My Energy Logic Black Gold Boiler
My waste oil boiler has been using tons of oil lately. This is the main reason why I said in a previous post to always have a backup oil supply before purchasing one. I got a huge supply for the local tire changeover company and its a good thing I did. Its March now and I have been using twenty gallons per day of waste oil to heat my oil burner.
I got a bad batch of waste oil from an airline mechanic facility. I think that is why my boiler was running rough for a little bit. Its fifty weight oil but I think they had some antifreeze and other contaminates in it. My boiler just did not sound the same for several days. Maybe it was all in my head but I do not think so. You really want to make sure that most of the oil you get for your oil burner does not have chlorine or more importantly any coolant in it. Large quantities of coolant can really mess up your waste oil boiler. I mean really mess it up. Its almost impossible to avoid getting a little bit of coolant or water in the oil but it should be reduced as much as humanly possible.
This is why I filter the hell out of all the waste oil I get. I filter it three times before it goes into my boiler. This is very important. I filter the oil when taking it out of my oil tote going into the holding tanks in my garage. Then I filter it again when the oil flows from the holding tank to the actual boiler holding tank in my shed. Then I filter it again in the shed. I use a 30 micron filter. Filtering your oil is very important. I have seen people who had these boilers just take the oil they got and put it into their waste oil burner. Are you kidding me??? This is the reason why several quick lubes, I will not say their names, had some much problems with their oil boilers for years and finally got rid of it. Their stupid employees were not filtering the oil like they should have. You would think that the owner would have started doing it himself or having his manager do it but it never happened. He finally got so frustrated that he took the boiler out and installed his regular heat back in. A fifteen thousand dollar loss that could have been avoided.
BTW I have received questions about what type of waste oil these boilers take. The answer is any weight up to 90. You can put any motor oil you can think of it in. You can also use gear lube and transmission fluid as fuel for your oil burner as well. These boilers really like transmission fluid. They run like gold on that stuff. Its a little bit harder to get a hold off unless you have a transmission shop though. Just a heads up.
My Waste Oil Holding Tanks in My Garage
How many hours do you go between ash cleanings ?
400 hrs Optimal is 100 but I have found that 400 works just fine
[...] waste oil burner. Some are better than others. The main factor in these devices, I believe, is proper maintiance. I have seen people get the most expensive model and have trouble all along the way and I have [...]