Oil in kerosene boiler

ratsam · 30-01-2015 6:29pm #1

Hi

A friend works works in the oil recycling business and has offered me home heating oil for a cheap price. Thing is I currently use kerosene..? My boiler is about 15 years old and is not the condenser type. Can I use it and if so could it damage my boiler..? Also I still have kerosene in my tank. Can they be mixed...????

Thanks

Rats

Wearb · 30-01-2015 6:35pm

I would ask my regular service person. It would mean extra work for him and extra charges for you. btw diesel can not be burned on a low level flue. To be honest, this sort of thing is only suitable for service guys own boilers, who know what to do and the chance they are taking.

Same question was asked here recently.

ratsam · 30-01-2015 6:36pm

Thanks for the reply. I'll give my service fella a shout!

DGOBS · 30-01-2015 8:09pm

There is no such thing as cheap fuel.

Expect soot ups, increase risk of carbon monoxide, also you don't know what contaminants are in the fuel, how it boiler set up need to be done etc, and expect fuel quality to vary. Worst case you could distort your appliance, or worse, kill someone with CO.

Recycled oil? whats in it? where'd it come from?

Would you put fuel that you didn't know or trust the source into your car?

cletus · 30-01-2015 9:39pm

Out of curiosity, could I put say 5 litres of used car oil into 300 litres of kerosene in the tank for my central heating.

I service my own car, and it would be a handy way to dispose of it, if it didn't cause issues with the boiler.

Billy Bunting · 30-01-2015 10:00pm

if you want your collar felt!

cletus · 30-01-2015 10:01pm

Billy Bunting wrote: »

if you want your collar felt!

Hypothetically speaking then

Billy Bunting · 30-01-2015 10:33pm

cletus wrote: »

Hypothetically speaking then

It can burn so yes, but used engine oil contains quite a bit of water that would harm a domestic burner, even used oil that is burnt in commercial boilers is processed and cleaned to some degree first, I quite honestly wouldn't wnt to be anywhere near your place if you decided, hypothetically!, to burn old oil.

cletus · 30-01-2015 10:41pm

Billy Bunting wrote: »

It can burn so yes, but used engine oil contains quite a bit of water that would harm a domestic burner, even used oil that is burnt in commercial boilers is processed and cleaned to some degree first, I quite honestly wouldn't wnt to be anywhere near your place if you decided, hypothetically!, to burn old oil.

Fair enough.i knew it couldn't be burned on its own, but really I was wondering at concentrations of 1 to 2% in kerosene

Billy Bunting · 30-01-2015 10:49pm

cletus wrote: »

Fair enough.i knew it couldn't be burned on its own, but really I was wondering at concentrations of 1 to 2% in kerosene

Well, hypothetically, if I wanted to burn old oil then yes I could mix it with kero and away it goes. The difference between you and me is I have flue gas analysis gear that I could use to set it up to burn as clean as possible, you would be chucking out all sorts of pollutants, some cancer causing, would you really risk it ?

Dtp1979 · 30-01-2015 10:50pm

cletus wrote: »

Fair enough.i knew it couldn't be burned on its own, but really I was wondering at concentrations of 1 to 2% in kerosene

Why? You'd be messing up combustion on the boiler. You service your own car, I'm assuming you service your own boiler too?

meathstevie · 30-01-2015 10:56pm

cletus wrote: »

Out of curiosity, could I put say 5 litres of used car oil into 300 litres of kerosene in the tank for my central heating.

I service my own car, and it would be a handy way to dispose of it, if it didn't cause issues with the boiler.

I wouldn't, near guaranteed some very dirty deposits. The stuff is designed to stay liquid and able to lubricate an engine at temperatures of burning fuel oil.

ratsam · 30-01-2015 11:15pm

DGOBS wrote: »

There is no such thing as cheap fuel.

Expect soot ups, increase risk of carbon monoxide, also you don't know what contaminants are in the fuel, how it boiler set up need to be done etc, and expect fuel quality to vary. Worst case you could distort your appliance, or worse, kill someone with CO.

Recycled oil? whats in it? where'd it come from?

Would you put fuel that you didn't know or trust the source into your car?

Ok... I live in a detached house in the countryside with my boiler in the shed about 5m away from the house and 40m to the closest neighbour...! Regardless I aint going to be doing it. The oil is collected from business/industry that are moving/closed. Its unused clean oil but the risks of f**king up my boiler are too great! Thanks for the info.

Rats

cletus · 31-01-2015 12:56am

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Why? You'd be messing up combustion on the boiler. You service your own car, I'm assuming you service your own boiler too?

Nope, don't service my boiler. Simple question sparked by the op, asked on a forum where people with more knowledge of the topic than I post. If I were aware the ramifications, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.

Surely the idea of a forum like this is to share knowledge. If every answer is going to be either "Just call a professional" or "Are you some sort of moron" whats the point?

Dtp1979 · 31-01-2015 1:06am

cletus wrote: »

Nope, don't service my boiler. Simple question sparked by the op, asked on a forum where people with more knowledge of the topic than I post. If I were aware the ramifications, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.

Surely the idea of a forum like this is to share knowledge. If every answer is going to be either "Just call a professional" or "Are you some sort of moron" whats the point?

There's loads of advise given here. We as professionals have a duty of care not to give advise that could potentially harm the person or others. Leaky tap washers, bleeding oil lines, airlocks, heating not working... All fine.
Messing with combustion, creating high CO....not a chance

cletus · 31-01-2015 9:04am

Dtp1979 wrote: »

There's loads of advise given here. We as professionals have a duty of care not to give advise that could potentially harm the person or others. Leaky tap washers, bleeding oil lines, airlocks, heating not working... All fine.
Messing with combustion, creating high CO....not a chance

Grand, but advice re oil boilers etc is asked in the same vein as that about radiators and leading taps, what's w wrong and how do I fix it. For you r to answer my query with "why, you'd be messing up the combustion" suggests that I have this knowledge but I'm being a gob****e about it.

Along with that, the suggestion that I service my own car therefore I must be some sort of dangerous idiot is not particularly helpful.

Dtp1979 · 31-01-2015 9:45am

cletus wrote: »

Grand, but advice re oil boilers etc is asked in the same vein as that about radiators and leading taps, what's w wrong and how do I fix it. For you r to answer my query with "why, you'd be messing up the combustion" suggests that I have this knowledge but I'm being a gob****e about it.

Along with that, the suggestion that I service my own car therefore I must be some sort of dangerous idiot is not particularly helpful.

Fair enough my apologies. Add your oil when you achieve 0 on the smoke readings. Pump pressure between 7-8.5 bar I'd say. But only leave it burning if co is between 0 - 50 ppm and make sure your CO2 is around 11.2 - 11.7%. Needless to say, the ratio should always have 0001 to 0009. That's what I always aim for anyway.
This reading should be monitored daily too because you'd never know what's mixed up in the oil and it'd affect those readings

cletus · 31-01-2015 9:57am

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Fair enough my apologies. Add your oil when you achieve 0 on the smoke readings. Pump pressure between 7-8.5 bar I'd say. But only leave it burning if co is between 0 - 50 ppm and make sure your CO2 is around 11.2 - 11.7%. Needless to say, the ratio should always have 0001 to 0009. That's what I always aim for anyway.
This reading should be monitored daily too because you'd never know what's mixed up in the oil and it'd affect those readings

Thanks for that, looks like both capability and equipment required may be a step or two above what I can supply or do. Will continue to pour the old engine oil down the sink instead

Dtp1979 · 31-01-2015 10:01am

cletus wrote: »

Thanks for that, looks like both capability and equipment required may be a step or two above what I can supply or do. Will continue to pour the old engine oil down the sink instead

Do that. Any when you've a blocked trap, come back on here and we'll gladly tell you how to unblock it

Oil in kerosene boiler

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