Oil & Fuel What to do with 500 Gal of heating oil

[thatguy]

IF you want to pump it out, you can also set the inlet hose so it is a couple inches off the bottomof the tank.. Assuming you havent disturbed the tank, the water/sediment will still be at the bottom.. Suck off everything but the last couple inches and you should be good to go..

If it was me I would try to either move the tank to make it easier to fill the tractor - buy another tank (if you are worried about the tank rupturing or unable to move it) and possibly negotiate the oil company pump over the oil to the new tank for buying the tank from them..

1200 gallons is ALOT of fuel for one person to use - depending on equipment that could be 1200 HOURS worth of fuel.. Maybe sell part of it off to pay for a smaller/more managable tank.. If you decide to keep that much fuel I would check with a fuel oil distributor about any additived needed to keep algea out of it..

Around here heating oil is the same as low sulphur diesel (500 ppm sulphur, not the same as ultra low sulphur(15 ppm) now required for most newer trucks) - But it could also be the high sulphur diesel (5000 ppm) depending on your area..

good luck.. Worse case scenerio - tell us where you live - someone close by will come by and help you get rid of it for you LOL

Brian

 

[LBrown59]

If you don't use enough of it each week, maybe you could offer to let another tractor buddy to help you use it up!!!
David from jax

He could also put an add in the paper:
Diesel fuel or home heating oil $4.00 per gallon.
It ought to sell like hot cakes considering what it sells for in todays market.

 

[LBrown59]

Agree that the price is right. My usage is quite low though.
1* I think I average one to two gallons a week. Meaning it will last me five years to go through it!
2* Wonder if the fuel can be preserved for that long.

1*I run diesel alias home heating oil/fue oil and estimate I will go through a 55 gallon drum in about a year.
No more than It cost me to set up my out-fit it was well worth it for a 1 or 2 gallon per week usage.
I would do it all over again just to get away from foolin and fiddlin with 5 gallon cans even it there were no other benefits.
2*The guy that delivered me 60 gallon said it should be good for at least a year.
He also told me a couple or so of his customer have keep fuel for 2 or 3 years and it's still good today.

My pump and tank//drum are all inside a building = out of site * out of mind.

 

[amirm]

If it was me I would try to either move the tank to make it easier to fill the tractor - buy another tank (if you are worried about the tank rupturing or unable to move it) and possibly negotiate the oil company pump over the oil to the new tank for buying the tank from them..

That is a great idea Brian! The tractor is way up the hill and far away from the burried current tank. Like others have said, fooling with the gas containers is a pain in the neck. I could get a small, say, 50-100 Gal tank, have them fill that after they empty the main tank and give me the difference. Then set that one to be filled once in a while and I don't waste money going getting new gas for the tractor! And they would take care of transporting the fuel up the hill, not me.

Will report what I wind up doing.

1200 gallons is ALOT of fuel for one person to use - depending on equipment that could be 1200 HOURS worth of fuel.. Maybe sell part of it off to pay for a smaller/more managable tank..

Yes, I will have to see if someone else wants it although then I have to deal with them figuring out how to pull some of it out and spilling it in front of the house. So I am hoping the oil company can do this even if it means losing a little money in the transaction as opposed to selling it retail.

If you decide to keep that much fuel I would check with a fuel oil distributor about any additived needed to keep algea out of it..

I am familiar with how to preserve it for 1-2 years from my experience in maintaining large fuel tanks for Diesel boat engine I used to have. I just don't know how to stretch it way past that. But with your idea of selling enough so that I only have 1-2 year's of supply, then I am good to go.

good luck.. Worse case scenerio - tell us where you live - someone close by will come by and help you get rid of it for you LOL

Brian

Not sure about the forum rules about selling things but assuming everything else fails, those of you near the southern area of Puget Sound (Seattle area), be on the look out for posts from me!

 

[amirm]

My pump and tank//drum are all inside a building = out of site * out of mind.

You know, that is another good idea I did not think of! The only hitch is if I wanted it filled by the oil company, then I would have to figure out how to give them access....

 

[LBrown59]

You could look for a 500 gal tank with a dyke and transfer it to use for your 'Bota. It's not gonna get any cheaper. Or, if you don't pay the bill, I'm sure the oil company will come up with some suggestions. Were you on automatic fill? If not, I certanly wouldn't pay for it. There's a couple companies in our area filling tanks at the "summer price " without asking. 3* I think I may lock my fill cap and make them quote me a price before they deliver.

3*Mine is behind locked doors so this couldn't happen to me.
Gets pretty bad when you hafta lock it up from those wanting to take it out and them who want to put it in.

 

[LBrown59]

My fuel supplier is advertising HHO at $4.60 a gallon [gasp].
I'd say if you paid $1200 for a fill
*you made yourself a bunch of money no matter how you have to get it out of the tank!

* That he did.
Some people can't see a blessing because they think it's a curse.

 

[LBrown59]

1*Isn't heating oil just another name for diesel fuel, but without the road tax added?
2*I've heard that some people run it in there tractors,
3* even though it's illegal to do so because it's sold as oil and not fuel.
4*I'd buy a cheap electric fuel pump and some containers. You can put an inline filter on the pump without any trouble, and store it for your tractor.
5*That much fuel should last a very long time, so you might want to add a stablizer or fuel additive to keep it fresh.
Eddie

1*Yes it and off road diesel is the same thing here.
2*Everybody runs it in their tractors; but some pay tax on it and others don't.
3*It's legal to run either in a tractor
It's not illegal unless you run it on the high way in a licensed vehicle.
4*That's what I'd do.
5*He could also put an add in the paper to sell some of it for $4.00 a gallon.
I'd keep somewhere around 100 gallons or so for the BX24.
No sense in paying $ 4.70 a gallon for $2.40 a gallon diesel.
It ought to sell like hot cakes at that price considering the price of diesel today.

 

[LBrown59]

^^^^ What Eddie said.
1* I'd find a way to use it in my tractor.
2* For all intents and purposes.......
3* its no different than off road diesel.

1*Like get a 12 volt pump and pump it right out of the tank into the tractor.
Stick one end of the hose in the tank and the other end in the tractor clip the pump wires to the tractor battery post turn on the pump switch and fill er up.
No permanent set up here as it's all portable.
2*
3* same stuff.

 

[LBrown59]

1* We are remodeling the house and decided to pull out the oil burner and replace it with a heat pump.
2*I have a BX-24 which I keep at our vacation house/farmland.

1*How long had you been using the oil burner?
2*Where have you been getting the fuel for your BX24?

 

[LBrown59]

It is kind of hard to describe. But the house is at the bottom of the hill. Then there is the entry/driveway and right after that (10-12 feet) is the landscaped hill and right there is the tank. There is no way I can get away with putting anything permanent there.
**********

*******
What I don't understand here is why the tank setting there to fuel your tractor
would look any worse than it has looked setting there for years supplying fuel
to the oil burner in the house.

 

[amirm]

1*How long had you been using the oil burner?

Not long at all. We bought the house last fall. Got the first heating bill and our eyeballs popped out! Then we realized it would cost a fortune to extend hyrant heating to the basement we were remodelling. And that pushed us into heat pump. But by then, they had filled the thing once more.

2*Where have you been getting the fuel for your BX24?

Yellow cans filled at gas station. I have only filled it three times though since I got the tractor and the house last year. The little machine gets pretty good "gas mileage" it seems!

 

[amirm]

*******
What I don't understand here is why the tank setting there to fuel your tractor would look any worse than it has looked setting there for years supplying fuel to the oil burner in the house.

For the house, the consumption is far, far higher. We would go through the tank in 3-4 months at the rate it was going. As I mentioned, for my tractor, that would extent to 5+ years.

Even with this, when I called the heating oil company, they severely warned me to not let the tank drop below 20% as that would suck in a ton of unwanted stuff.

To be honest, as I mentioned before, my experience with Diesel is limited to turbo-charged boat engines which need pretty clean diesel. Not sure if the BX is much more tolerant of moisture and sludge.

 

[California]

I would put an ad on Craigslist. Something like $4/gallon for the first 80%. Then later advertise $2/gallon for the dregs. It should all be gone in a couple of weekends.

Anybody smart enough to brew biodiesel will figure out how to filter that final gunk.

(But first transfer a couple years supply to a barrel for your BX, siphoned off the top of that tank. Run it through some kind of fuel filter as you transfer it.)

 

[LBrown59]

Agree that the price is right. My usage is quite low though. I think I average one to two gallons a week. * Meaning it will last me five years to go through it! Wonder if the fuel can be preserved for that long.


Yes we were. And I told my wife to call them and say not to fill it. She forgot and they filled the thing a week later .

Let others help you use it up.
Charge them a 4 dollar a gallon participation fee.

 

[LBrown59]

Add 10 % cooking oil with the diesal for lubrication

Why
?

 

[LBrown59]

1* I could get a small, say, 50-100 Gal tank, have them fill that after they empty the main tank and give me the difference.
2*Then set that one to be filled once in a while and I don't waste money going getting new gas for the tractor!

1*For storing only 100 gallon or less I would not spend hundreds for a tank.
You can store 165 gallon in drums for 30 to 45 dollars.
2* How would you get the fuel out of a 50 to 100 gallon tank into the tractor?
This is why you need to get the pump and filter like I suggested earlier.

 

[LBrown59]

You know, that is another good idea I did not think of! The only hitch is if I wanted it filled by the oil company, then I would have to figure out how to give them access....

You could leave it unlocked on the expected delivery day.
Schedule the delivery day and time for when you can be there.
Give the delivery driver a key.
Put a key where only you and the driver know about.

 

[LBrown59]

Not long at all. We bought the house last fall. Got the first heating bill and our eyeballs popped out! Then we realized it would cost a fortune to extend hyrant heating to the basement we were remodelling. And that pushed us into heat pump. But by then, they had filled the thing once more.
Yellow cans filled at gas station. I have only filled it three times though since I got the tractor and the house last year. *The little machine gets pretty good "gas mileage" it seems!

*True but you could have filled the tractor with the same fuel out of the 500 gallon tank you have at the house.
You were buying fuel when you already had fuel bought and paid for.
What I'm still having trouble understanding is why was the 500 gallon tank acceptable for heating the house but now it's not good enough to supply fuel for the BX24?
I'm just not grasping how what the fuel is used in affects the accep-tance /rejection of the tank
?

 

[LBrown59]

1* the heating oil company severely warned me to not let the tank drop below 20% as that would suck in a ton of unwanted stuff.
2*Not sure if the BX is much more tolerant of moisture and sludge.

1*To sell you 500 gallon of fuel and turn rite around and tell you that only 100 gallon of it was fit to use
Something very wrong with that picture.
2*That's what a water blocker filter is for it will take care of problems with moisture and sludge if there is any.