Used oil in the (home) furnace?

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I just drained the rear end and transmission on the truck which has 13,500 miles on it. So, as you can imagine, it drained out looking nice and clean. Can I dump it in the oil tank? I figure it's nice and clean and will be diluted with the #2 heating oil anyway. I know it sounds like a horribly cheap behavior, but I figure it saves me the inconvenience of going to a recycling place and may as well burn it. By the way, I wouldn't do this with crankcase oil. So is this a nutty idea?
 
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those type of heaters normally have a couple of huge filters in line to filter out the crud, you do have to be a little more careful with the home systems.
 
And any inorganics present (zinc, calcium, phosphorous, etc) will produce a hard deposit on the burner tip. You may have to clean this with some frequency.
 
I would watch the burner, but keep the dose rate low and things are fine, IMO.
 
I dumped waste oil into mine when I had oil heat. Gear oil I think might be a little thick so I never did that. I ran the oil through a paint strainer into a clean jug, and dumped it in before a scheduled fill. Never had a problem.
 
Originally Posted By: Boomer
And any inorganics present (zinc, calcium, phosphorous, etc) will produce a hard deposit on the burner tip. You may have to clean this with some frequency.
just run some auto-rx through it!
 
An auto shop I use to go to used the oils they drained to power their furnace.

Think of what percent of the final mix of the two oils , (the original heating oil), and the (oils you are adding), the added waste oil makes up. Keep the percent of the added oil low and you will not significantly change the viscosity or flash point of the heating oil.

Just don't add it when the tank is low.

Any kind of filtering before you add it to the large tank would be a good idea. Even runing it through a clean old cloth would be better than just adding it unfiltered. Anything you remove with any filter would be that much less to use up some of the life filtering capacity of the filter on you furnace.

The oil that you normally purchase for heating you furnace is far from 100 percent pure petroleum of only one kind of molecule chain length. If it were even 95 percent pure you would be paying over $25 per gallon.
 
Years back when I had oil heat, I would strain and add ATF and engine oil to the tank. I did it for years w/o problems, I never tried gear oil though. A local mechanic heated his shop with waste oil for many years.
 
Hello, A pal opted to mix old vehicle oils with his home heating oil and his house immediately smelled like a filthy, stinking bus garage. His was a real dual fuel (wood/oil) hot air furnace. I think the heat exchanger was not of the best quality and that was his problem. I'd bet a hot water system would probably provide enough separation. Kira
 
I dump mine right into the furnace straight from the car: engine oils, gear oils, and trans fluid. No problems, but I do have the burner cleaned and filters changed annually. No foul smells from my system, but mine is a hot-water type.
 
Originally Posted By: duaneb9729
those type of heaters normally have a couple of huge filters in line to filter out the crud, you do have to be a little more careful with the home systems.

+1 Nice fumes from all the additives in lube oil. Some Nanny states are thinking of (as usual) banning the stuff. There's a federally mandated dye system to distinguish among oil types.
 
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There's a Yahoo newsgroup called "altfuelfurnace" where the mod has been experimenting with WMO and the like for YEARS-that would be a good place to look for info.
 
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