Fuel Oil $$$

"Diesel is actually cleaner than #2 oil as it is passed through a finer filter when processed. Heating oil has a lot more crap in it."

that's not really true. no. 2 distilate oil is made my most refiners to be the same; identical fuel whether intended for off- road or on road use at this point in time, in the past it was different. occasionally you will have a refiner that does make a separate product although the only difference being higher sulfur for heating/off road and lower sulfur for on-road; but this is very rare today.

if you have gunk in your tank, it is from algae/corrosion inside your tank, one should regularly treat fuel oil with a biocide and add a gallon of powerservice to each full tank.

mikeandgerry wrote:

mufwapo wrote:Does anybody know of someone who delivers less than 100 gallons? Is that some kind of standard?

100 gallons is the minimum around here. If you order less there is a delivery fee of $50 to discourage the practice. I heard a story recently of someone having 50 gallons put in at 3.59 + the fee. Obviously he paid 4.59/gallon. They don't grow em too smart around here. You can buy k-1 kero at the pump for 3.49.

I don't know if you are aware of it, but kerosene is not the same as diesel/#2 heating oil, just wanted to make sure to point out the difference. Just don't want anyone to dump a bunch of kero into the fuel oil tank.

BinghamtonNY wrote:So you guys are saying I can go buy a 5 gallon diesel container fill it at the pump and bring it home and dump it in my tanks. I guess you pay more per gallon but don't get the HUGE bill all at one time...

Look for a dealer that sells "off road diesel" which is intended to be sold for use in diesel engines that are in equipment not driven on roads. It has a red dye in it, just like heating oil. You can buy regular diesel if you want, but you'll pay more for it because of the taxes.

The oil company I buy from sells oil with the additives to inhibit algae growth, and my filters last longer since I installed "Tiger Loops" and eliminated the return line to the tank. The tank is old and has some sediment in it from years of use and probably some corrosion from being almost empty most of the time.

I know they have off road diesel but I've never seen it available to consumers at say, a pump.. Seems like it's all delivery based like fuel oil is.. I'll ask around

from my understanding , where temps are real cold in the winter , they use kero instead of fuel oil , when the tanks are outside. the kero will not jell up like fuel oil does. i don't know if you need a diff type of nozzle. thats one reason tanks are in the house. most diesl supply places have off road. i use to get it for the backhoe.

Wood'nCoal wrote:I thought all that stuff in the filter was sediment from my oil tank.
That makes sense, though. Diesel engines use finer nozzles and higher pressures then oil burners.

If you look at the chopper pump on an oil burner, it isn't what you would say, held to close tolerances. But it could probably pump sand in a slurry.

coaledsweat wrote:

Wood'nCoal wrote:I thought all that stuff in the filter was sediment from my oil tank.
That makes sense, though. Diesel engines use finer nozzles and higher pressures then oil burners.

If you look at the chopper pump on an oil burner, it isn't what you would say, held to close tolerances. But it could probably pump sand in a slurry.

Having seen both diesel engine injectors and oil burner nozzles I would have to agree with you.

BinghamtonNY wrote:So you guys are saying I can go buy a 5 gallon diesel container fill it at the pump and bring it home and dump it in my tanks. I guess you pay more per gallon but don't get the HUGE bill all at one time...

yes, diesel and #2 home heating oil are the same besides the color and the road tax added into the price.

i always used 4-5gal cans. have to make the trip worth it. dam backhoe took 35 gals to fill her.

there is also nothing wrong with running kero in an oil furnace; as it was mentioned by a previous poster, kero is often used for individuals with exterior above ground tanks to keep the fuel from gelling in cold temps, although this is now mostly done w/ additives if you have a decent supplier (reason being kero has lower btu's/gallon, if possible you want #2 heating oil aka diesel).

btw, no. 2 distilate oil = #2 diesel fuel = #2 fuel oil= #2 heating oil ------ this is commonly called "diesel" or "heating oil"

no. 1 distilate oil = #1 diesel fuel = kerosene = jet A ------- this is most commonly referred to as "kerosene"

there are slight variations from this dealing with additives, sulfur content, etc. however the fuel itself follows basically those guidelines.

I have added several containers of Kero to my oil tank since last spring when I was almost empty. Was working fine. Now I haven't used the oil burner at all this year. I have used to it to jump start a dying fire on the EFEL hooked up to the same flue. Just have to reconnect the cap and burner exit.
I do have a problem with the gunk slowing down the oil supply to the filter.
When I first fire up the burner, it runs for about 5 minutes then starts to sputter off and on. I turn it off.
If I wait 10 minutes , it will fire again for another couple of minutes til it runs out.
I need to disconnect and blow the line free of gunk!

I had this happen a couple of years ago when I stirred up the bottom of the tank when almost empty! This it happened right after adding a couple gallons of Kero into the hole right above the line intake. Should have used the outside port!

Has anyone ever tried putting filter used motor oil in their tank?
I know the stuff burns and does have some contaminates in it , so what's worst it can do?
An auto shop across the street from work uses used motor oil in a 'special burner' setup?
I'm gonna be replacing this 'old junker' oil burner in the spring so I don't really what it mucks up.
It won't blow up ? will it

No, but it won't light either. And it will probably fill your firepot with oil and that will be one heck of a mess. You can burn used oils in conventional oil burners if you do a couple of things to them. I would not recommend it however. The oil must absolutely be preheated to about 170-180* for it to light. You must have a preheater at the nozzle to make it work properly. You can google up a bunch about the conversion.

It is legal to use in commercial applications, I'm not real sure about residential heating though, EPA or one of the sites that sells waste oil heaters may have the info.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_lib ... h/me4.html

Waste oil heaters are cheap and easy to build.

Thanks guys, I will drop the stuff off at the auto shop soon! This is so much better then trying some of this stuff out and see what happens. Kero seems to burn fine, cleaner but less BTU's.
I asked a guy about cleaning out the bottom of my oil tank a couple of years ago. He said just leave it alone because if you disturb the bottom, that's how leaks begin! I guess one of this days I'm gonna have to break down and buy some oil!

Running a lot of kerosene through your oil burner is not a great idea. It doesn't have the lubricating properties that #2 oil has and could seriously impact the life of the pump depending on its design. A chopper pump can handle it reasonably well, gearpumps will have big problems with it.