Here is some pictures of waste oil furnaces I saw today. I used to give tons waste oil to these guys years ago before I bought my oil boiler because they never had enough to last them throughout the whole winter. They do mostly automotive work and I assume that when the owner first purchased his oil furnace he thought his business would do more than enough oil changes to provide fuel for it. Boy was he wrong.
I talked with one of his employees at length and he said that not too long in the winter they have to shut the oil furnace off and switch back to natural gas. When they get a nice quantity of motor oil they switch back to that. Sounds like a complete waste of time and money in my opinion. Especially when its so easy to get all the used motor you need if you look hard enough. Any major tire shop, automotive shop, quick lube, or large construction company that maintains its own vehicles will usually generate a couple barrels of oil every month. All you have to do is ask for it. They will be more than happy to give it to you. Its a pain to get rid of it and a lot of these places have to pay to have it picked up.
The guy told me that they have had to replace the oil pump twice since they have had it. Now I do not consider myself a totally trained professional but I have tons of experience with these things and I think the oil pump is going out because they keep letting their holding tank run out of oil. How do you think the oil pump gets its lubrication in a furnace or a boiler? I think this could be especially true in a furnace because the oil is pumping upwards to the furnace instead of lateral in an oil boiler. They have not had their furnace that long for them to be having these problems.
Oh, and did I mention that they had to get their oil burner totally rebuilt inside the furnace. I am witting this post to explain to you what can happen if you do not take care of your investment. The employee says that they filter the oil and clean it but I have my doubts. Unless you have a machine that was made on a Monday it will last a long time if you clean it, gets routine tune ups from time to time, and filter the oil going into it making sure as little dirt and moisture gets into it as possible.
Tags: oil boiler, Oil Furnace, oil pump
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