Crazy home heating oil problem

O

Oldtom

Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Messages
494
Location
Ceciltucky
I have heated with oil since 1982 and never saw this:

I filled my heating oil tank in April of this year and had a new furnace installed last month. The new furnace ran one day then quit. I tried to bleed the fuel line and got a thick black liquid out that looked like 10,000 mile motor oil. My fuel oil tank had about 3 inches of this black liquid in the bottom. I have used the same fuel oil company for years and I complained to them. To their credit, they came out, vacuumed about 20 gallons of crud out of the tank, changed the burner nozzle and got the heater going for free. They just got a customer for life.

The odd thing about this sludge is the particle size. I had a new 10 micron fuel oil filter and the black liquid just passed through it like it wasnt there and clogged the burner nozzle. Conventional dirt would have been stopped at the filter. There was no water in the sludge because I tested it with water paste.

Has anybody ever seen this? Thanks in advance for any info :-)
 
The only time I had this was with diesel storage tanks (similar to fuel oil) some years ago when we switched to bio diesel and the extreme cleaning effect of the bio diesel caused a LOT of gunk in the fuel filters.
 
Where does the oil line feed from top or bottom? Where is your tank? Is it a 1 line or 2 line system? What filter do you use? Could someone have messed with you and poured something in?

I have an inground tank, it was replaced right before I bought the house. The feed line is 8" off the bottom which also means there is about 50 gallons I can't touch. My friend had an old tank in his basement and unless someone messed with him and added water, condensation built up to where we had to drain out about 20 gallons of water. I checked mine with the water indicating paste and measurement stick and had about 1 1/2 of water at the bottom. I had always used the Hercules Sludge Treat prior to each fill up but that didn't help. Started searching and came across Fuel Right and started adding before each fill up. I no longer have any water at the bottom when I check.

I also changed my 2 line system (2nd line is return to tank) to a 1 line with a Tiger Loop Ultra that self primes and de-aerates. One big issue I had prior was filter clogging as well as the nozzle and screen (Riello head). My nozzle is only 1gph but the pump was doing like 5gph just filtering and flowing the rest back to tank. The tiger loop keeps it all there and has a 10 micron spin on filter like Ford FL1A sized.

Only thing I had issue with a couple years later was that the oil feed tube from pump to nozzle was clogged. Previous owner hadn't been good with the PM's. 1st winter I had issues and technician didn't know how it was even running at all. The felt filter had to be pried out of the housing from sludge. Pump screen was 1/4" thick sludge, nozzle had at least 1/8" on filter. Technician didn't do anything with the line to nozzle so I didn't either. Probably 3 years later it clogged rest of the way, nozzle and screen were pretty clean. I used some brake cleaner and pipe cleaner from kids projects to clean it out. Knock on wood no issues after that.

That black sludge stuff you had might have been in the lines after the filter already from previous and just made it there getting disturbed during install. Were any lines swapped around at install and maybe filter lines are backward or somehow bypassing?
 
Sequoiasoon - The oil is tapped off the bottom of the tank with a single line system. Tank is in the basement. The installer ran all new copper line from tank to furnace. The heater is running good for now. I plan to change the fuel filter every couple months during this heating season to get any remnants of sludge. Will try the Fuel Right. Thanks for the info.
 
Sounds like biodiesel or biodiesel blended with regular fuel. Like doitmyself mentioned it will pick up the sludge and put it into suspension in the fuel.

​

 
Could this possibly be a case of microbe growth? If so a bottle of Power Service Biocide or something similar might be prudent.
 
Good idea about the microbe treatment. My system uses a white plastic foam style filter ( Part number RF 1 ) The specs on the filter element say it filters to 10 microns. I have seen conventional sludge build up on the outside of the filter, but never pass right through it. Maybe bio diesel sludge is a finer particle size?

I burn one 275 gallon tank of fuel oil per heating season. Going forward, I will check for water and sludge. You can zip tie 1/4 inch vinyl tubing to a stick, place the stick in the tank, block the upper tubing end and pull it out. The clear tubing will show a " core sample " of whats in the tank. This is a pain, but better than waking up to a cold house.
 
The Fuel Right, at least according to the tests they show works better than many Biocides.

I just bought a new 24oz one at Patriot supply for $50. I throw 6 ounces in right before I get fuel which is normally about 200 gallons. According to directions that is more than needed if used all the time but my fuel delivery varies from 200-400 gallons depending price and tank space when I order.

I have seen some of those RF 1's not sit quite correctly in the the housing. I saw many with the felt filters and center wire core where the core wasn't positioned correct and actually crushed some, leaving a bypass gap on top where it was supposed to go into the top by bolt.

Like our cars and OCI's. Sometimes hard to trust others to do the correct thing.

For future if you want more filter area. Westwood Spin on filter
 
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