Waste oil in oil furnace

[jarmstrong]

i'm not about to dump used (clean, ie no gas or coolant) oil in any of our diesel vehicles, but what about the house's oil furnace? How would the burner fair with say 5 gallons in every 300 gallons of fuel? How exact is the injector in a furance?

thank you

 

[Eddie]

At 5 gal in 300 or 6% your furnace will never know the difference. You probably could run up to ~ 10%. We are talking about engine oil-correct?

 

[SuperDave456]

Being in Texas I did a search and read up on Waste Oil Furnaces. Interesting stuff. A cold day here is just at if not just above freezing.

However, the reason I post this is that there were several articles out there stating that using motor oil, used motor oil, in your furnace will make it burn hotter. Sometimes with enough used motor oil in the mix it seems to melt the heater catastrophically. Although kind of cool from my perspective, I wouldn't like to replace the heater and or my home with it.

Please note that it may run a bit hot with the motor oil mix. And play safe.

 

[duaneb9729]

if you are considering this, add the motor oil right before a fill, and consider adding an extra inline filter.

do you take care of the oil burner yourself or do you hire a heating contractor?

if you take care of it yourself i wouldnt have any problem with this, as a heating contractor myself i would do it.

and i do add used motor oil to my diesel Isuzu NPR truck aprox four gallons to a 30 gal fill, the fuel tank holds 33 gallons.

 

[Cujet]

Having done this type of thing many years ago, I suggest that you keep an eye on the bottom of your tank. Or, better yet, get a secondary tank for your mix. Used engine oil has plenty of particulates that will settle out over time. They will, over time cover the bottom of your tank with sludge.

 

[demarpaint]

I did it when I had oil heat,a few gallons at a time didn't hurt a thing. I did have an inline filter on the fuel line. Adding a gallon or two at a time to a 500 gallon tank won't make much of a difference. Just be sure the container you are draining the oil into is clean, then run it through a filter on the funnel before adding it to the oil tank. A paint spray sock type funnel works well.

Frank D

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Having done this type of thing many years ago, I suggest that you keep an eye on the bottom of your tank. Or, better yet, get a secondary tank for your mix. Used engine oil has plenty of particulates that will settle out over time. They will, over time cover the bottom of your tank with sludge.


If I were really dedicated to doing this, I would rig the pump for recirculation.