THSCC Forums

Wondering if anyone has ever looked into / made / bought / converted a waste oil heater for use in a garage.

I change a lot of oil. Every time I take a few gallons back to autozone for recycling I wonder about this...

Here's a VERY nice but VERY expensive example of the kind of furnace I'm thinking about:

http://www.shop.com/op/aprod-~-p8067080?sourceid=3

Any idea if any other type of heater could be converted to run on motor oil? I have seen some of the plans to build one McGuyver-style out of stuff you'd find in the garbage, but I'd rather buy something!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Mike,

I've been looking around, and checking into this for a while. Most of the DIY type heaters seem to be incredible rigjobs- and it seems to me that they would take ALOT of regular fiddling/maintenance to keep them working right, if at all. I seem to remember some of the "how-to" articles talking about how you have to bundle up some oil-soaked newspapers, then throw them into the cast iron skillet that's in the bottom of an old, gutted water heater. Then you have to adjust the trickle of used oil so it doesn't smoke too much, blah, blah, blah.......


I know those of you who know me will wonder who has hacked into my THSCC account, but I think the best bet is to bite the bullet and buy a purpose-built quality unit. If you plan to use a forced-air heater to heat your shop/garage, I don't think it would take very long for a waste oil heater to pay for itself VS. a fuel oil or propane/natural gas heater.
(OHHH, sounds like a spreadsheet with graphs is in order!!!)


One thing to keep in mind is that waste oil heaters, for the most part, don't seem to like synthetic oil.....I think you can probably mix it in with large quantities of dino oil without any problem- but if you use alot of sythetic, you will probably want to store it separately and recycle it.


Bret.

Anybody know what the BTU's are for a quart of oil? Anybody know what the maximum possible efficiency might be for a used oil heat source? With those two facts you would be able to estimate the best case running time per quart of used oil for a heater with a given BTU/hr output and likely duty cycle in the Garage Mahal. Then, if the numbers look "good", you can address the cost/benefit payoff, etc. for a real world heater.

Dick

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

The Eliminator claims 12,000 btu (is that per hour?) and 0.8 quart per hour consumption. That means I have enough waste oil stored in the garage for 40 hours of cinge-your-fingers garage heating Bummer that most of it is synthetic. (Thanks for the info Bret)

For back-of-the-envelope calculation purposes, though, I just figured that a gallon of HC is a gallon of HC, and I'm probably paying at most about $3/gallon of propane. And since I only need about 20 hours of heating a week * 12 weeks, my payback is only like $100/season. So the $2k unit would take 20 years. So I thought I'd set my budget at more like $500, which is all I can afford anyways

Sounds like I need to go design something and go into the business!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Mike,

When doing your design, don't neglect all the "stuff" that is in both new and used oil that might be an air pollutant/health hazard and may need to be eliminated from the exhaust "smoke".

Then be sure to budget for safety certification so that you can actually market the product.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

I'll just market it as "decorative" with some paper towels stuffed in the flue.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

By burning used motor oil you are a hazardous waste incinerator. At some level of consumption you are required to have a bag house filter to recover any particulate mater released from the burn and continous CO and Oxygen monitors on your stack. The standard applicable is under 100 ppm CO corrected to 3% Oxygen. I used to do annual certifications on several systems run by Solite corporation.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

i'm glad we haven't signed the paper work on that new homeowners policy Yet!!

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Mike,

See Corner Carvers thread: http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25105

We use one to heat our repair shop. We've had it about 15 yrs, and have been happy with the unit. I'm pretty sure it's a 180K btu Lenan. This past winter we did the first major maintenance it's required, replace the burner unit.

Major pro: Almost free heat, and plenty of it, IF you have a good source of used oil.

Minor cons: Doesn't like changes in the viscosity or temp of the feed oil. A change in either usually requires fine tuning the air volume and pressure to match the oil. The newer ones may be better in this respect, since we haven't had as much trouble with the new burner.

Doesn't like synthetic oils, since they have a different flash point than dino.

Doesn't like 90W gear oil unless you mix in some diesel to thin it down.

Most of our waste oil is 15-40 engine oil or 10w hydraulic, and it burns those without a hitch. We heat a 5K sf shop, and it keeps it 65 deg no problem. The heating season here is roughly Oct. thru March. During that time it will consume 1200-1500 gallons of waste oil, so you need a fairly substantial supply of oil. Other than the burner replacement, maintenance has been a yearly cleaning of the burner and nozzles, and fine tuning the air supply to match the oil being used. Be sure to place your used oil storage tank inside, since the temp changes if the oil is coming from outside storage really screw with the air requirements.

Overall it's been a real money saver and I'm pleased with it. A huge bonus is that the EPA considers a waste oil heater an acceptable method of waste oil disposal, and I don't have to pay a recycler to haul off my waste oil.

John
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73 240Z w/355 chevy

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Well since 90% of what I change is synthetic, I think I'm going to punt.

Maybe I should consider a wood-burning pot-belly stove instead Lots of trees out on my lot that will be coming down when the pool goes in.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Mike,

Re: Wood Stove. Been there done that in our house. Better like the smell of smoke on your clothes.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

My parents have one in their basement, and it's never been smoky if the fire is made right.

Don't forget I'm talking about something for the garage. A little smoke ain't a big deal, and it's probably better than the direct-hear propane tube I'm using now...

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Mike, on the wood side remember that buring pine in a stove can be bad (not sure what kind of trees you have, but it was worth mentioning).

That said, if you keep your eyes open and are willing to cut and split yourself, you can just about always find free wood (stuff already cut down, but needing to be cut up and split). Sometimes you can find cut and split wood free, but that's far more rare. You can usually find it cheap enough that it may not be worth your time to mess with even the free stuff that you have to cut and split yourself.

I'd have to check, but I may have a stove that would suit you that I would be wiling to get rid of cheap.


--Donnie

Here is one outfit selling furnaces, boilers, and recycling tanks.

http://www.cleanburn.com

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.