I have a Reddy Heater 60,000 btu, and would like to try this, even if I have to mix it with another fuel. This unit will work with kerosene, #1, #2, Jet A, and a few others. We've been running it on gasoline/diesel mix that was drained from a car about a year ago, and it seems to do really well on that. It's only used in an open shop, just to take the edge off the cold.
wow, my eyes are burnig and watering allready.
if it will run on #2 (a.k.a. diesel)you can mix the used motor oil with some #1 (a.k.a. kerosene or filter it twice and it becomes jet fuel)
and it will be ok
just stay away from the gas, no matter what the ratio :nono:
are you trying to save $ or just get rid of the used oil?
Both, I'm just such a cheapskate, the gas/diesel was some we drained out of a vehicle, the customer had grabbed a diesel pump by mistake, and filled her tank. She didn't even make it out of the parking lot, and quickly figured it out. We didn't want to dump it into our waste oil tank, because when they go to pump it out, they check it for fuel and if there is too high a concentration, they refuse it. There was a slight gasoline smell to the mixture when we drained it, but not now, and we've burned all of it already anyway.
Every Waste Oil Heater that I've been around has had outside ducting, so I don't think this will work very well (unless you like wearing a Gas Mask and a Flak Jacket )-
You'll find that the WVO (waste vegetable oil) will clog your heater nozzles far more often than you care to replace/repair. But if you care to experiment, I would guess a kerosene blend would be the place to start. Use the thinnest fuel the heater will burn and start adding UWO a few percent at a time until you either clog it up or burn it up or until your too scared to up the blend any more.
Ultimately I would not advise it. I've not experimented with WVO for heating purposes, but I did run an old Mercedes on WVO for 5 years/130xxx miles (for a total of 300K) before one of the pistons burnt through. And I can tell you the oil has alot of solids in it, even if it's blended with other fuels and filtered to 1 micron. It tends to plasticise and leave a rubber glue like residue on things. Not very friendly with hot nozzles.
I would search some biodeisel sites if I were serious about WVO heaters...
I'm not talking about WVO, I'm talking about waste MOTOR oil, like from oil changes, and I can filter it again if need be. If this works out, we will never pay for oil disposal again, only for filters, both for disposal and filters for the oil.
is the cost of having the waste oil removed high enough to offset the difference in price between
using straight #2 and
using 2/3 #1 and 1/3 waste oil?
if it is i say go for it
you may be able to mix it even richer than that
i also think the extra filtering would help
How often do you really need a heater in that part of Florida? Good grief, how expensive vs safety can kerosene or diesel fuel get for the few times early in the morning that you would need a heater for more then an hour or two? I pulled two large travel trailer axles apart for storage last week in 30* weather - I dressed correctly and was not a bit cold.
No one here is even addressing the fact he is using GASOLINE in that thing! ain: NEVER, NEVER, EVER put gasoline at ANY ratio in a kerosene heater of ANY kind! That is about the dumbest thing anyone could do with a heater!
Didn't exactly miss it but using gasoline in a kerosene heater is so dangerous I thought surely everyone would be speaking out on that! Even if there is no fire from the heater itself the tank could easily explode and I know of exactly that happening some years ago in a guy's basement in Ky. This fellow had added a small amount of gasoline to his fuel in an attempt to reduce smoke and it had worked for several days before the tank caught fire and exploded.
Yikes! ain: I just went back and looked at those pics (didn't before because of my sloooooow dial-up connection) of the guy's shop, Did I say SHOP? That is not a shop, that's the city dump! That guy is a good example of someone who obviously would have little regard for safety and apparently sees no danger in anything he does, a good example of someone NOT to listen to. Don't people realize just how dangerous a heater can be? These things should not be modified and certainly should not be run on any kind of fuel they are not designed for, ESPECIALLY gasoline in any amount! These heaters if modified or mis-fueled can and do start fires, give off toxic fumes and almost every winter there are cases of carbon monoxide poisoning turning up in the news.
In addition to what OldRed said, if you look at the list of fuels allowed on one of those heaters you will notice that they all have flash points of 100 °F or higher. Gasoline has a flash point of less than -40 °F. A flash point is the the lowest temperature a fuel can vaporize enough to form a combustible mixture. If you look at a torpedo heater the vent cap, right next to the open flame, on the fuel tank just vents into the room. By putting gasoline in your heater you might as well use a match to check the level in your fuel tank, it is just as dangerous. I don't understand why someone would risk death or injury over $50 worth of fuel at most!
With the motor oil, there is a reason oil burners vent directly outside. Your shed is not very enclosed but if it is enclosed enough to keep any of the heat in for just a couple minutes, you will hold the exhaust fumes in also. Oil will not burn as completely as the other fuels. It just doesn't make sense to me to mess around with a huge flame that sits on top of a fuel tank. Stick with the manufactures instructions, the savings are not worth the risk.
Guys, the amount of gasoline in the diesel was minimal to begin with, and by the time I used it, you couldn't even smell any gasoline in it at all. I'm not some kind of dummy, nor do I have a death wish, but I do have a habit of making things work that most people will swear would never work. That may not be the case here though... :drunk:
ANY amount of gasoline in the fuel is dangerous since it is the gasoline vapor that is the hazard, it is well known that a person is not supposed to store kerosene a container that has had gasoline in it since even a few drops of leftover gas can be dangerous. Believe it or not even a FEW DROPS is dangerous. That guy in Kentucky I mentioned earlier said later that he only used a few cap-fuls of gas added to his kerosene, I assume he was referring to the cap on his gas can but in any case it was only a very small amount. It worked fine for him for a few days until without explanation or warning it caught fire and exploded. Fortunately the tank was nearly empty (a contributing factor maybe?) and he was in town near the fire station so his home was not a total loss even though it suffered substantial damage. What this guy did became a popular subject at our mine safety meetings for years afterward. Don't kid yourself if you have any amount of that gasoline contaminated fuel left do yourself a favor, drain and flush that tank before using it again!
I have one of those heaters that look like what has been posted, but mine runs only on propane. I use it occasionally when it's too cold in the garage, but I am always leery of it none the less.
Vince
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