Thursday, January 7, 2010

Can small amounts of used motor oil be burned in a household funace?

I change my oil about as often as I fill my 250 gallon heating oil tank. If I pour say 5 quarts of 10w40 in the 250 gallon tank, will it damage the furnace.Can small amounts of used motor oil be burned in a household funace?
Probably not, but I would not try it. It is better for the environment if you take it to a recycling place.Can small amounts of used motor oil be burned in a household funace?
Your home furnace CAN be converted to burn used motor oil. A friend of mine who ran a repair shop in upstate NY did just that; HOWEVER motor oil is heavier and it requires burner modifications to work right. You should contact some local heating system professionals and ask them about it.
I don't have much experience with home heating with oil but I do know that waste oil burners are very, very dirty. I don't think I would take the chance of clogging up my home furnace with nasty waste oil. There are a lot of contaminants in used oil. If you have an Autozone or similiar parts store, you can recycle your waste oil there. they'll take up to 5 gals per visit.
Without proper modifications, it will absolutely it will hurt your furnace.





I've been to school for this and the references are from the text book .





The problem is that oil needs to be atomized to burn properly. To achieve this oil is forced into a nozel that forces the oil to spray in a fine mist into the combustion chamber where it will burn.(1)





Any fine pieces of metal left in the used oil will lodge in the nozel and ruin it. Your standard furnace oil filter is not designed to handle the conditions of waste oil.





';Flame failure is one of the most common causes of a furnace explosion.';(2)





It could be setup by a professional or you could really filter the oil good but the cost to savings ratio is low and the chance of problems is high.
I'm no expert on this, but with that caveat in mind, to the best of my knowledge, what you will wind up doing is ruining your furnace. I believe heating oil is basically much the same as diesel fuel or kerosene.


Even clean motor oil is probably too thick to use. Dirty motor oil would probably gum up the jets in the furnace.


I don't think I'd take the chance in order to save a few bucks that could cost you hundreds in the long run.
i would not try it.. just recycle the motor oil...
first of all I'm am no expert about anything. That being said the garage were I work has an oil furnace as well and they usually burn the oil from the trucks when they change the oil they put it right in with the other oil. Just make sure there is nothing else in the oil. No water or any other fluids.

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