Waste Oil Heater Forum - Your definitive source for burning waste oil for heat.

Good to see the progress.  Interesting tank, but I guess it does the job 

Are you burning fuel oil for now?

You are correct, the most reliable system is a siphon system.  But that requires a few key items.  Compressed air and a constant leveling tank for starters.  This was a little more elaborate than I wanted as well, so I just added a block heater to mine and left it a pressure system.  If you havent seen it, here is a link:
http://wasteoilheaterforum.com/index.php?topic=36.0

The most difficult part with my system is getting it lit.  I have to turn up the heat quite a bit on the pre-heater and sometimes take a few tries to get it going.  It will start then slowly go out.  I think the block doesnt heat it up quick enough and the thick oil wont mist out the tip well enough.  After it is running and things warm up, then it is good to go.  I warm it up good in the garage, then shut it off.

If it were cycling on and off without me being there, it certainly wouldnt work.

Keep us updated on how it is working.

Stay warm!

Backwoods is correct on finding the smaller outfits.  I know an owner/operator of a semi and the guy does his oil changes himself.  With collecting over the summer, I have more than I can burn from this one person.  Now I dont run my heater continuously, so you might burn more than I do, but I am sure if you check around you can find as much as you need.

I transport all of mine in 2.5 gallon jugs.  I have a rotation of about 20 of them that seems to work pretty well.

Good luck in your search.

Greetings Buckrabbit! 

Glad to see people from other countries visiting the site.

I would think a scaled down version would be fine, the only thing I would be worried about is keeping things large enough to handle the heat.  The fire needs to be good and hot in order to keep the oil burning clean, and you will want to be sure you have enough area to dissipate the heat and not have a melt down.  For example, making one out of a soup can probably wouldn't be a good idea 

Other than that I cant think of anything else that may cause a problem, although I dont really have any experience with drip systems.  Thoughts from anyone else?

Good luck with your project!

Yes, the yahoo group altfuelfurnace is a nice resource that seems pretty active.  I was hoping some of the folks on that forum would venture over here as the yahoo layout is sort of confusing.  It's certainly worth checking out though.

Yea, I think that setup is going to work just fine for you.  Looks like all the parts are there in one package.

Hope all goes well putting it all together.  Have fun and dont burn anything you didnt intend to!

Welcome Revolution!

You can go either way with your controller.  If you get one with SSR output, you will need to purchase a SSR seperately.  If you get one with the relay built in, then you dont need to purchase one seperately.  Just keep in mind the load and make sure the built in relay can handle it.  If it cant, then you may have to go external. 

I think this is the one I went with:
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1&zenid=1cc141a6272fc835ef0068c3e18696ed

It is rated at 10A at 120V, which, if my calculations are correct, shoud be 1100W.  As long as you are under that wattage for the heater you should be fine.

Hope that helps.

Welcome!  Glad you stopped by.

Shoot some pictures of your heater and show us what you are working with if you get a chance.

Have fun and dont burn anything you didnt mean to!