need natural gas now is for my dryer and dishwashers. My waste oil boiler has saved me a fortune. If enough people were able to afford an oil burner like mine the company would probably lobby the city or state to make a law against having one of those or make it so terribly expensive that nobody would be able to afford it.
The two biggest things you have to think about when owning a waste oil boiler is oil supply and upkeep. You have to anticipate your waste oil needs to fuel your boiler and then you have to maintain it the right way otherwise they will break down all the time. A quick lube had a waste oil boiler like mine and the owner was force to get rid of it because he had so many problems with it.
What we do at my place is filter the hell out of the oil I get. Here is what I try to do.
Never use fresh oil if possible. You want the oil going into your waste oil boiler to have as little antifreeze or commonly referred to as coolant, water, and gunk. For this to happen you want to let the oil that you do collect sit for several days. I let mine sit for three days. All the bad stuff settles to the bottom.
The I take a suction wand that is connected to a compressor and a tank and suck the waste oil into 275 gallon plastic holding tanks. They are called IBC containers or totes. I picked these up from the airport as these are the tanks that the de-icing fluid comes in. These huge totes also are also known for carrying tire foam fluid, peanut oil, and 15W-40 bulk oil.
I make sure that the suction wand stays one inch from the bottom of the barrel so that I do not suck up the grit and grime that settled to the bottom. Before the oil goes into my plastic holding tanks I filter the oil through a 30 micron filter. It gets a lot of the unwanted particles out.
After this process is completed I have gotten most of the unwanted things out of the waste oil that would potential hurt my oil burner or cause it to run rough.
Then I have a system where I transfer the waste oil from my plastic holding tanks into the waste oil boiler’s actually cast iron holding tank which is adjacent to the burner. When it needs waste oil it sucks it from there and filters it through another 50 micron filter before it lets it enters.
See how much trouble I go through to make certain only purified waste oil is getting into my boiler. And that’s why its never given me any trouble.
Every couple months I routinely clean the heat exhanger out from all the ash that collects.
And once a year you should have a qualified tech do a full detailed cleaning. I got the guy to show me and you can do it yourself, they show you in the manual that comes with your waste oil burner, but its difficult and takes hours. Its your choice.
But I have found that all this work pays off. Its saves me thousands of dollars every month and every year. My waste oil boiler was one of the smartest things I ever bought.
