Home Heating Oil Additives?

[Unearthed]

Is there anything that can be added to heating oil to prolong the life of the burner, or make it more efficient? Also, we couldn't afford to fill the tank at the end of the winter, so it's about half full. Is there a moisture possibility I should be concerned about?

Thanks.

 

[demarpaint]

There are people who add MMO to their heating fuel oil, it helps keep the fuel lines clean, the pump working, and the tip that feeds the fuel clean. It might be worth looking into.

 

[BigCahuna]

My friend had an old diesel powered boat that had sat for a few years. When doing the service to get it running again, we noticed that there was stuff growing in the fuel filter and lines. It looked like someone had shaved their beard off and threw it in the filter. Marine stores sell an additive to combat the growth of what ever that stuff is, and keep diesel fuel systems clean. It's designed to slowly de-solve the growth instead of killing it all at once and clogging up the fuel system. It's sold for big volumes of fuel, so treating big amounts of fuel is more cost effective.,,

 

[scurvy]

Biocide is a typical additive for home heating oil and a good idea as the tank will sit basically unused over the summer. Any commercially available diesel additive will work, although 'cetane boost' probably won't help your burner at all.

FWIW, I dumped 20 liters of bad diesel fuel in the heating oil tank of the house we rented in Baltimore. It had a ton of water in it (several liters of free water) but there was also about a liter of Power Service in there. No issues at all with it afterwards and it probably burned a bit cleaner.

 

[bullwinkle]

Biobor is good stuff for preventing the black fungus, and the more full the tank, the less trouble you'll have with condensation-which the black crud requires to grow-it develops at the boundary between the fuel and the water.

 

[SrDriver]

Good idea too when you can afford it have the tank topped off with fuel.

 

[Quest]

I'd go with diesel/marine diesel additives that comes with biocide.

no MMO anywhere in my picture for I'm never aware of MMO as fuel stabiliser effective in keeping bunker fuel/heavy home-heating oil/locomotive diesel fuel fresh and free from weird biological stuff growing during storage.

Q.

 

[roadrunner1]

I've always used my diesel fuel additive in heating oil. It will help keep the filter cleaner and it will burn cleaner.

Use the winter formula to avoid gelling problems.

 

[Unearthed]

Thanks guys, appreciate it!