Leads on a small (portable?) waste oil heater?

[VicR]

I was just thinking how nice it would be to have a small portable size waste oil heater to 1) get rid of my waste oil without hauling it to the dump and 2) get some free heat for the garage. I thinking something about the size of a small kerosene heater. I did a search and found lots of big furnace sized heaters, but nothing smaller like this.



Any leads?



-Vic

 

[JFaughn]

I think the problems are multiple with that type , the combustion chamber needs to be more closed to burn completely , the exhaust like your example would be a huge issue .
I almost bought a waste oil furnace for my repair shop , but I did not collect enough oils to use enough to off set the costs [ about $6,000 in 96 ] .
The waste oil have so many things to burn that in order not to make deadly exhausts that the burner has to get hot enough to burn many deadly chemicals , & then exhaust to the out side .

 

[randrade]

check out this article. I have been thinking of one of these.

Roger Sanders' Waste Oil Heater

 

[Matt400]

Roger Sanders is a great fella and has found a way to get good heat with low oil usage. One drawback is you get heavy (as in lots) of soot build up that becomes messy as it flakes off the flue.



If you can save up some oil and don't burn a full day or all week long you might consider one that will keep the flue clean while also burn smoke free. To do this you need to burn a larger volume in a combustion chamber.



1 gallon per hr in a down draft unit like this can produce a cherry red drum/combustion chamber in either a 55 gallon drum or an old wood stove converted:

Vaporizing Waste Oil Burners from CompuHeat, Inc.

#ad

 

[JFaughn]

I am a reasonable [ not extremest ] environmentally concern , and with burning WMO , worry about building a home made burner & not knowing that the design has some thought to burn clean enough ,
When I had a repair bius , I looked into these & know that they can be built , but want to know that what I use was including this idea .

 

[Matt400]

For your concerns you might take a look here:

Used Oil



There is some good reading on how to comply along with other useful links.

 

[JFaughn]

Thanks for the link , but there was no real info there , the only thing it did say is , that it has to be built for that use ,
which was my point , that some measuring of exhausts to confirm that it burns hot enough to have reasonably clean exhaust .

And this at a site where guys want big black clouds behind them .

 

[Matt400]

And this at a site where guys want big black clouds behind them .

That is funny but not all of us want that.

Another devise that has emissions data is this one:



Waste Oil Heater Plans.



I think if you are burning oil and have no smoke out of the flue you are pretty much getting complete incineration of the oil so a clean flue would be the goal.

 

[JFaughn]

There are many gases that you can not see that will kill ya , & many that will cause serious health issues .
That link locks interesting , but the only gases it measures are Co2 .

 

[Matt400]

Its focus is on Co2 because that is what impacts the atmosphere in regards to green house gasses.



If you think there is the possibility you may inhale the heaters exhaust then I would highly recommend a Co "Carbon Monoxide" alarm to place near by, like this one:

First Alert - Carbon monoxide alarms

 

[daveshoe]

The Roger Sanders heater--with changes

I have been thinking about a simple waste oil heater for some time,but the Mother Earth types of which the Sanders design is an improved version had one drawback that causerd me great concern: if the heater is not constantly watched and it flames out, the fact that a gravity feed system would spill all that waste oil inside the heater or on the floor was just not acceptable to me.

I contacted one of the other vendors on the thread and asked him if he would sell me his metered oil pump. The advantage to this pump is a precise flow of oil that will remain constant in volume at nearly any viscosity ,and the ability to shut the pump off if the flame goes out. Honeywell sells a thermostat alarm that powers a 110 volt line that turns on a lamp or other appliance if the room temperature falls below the level that you set. I would attach the power from this line to the metering pump to shut down the oil feed in case of flame-out. The pump and shut down device are less than $200.

I intend to go ahead with the project. When I get it built,I will let you guys know how it goes.

 

[tgordon]

Dave you have a very good idea. My father tried heating his shop with a old used oil burning furnace, a lot like the barrel one mentioned in this thread. But when he bought it the pump was shot so he tried to use a gravity feed system. Needless to say it got very little use and ended up in the junk pile in favor of the old wood burner, why becouse it was impossible to get the flow set and keep it that way as the supply got lower in the resivour. Needless to say he has since gotten a commercial one used from a guy who did not want to deal with people bringing him ther oil anymore. The exhaust out the pipe has a slight blue hue to it like the exhaust from an engine burning oil, suprise suprise.

 

[JLEONARD]

My son has been heating his auto repair shop with a "Black Gold" waste oil heater for 5 years. The thing works awsum. Also burns transmission fluid, brake fluid, diff oil, just about anything. Come Feb he starts to scramble to get enough oil, but so far he has been ok.

 

[LMcCary]

JLEONARD

What or who is "Black Gold"?

 

[Matt400]

Name has changed, try here:

EnergyLogic Used Oil Heaters, Furnaces and Boilers. Recycle Your Waste Oil!

 

[JFaughn]

Thats the one I was going to by , but my shop was not generating enough to cover the use .

 

[cahammer]

has anyone tryed a kit from these folks Harold Electric Co. specializing in Ag & Mobile Products im am looking at getting a waist oil burner for my shop as well

 

[Matt400]

has anyone tryed a kit from these folks Harold Electric Co. specializing in Ag & Mobile Products

No experience on a kit however I can vouch for good performance on the oil feed pumps they sell.

 

[E7mack96]

At my shop, we use Clean Burn waste oil furnaces. I have had them for 4 years, and they have worked great. we have a class "a" stack on ours, vented thru the roof.



E7

 

[jandtjil]

Not portable, but definitely easy on the wallet are the army tent heaters with a fuel kit added.
We use it in elk camp and it is flawless.
Crack the valve and allow some fuel to seep into the pan, toss some paper or a few matches into the fuel (gas, waste oil, diesel, whatever!), let them soak a second or two, then just drop a lit match into the burn can and wait for the internal heat to really start cooking the fuel. I have no idea how many BTU, but they will glow orange hot Hah Very reliable.
Brand New Military stove, tent heater Fuel Burner Kit - (eBay item 290189275753 end time Jan-06-08 06:40:01 PST)