rainwater in oil tank

sligoface

I got a delivery of kerosene today and when I went out the back with the delivery guy I noticed the cap was off the tank. I probably left it off a couple of days ago when I used a stick to check the level (yes I'm an idiot). We've had some heavy rain the last two days and so obviously some water got in the tank. I asked the delivery man, he said it would probably be all right, pretty sure he just didn't want to bother with it as it was raining heavily at the time as well and he probably wanted to just get the job done and get back in the truck.

The heating is working fine so far. I've read on another thread that the water floats and so as long as the tank is not getting close to being empty that the water won't get into the pipe connected to the boiler (the pipe is near the bottom) but if it did get into that pipe it would be a problem. Can anyone confirm this as I'm quite worried? I don't want to cause any damage or be left without heating.

If it's a case of just making sure the level doesn't get down to the pipe I'll just do that (while making sure to put the cap back on of course) Still can't believe I did that.

corkgsxr

water sinks. if youv already been running it your prob fine. as long as the level of water doesnt reach the outlet itll be ok.

next time it runs really low you can tip the tank forward and drain off the water.

if its a old metal tank it probably has a drain point at the bottom. plastic dont though

fasttalkerchat

The water along with any gravel, leaves etc. will sit at the bottom below the outlet.

Roughly what diameter is the hole where the cap is?

sligoface

thanks corkgsxr, i just read a few more threads and yeah, seems I had it backwards, the water sinks and so the problem would be if it got into the pipe from the bottom. the pipe is all wrapped in duct tape and foam and I wouldn't know how to disconnect it to tip it out. hopefully it will be okay, if something goes wrong I'll just tell the landlord what happened and have it serviced by someone who knows what they are doing. just my luck i left it off during heavy rains.

sligoface

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

The water along with any gravel, leaves etc. will sit at the bottom below the outlet.

Roughly what diameter is the hole where the cap is?

Thanks fasttalker. It's about 3.5/4 inches wide. Not a very big hole but we had a quite a lot of rain here in Sligo lately and I think it was off for like 3-4 days :eek:

fasttalkerchat

sligoface wrote: »

Thanks fasttalker. It's about 3.5/4 inches wide. Not a very big hole but we had a quite a lot of rain here in Sligo lately and I think it was off for like 3-4 days :eek:

I am totally open to correction here but here's my figures:
Rainfall into a 4 inch wide bucket would be 3 inches deep after a month. For a rainy 4 days that's an inch at very most.
Now spread that across the whole bottom of the tank and you're looking at a few mm of water at the bottom of the tank, below the inlet.

sligoface

thanks a million fasttalker, i'm hoping you're right as it puts my mind at ease quite a bit.