waste oil heater

cj7 · Sep 30, 2005

I was wondering if anyone has ever made thier own waste oil heater. I have seen a write-up from the Mother Earth News. Seems like a pretty good design. Anyone have any other info or designs on making one? Experiences? Or even have a source for an inexpensive unit that can be purchased?

MikeD74T · Oct 1, 2005

I read a post from a chemical engineer a while back (on another diesel site) that said the chemistry of motor oil has changed enough since the Mother Earth heater was designed that it will no longer work well. Apparently todays oil is more heat resistant. I had downloaded the plans & was collecting materials. The project slid down on my priority list and got lost.

rswyan · Oct 1, 2005

Last year I hadn't gotten around to laying in an adequate wood supply for the shed but I did have a fairly significant quantity of waste oil ..... so I drilled a hole in the top of the wood furnace up in the shed and ran a piece of 5/16 steel tube down through the top at an angle. Threw an old pie pan inside and ran a hose from the steel tube back to an old coffee can that I had stuck a valve in the bottom of and suspended from the ceiling. This was my first oil-burner experience.

It worked out pretty well - I was able to keep the shop fairly warm while I was up there working. A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. You really don't want any water whatsoever in your oil ... for a couple of reasons. First it tends to gum up the valve and the oil feed will become inconsistent and plug up. Second, when a drop of water does make it through the valve and down the feed tube to the hot pan where the oil is burning it tends to EXPLODE (....... don't ask me how I know this) I now totally understand why one would NOT want to throw water on a grease fire. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

2. It is stinky and messy.

If you go over to the Hobart Welders Forum you can find a number of posts regarding oil burners that members have built.

rswyan · Oct 1, 2005

( I read a post from a chemical engineer a while back (on another diesel site) that said the chemistry of motor oil has changed enough since the Mother Earth heater was designed that it will no longer work well. )

I don't doubt that you read this or the chem eng stated it - but based on my experience last winter burning waste oil (combination of crankcase, tranny fluid, hydraulic fluid, diesel, and kerosene) I'm not buying .... I found the heavy stuff (crankcase) burned really, really well. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I found it rather amazing, the amount of energy stored in that black goo.

My guess is that any push not to burn waste oil might have to do with environmental aspects, ie. air pollution.

rambler · Oct 1, 2005

I read that on the other site too. Was not an enviro person who said that. I think it was not to say don't burn waste oil, but that some of the finer points of it are changing with _straight_ motor oil. If you mix diesel in, as well as other oils, should be good to go.

--->Paul

ns_in_tex · Oct 1, 2005

I read somewhere that Wal-Mart is putting in two stores that will be using used motor oil & cooking oil to heat the stores.

have_blue · Oct 1, 2005

( I read that on the other site too. Was not an enviro person who said that. I think it was not to say don't burn waste oil, but that some of the finer points of it are changing with _straight_ motor oil. If you mix diesel in, as well as other oils, should be good to go.

--->Paul )

Seems like some kind of catalytic converter could remove the soot and maybe some of that horrendous stink.

MF1455v · Oct 1, 2005

Neal, the first of those Wal-Marts is in McKinney Tx. Lots for energy saving stuff in that store. Here is a link to a post I made about the store. We are in there about once a week. Very interesting store.

James

CTyler · Oct 2, 2005

( I read a post from a chemical engineer a while back (on another diesel site) that said the chemistry of motor oil has changed enough since the Mother Earth heater was designed that it will no longer work well. Apparently todays oil is more heat resistant. I had downloaded the plans & was collecting materials. The project slid down on my priority list and got lost. )

The ME heater works just fine, there are some better burner designs though.

To start my wood stove, a double barrel unit, I save my blue shop rags and pour used oil over them. With them sitting close to the air intake they blast like a forced air unit with plenty of noise to go with it. They burn like crazy for several minutes and doesn't smoke after the first 10-20 seconds.

Todays used oil will burn like crazy.

CTyler · Oct 2, 2005

To answer your question, my step son recently made one for his 4 car garage. Gets things very warm fast.

I think he is working in building another one with a injector unit that can be controlled better.