Waste oil heater for my garage.

[dngspot]

Yea, I could see how that could be a problem. I will have direct control of the oil that I use. If it has any water I will not use it.

 

[radioman]

ummm - call me an idiot or whatever , but how does water get into the oil ? If you are draining used oil that has water in it, wouldnt the car engine become toast in time ? And if you got water in the oil from being left outside and cap was off, wouldnt put the cap back on loose and leave it in the sun evaporate the water from oil? kinda like a solar still ?

 

[dngspot]

During servicing some techs spill some of the antifreeze in the oil pan.

Antifreeze does not evaporate like water would and oil on top of oil will not allow the water to evaporate like it would if it did not have oil on top of it.

Yes water and antifreeze plays havoc on rod and main bearings. It is simply not good for any part engine.

 

[atgreene]

From what I have read it is best to filter any oil anyway to lessen the issues with water/antifreeze. I'm toying with the best design to add a system to sit beside my wood furnace. It would give me the option of useing oil or wood or both, both with the same plenum and fan to move the heat around.

Good luck with it, I look forward to seeing the pics.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

ummm - call me an idiot or whatever , but how does water get into the oil ? If you are draining used oil that has water in it, wouldnt the car engine become toast in time ? And if you got water in the oil from being left outside and cap was off, wouldnt put the cap back on loose and leave it in the sun evaporate the water from oil? kinda like a solar still ?

Even a good engine will get some water in the oil even if only from condensation. That's one of the reasons to change the oil regularly even if you don't drive much. These guys either have toasted engines, like you said, or they just don't change their oil much.

I'm not sure the solar still idea would really work. The "evaporation" that we usually associate with a bucket of water left out in the sun is actually more of a dissipation. Distillation requires the different liquids to be heated to their boiling point and drawing off the vapor. You're not going to get the jug hot enough in the sun to boil off the water, and the water is probably not concentrated enough in the oil for dissipation to really have any noticable effect.

The best way to separate the oil from the water would be with an industrial centrifuge. Since few of us have an industrial centrifuge sitting in the back of our garage, the next best option would probably be a filter.

For those "in the know" will the water eventually settle out of the oil, or is it too "Homogenized"

 

[atgreene]

The other option is freezing the barrel of oil, draw off the oil and leave the ice behind. Done it a few times with polluted fuel and hydro oil cans. Not ideal, but crude and effective.

 

[LetsRoll]

Raw Power, WVO Centrifuge, Complete | WVO Designs

Below are two youtube video's of centrifuge's. The one on the right is homemade from wood. That includes the bowl.

 

[alltoys]

LetsRol,

You could use that type of filter for your oil burner project.

 

[dngspot]

Letsroll I am curious, how is your burner doing?

 

[LetsRoll]

LetsRol,

You could use that type of filter for your oil burner project.

Yes, I could if I had allot of nasty oil. I do have some watered down oil but not enough to warrant a centrifuge. I do have a filter on my holding tank for the stove. It separates the water from the oil and also filters trash in the oil. I drain the filter about once a week or when I can see the water in the bottom of the drain bowl (water is heavier than oil, so it sinks to the bottom). Also, my burner will burn hot enough that a small amount of water will not decrease it's performance. My Infrared Thermometer only read temp's up to [FONT=arial, sans-serif]968 degree[/FONT] [FONT=arial, sans-serif]Fahrenheit. I borrowed a friends IR Thermometer that reads up to [/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif]almost 2400 degree Fahrenheit and used it to test a hot burn. After three hours of running, I had the outside [/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif]burner[/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif] skin temp's (not the stove's outside temp's but the burner skin temp's) up to 1800[/FONT][FONT=arial, sans-serif] degree Fahrenheit. I could verily see the flame through the metal of the burner (pretty cool looking at the time). That was the only time I pushed the burner to see how hot it would get. I will never do that again because things start to change in the metal properties. I'm still dealing with carbon coming from the burner skin metal.

As a side note from what I learnt from several hours of testing. A very small amount of water will cause the flame in the burner to burn hotter. When the water gets a few inch's from entering the burner. The water will vaporize and the extra oxygen entering the burner will cause the flame to get hotter. (This will only work on stove's that atomize the oil-atomizing the oil musters allot of heat. Mother Earth News ~MEN~ stove method using the drip method will not work- too low burn temp's.)
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