DangerStevie
Member
- Messages
- 109
We have made and been running our waste oil workshop heater for best part of 2 years now and i have some questions regarding the cleanliness of the burn.
We used a large propane cylinder for the main body, and have a 6" diameter intake pipe mounted in the centre of it descending vertically to the burn pot (10" cast iron frying pan). The air intake pipe terminates approx 4" above the burn pot and the oil feed tube descends down the air intake pipe and terminates approx 3" from the base of the air intake pipe. Our flue is straight 6" cast iron pipe that is inset into the burner body by approx 8" and is approximately 20ft long all together.
We gravity feed oil into the burner and we get lots of heat from it, we have had approx 12-14" or the centre region of the body glowing cherry red at times and it gives out pretty much no smell into the workshop (would be no smell if the heater door was sealed!)
It is easy to clean out and doesn't seem too fussy on what we use to light it as long as its flammable with a naked flame.
However we get a noticable amount of black smoke from the chimney and we have to sweep the chimney probably once every 2-3 weeks of constant use as it gets THICK with oily black soot.
I wish to reduce this soot and i know that its caused by incomplete combustion. I do not want introduce any electronics to this burner other than maybe an oil feed pump to stabilise the oil flow into the burner.
Does anyone have any ideas on making this thing more efficient?....i have a few but have not put them onto paper yet to post on here for everyone to see.
Before anyone jumps up and says how dangerous etc these things are please DONT we know EXACTLY what we are dealing with and have taken all necessary precautions.
We used a large propane cylinder for the main body, and have a 6" diameter intake pipe mounted in the centre of it descending vertically to the burn pot (10" cast iron frying pan). The air intake pipe terminates approx 4" above the burn pot and the oil feed tube descends down the air intake pipe and terminates approx 3" from the base of the air intake pipe. Our flue is straight 6" cast iron pipe that is inset into the burner body by approx 8" and is approximately 20ft long all together.
We gravity feed oil into the burner and we get lots of heat from it, we have had approx 12-14" or the centre region of the body glowing cherry red at times and it gives out pretty much no smell into the workshop (would be no smell if the heater door was sealed!)
It is easy to clean out and doesn't seem too fussy on what we use to light it as long as its flammable with a naked flame.
However we get a noticable amount of black smoke from the chimney and we have to sweep the chimney probably once every 2-3 weeks of constant use as it gets THICK with oily black soot.
I wish to reduce this soot and i know that its caused by incomplete combustion. I do not want introduce any electronics to this burner other than maybe an oil feed pump to stabilise the oil flow into the burner.
Does anyone have any ideas on making this thing more efficient?....i have a few but have not put them onto paper yet to post on here for everyone to see.
Before anyone jumps up and says how dangerous etc these things are please DONT we know EXACTLY what we are dealing with and have taken all necessary precautions.