Soaking firewood in old used motor oil?

[volks-man]

local guy with a small mechanic shop out back burns his waste oil.
he burns a wood fire and uses a copper tube inserted through the side of his stove to DRIP waste oil on the fire as the wood burns.
if you let it pour in you'd have a toxic, smelly, oil cloud.

waste oil burns clean if atomized, or just in small amounts relative to the heat present.

matter of fact, i burn my oiliest shop rags in my shop stove when they are used up. tossed on top of a hot fire they burn nicely with little to no smell outside.

 

[SkyP]

We use the old motor oil to control weeds in the garden. I have been low on wood but our neighbor has a big pile of tires behind his trailer (He is a scraper). I have been cutting those and mixing them with the osb we have been burning in our camper. I am just glad we got the roof tared before the snow hit. Now I just need to do something about the hole our septic drains in to, it keeps freezing. I wonder if I put diesel fuel in it if it would stay unthawed? What do yuo guys think?

One question- do you find synthetic used oil grows better 'maters?

 

[Cedarkerf]

Theres a reason for the "Darwin awards"

 

[ropensaddle]

I use it to get brush burning along with a few tires

 

[anymanusa]

youre ruining our state and adding to its already horrible reputation of a polluted #### hole...
i hope you are joking

Theres a reason for the "Darwin awards"

Dumb posts are dumb.
E- how.com says 75% of used oil gets burned to fuel industry. Who's worried about the environment now?

So burning oil = darwin awards now does it?

 

[Cedarkerf]

Dumb posts are dumb.
E- how.com says 75% of used oil gets burned to fuel industry. Who's worried about the environment now?

So burning oil = darwin awards now does it?

I would bet that its burned in high effeciency burner system not soaked in wood.

 

[anymanusa]

I would bet that its burned in high effeciency burner system not soaked in wood.

Yeah, 'cause highly efficient is the cheapest/easiest way to do things, right?

 

[Whitespider]

Seems to be a ton of misconception and misinformation about burning used oil.

Yes, I often soak my wood in toxic waste. My neighbors really enjoy the thick black smoke that billows from my chimney...

I've burned used oil in the barrel stove out in the garage (by drip method and oil soaked wood) and I've never witnessed thick black smoke... ever.

A waste oil burner is designed to burn waste oil, cleanly and efficiently (it has to be) - A wood stove is not.

That's BS, all that is required for clean burning is enough heat. If your stove is hot enough to ignite the smoke and gasses used oil will burn just as clean as wood.

I can only imagine the smell, let alone the amount of crap that you'll get in your flue...and it seems to me that it would make more of a mess than its worth.

There ain't no smell, and the flue stays clean... used oil won't smolder like wood, it burns hot is near totally consumed as long as there's a flue damper or some sort of gas ignition chamber.

when you burn waste oil your useing atomatiztion and presure to mix air and oil to burn it cleaner

Say what? I know of, and have witnessed the use of at least a dozen waste-oil stoves and I've never seen any "atomization" or "pressure", they simply drip oil into the fire. There's only two types I've seen, and all but one were home-made.

One type drips the oil onto a burner plate affair that uses an internal exhaust hood like thing with a chamber where the smoke and gasses ignite. A friend of mine has one he built sitting in his auto repair shop, in town right across from the Court House... it runs all winter long and there ain't ever been "thick black smoke", a "smell" or a chimney fire.

The other type is simply a modified wood stove, a copper tube drips the waste oil onto the burning wood. Back before the new high-efficiency stoves the guys would weld baffles inside the stove to help keep the smoke and gasses ignited, all have a flue damper. The neat thing about these is they still work just fine with only wood. I had one built from a barrel stove, but rather than baffles it had a 55-gallon barrel for the fire box and a 30-gallon barrel on top of that used as the smoke and gas ignition chamber.

why? Is there something inefficient about just burning decent firewood in a decent stove?

Why? Because waste-oil has like a zillion more BTUs per pound.

I don't have a drip burner anymore... but if I want a lot of heat real fast out in the shop I just toss a couple of those waste oil soaked splits of wood in the fire box. Don't stand to close to the stove cause you're likely to melt your cloths and it'll peel the paint from your tool box.

 

[BarkBuster20]

I think its a bad idea...probably just as bad as running it in your saws. Dont really see the point either...since when was wood alone not enough?

 

[teatersroad]

Say what? I know of, and have witnessed the use of at least a dozen waste-oil stoves and I've never seen any "atomization" or "pressure", they simply drip oil into the fire. There's only two types I've seen, and all but one were home-made.

It can be low tech like you mention, or a bit higher.

I'm very familiar with this set-up - Garages, Nurseries, or other operations use 'em seriously

http://www.agsolutionsllc.com/waste-oil-burners/waste-oil-burners-heaters-b300.htm

If you are looking to get rid of waste oil, you're likely to find a user in town that would take it off your hands, or even give you maybe 50 cents a gallon.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Why? Because waste-oil has like a zillion more BTUs per pound.

Diesel, which I presume is close to motor oil in energy density, is 19,000 BTUs/pound.

Wood is about 9,000 BTUs, but will also normally include some extra weight from water and takes up a larger volume per pound.

 

[barnumb]

One question- do you find synthetic used oil grows better 'maters?

Nobody in our trailer park can afford the synthetic stuff. We been gettin our oil for our 76 Chrysler Imperial from a guy down the road who changes it every 3000 miles.

 

[Whitespider]

The days of the old drip type burners are numbered and well they should be.

Yes they are... but not because they pollute the air... if they did pollute the EPA would have banned them years ago...
Your lawn mower probably puts more crap in the air than a waste oil drip furnace.
Get off the GREEN IS BETTER wagon and use your head.
Keep reading, I'll explain why the days are numbered... and it ain't about pollution it's all about the MONEY!

I got to thinkin'... I left my post about waste oil burners a bit incomplete.

Those burners used to be real popular... but not so much any more because it's difficult to get enough waste oil to keep it going. My family owned and ran a New Car Dealership for 25-years, I ran the service department. The guys would come in a haul away our waste oil for their burners, we were happy to get rid of it. But then the EPA got involved (because people were using it for dust control on their driveways and dumping it in ground hog holes), we had to start paying a "licensed" waste oil guy to haul it away and keep records of every drop. There ain't anything illegal about burning the stuff, but a business that generates waste oil (like an auto repair shop) could no longer give it away or sell it to just anybody, only the "licensed" waste oil guy.

Really, the new EPA regs just put a value on waste oil (so Uncle Sam could tax it) and introduced a new expense to the auto repair shops, which just passed the cost onto y'all. The only guys with enough waste oil to use as heating fuel are the "licensed" waste oil guy and the guy who owns an auto repair shop. The "licensed " guy ain't gonn'a sell it to somebody claiming to use it in a burner because once he has possession of it he's liable for it until the final disposition. The "licensed" guy can't take the chance that some yahoo will use it for dust control on his driveway.

 

[Whitespider]

Diesel, which I presume is close to motor oil in energy density, is 19,000 BTUs/pound.

Wood is about 9,000 BTUs, but will also normally include some extra weight from water and takes up a larger volume per pound.

Not quite. Used oil has a much, much higher BTU content than clean oil. Used oil is highly enriched with carbon (and some oxygenates) from the blow-by past the rings in an internal combustion engine. It's the high carbon content, not the oil, per se, that makes it good as a heating fuel - same thing that makes wood a good heating fuel... wood comes from carbon based living things called trees!

 

[Dalmatian90]

. Used oil has a much, much higher BTU content than clean oil. Used oil is highly enriched with carbon (and some oxygenates) from the blow-by past the rings in an internal combustion engine. It's the high carbon content, not the oil,

I simply don't believe that.

Remember I put the energy content in terms of BTUs/pound...not gallons.

Unless you've magically suspended the laws of physics and re-written the modern understanding of chemistry, those carbon atoms weigh just as much as any other carbon atom.

Which is the same reason denser woods have higher BTUs/cord. All wood, at the same moisture levels, have the same BTUs when measured by pound.

 

[ray benson]

Not quite. Used oil has a much, much higher BTU content than clean oil. Used oil is highly enriched with carbon (and some oxygenates) from the blow-by past the rings in an internal combustion engine. It's the high carbon content, not the oil, per se, that makes it good as a heating fuel - same thing that makes wood a good heating fuel... wood comes from carbon based living things called trees!

18,466 btu - slightly less than a zillion.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Utili...sed+motor+oil+as+an+alternative...-a084644463

 

[7sleeper]

Gee wonder why furnaces that burn no.2 heating oil have been the atomizing type for three decades or longer. It's about the money alright....and efficiency.

+1

And we all wonder why cars nowadays have fuel injection if the old methode was so much better?! It is the same principle.

It is simple physics. If you boost the surface area for reaction (by making a myst of oil through a nozel on a modern oil burner) you will have a more complete and efficient burn.


7

 

[Whitespider]

Remember I put the energy content in terms of BTUs/pound...not gallons.

You're right, my error.
I was using the term "pound(s)" while thinking in gallons... mine was an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Gee wonder why furnaces that burn no.2 heating oil have been the atomizing type for three decades or longer. It's about the money alright....and efficiency.

Now don't start twistin' my words... When I said MONEY! I was talking about the regulations that govern what a waste oil generating business can do with the used oil and the resulting decline of drip burners, not furnace design. Don't forget, regulations are a way for the government to "regulate" without passing any law... it's simple circumvention of the constitution, usually designed to increase government revenue. AND my comments were never about the most efficient way to burn waste oil, it was about whether or not drip burners polluted, had thick black smoke belching from their stacks or stunk to high-heaven. Drip burners use secondary burn (just like modern wood stoves) to complete the combustion... it may not be the most efficient way (in terms of size and design) but it gets the job done. It's the secondary burn that produces the majority of the heat, the drip burner would be all but worthless without it.

And we all wonder why cars nowadays have fuel injection if the old methode was so much better?! It is the same principle. ...more complete and efficient burn.

Really... So you're into the "much better" and more "efficient" way of doing things. So you haul all your wood in and have it processed into pellets... and you have one of those new high-efficiency pellet stoves. What? You don't? Please don't tell me you have one of those wood gobbling OWB's... It's all relative, ain't it?


Apples-to-oranges again... I thought we were talking about thick black smoke, stink, toxic pollution and plugged up flue pipes.

 

[anymanusa]

Whitespider in here burning up all the fools. Good posts.

This thread isn't about wether or not I can take my oil to a recycler, its about wether or not I can put the GREEN back into MY pocket by burning it.

 

[anymanusa]

You ought to install one of those waste oil drip systems on that Rube Goldberg wood stove set up you've got going.


I still say your waste oil would be better served on your pancakes.

I guess u haven't had a chance to say 'Rube Goldberg' this week yet. : confused:

Lol@ u.