Oil Tank Conundrum

[julianf]

People have been using those sorts of things with biofuel for years (ie take a container to your car and pump it in)

They work. Just don't expect them to last that well, but they certainly don't break instantly at all.

You can get them with a hosetail at both ends also, which would get better suction down to the bottom, but then will suffer more from the leaves, dead spiders, woodlice etc.etc that are in there.

They're just a little impeller inside. Nothing fancy.

 

[minimutly]

My oil feed pipe actually blocked up some years ago - I disconnected both ends and put a foot pump on it - the dead insects that came out shocked me a bit.

 

[Gareth J]

Don't panic too much about water and stuff in the bottom. The outlet will be an inch or two from the very bottom and there will always be some water in there from condensation. If you are running ok now, just wait until before your next fill up and tilt the back of the tank up a few inches. Either drain, Syphon or pump out whatever water you can get at and go again.

As mentioned already, you don't really want water running through the boiler pump and galling it up so well worth doing. But equally, the open area of that vent is tiny compared to the area of the base of the tank. A year of rain might rise the tank a millimetre or two.

 

[reb78]

Don't panic too much about water and stuff in the bottom. The outlet will be an inch or two from the very bottom and there will always be some water in there from condensation. If you are running ok now, just wait until before your next fill up and tilt the back of the tank up a few inches. Either drain, Syphon or pump out whatever water you can get at and go again.

As mentioned already, you don't really want water running through the boiler pump and galling it up so well worth doing. But equally, the open area of that vent is tiny compared to the area of the base of the tank. A year of rain might rise the tank a millimetre or two.

It does add up eventually though. Mu old tank was single skinned. Goodness knows how old and when I emptied it more water than oil came out. How the boilers were running was a mystery to me as it was at the level of the outlet - I think the tank angle possibly just kept the oil at the outlet but it was very close as the water seemed high!

 

[addjunkie]

I agree there will be water in the bottom of the tank…..but all this worry, pumps, tank tipping etc.

Dip the tank with water paste, or water finding paste first. Then you will know what your worrying about first, probably next to nowt!

Ill find out in mine soon, as Im awaiting delivery of a new bunded tank, to replace my current one, which is concerning me.

 

[Onoff]

Dip the tank with water paste, or water finding paste first.

Didn't know it was a thing! Cheers.

 

[Onoff]

Paste ordered.

Debating a remote sensor contents gauge unit. Any suggestions?

Watchman Sonic Advanced

Monitor your oil tank contents 'at a glance' from your home. Make it Smart by adding the Watchman SENSiT & Watchman Advanced Smart Wi-Fi tank level USB receiver* WATCHMAN HELPLINE: 02838 364415

www.fueltankshop.co.uk

 

[pedrobedro]

My breather on the splitter was plastic and cracked when a log hit it so it was replaced with a Tuna can just like yours but I did drill a hole in it to secure it with a screw and painted it black to match the rest of the machine.

 

[OJCar]

Debating a remote sensor contents gauge unit. Any suggestions?

One of those Watchman Level Gauges was supplied when our oil tank was installed last autumn.
It is about as much use as a British Leyland fuel gauge, You might as well wet a finger!

Make a dip stick, you can work out calibrations to mark on it.

 

[addjunkie]

Paste ordered.

Debating a remote sensor contents gauge unit. Any suggestions?

Watchman Sonic Advanced

Monitor your oil tank contents 'at a glance' from your home. Make it Smart by adding the Watchman SENSiT & Watchman Advanced Smart Wi-Fi tank level USB receiver* WATCHMAN HELPLINE: 02838 364415

www.fueltankshop.co.uk

Only thing the remote sensor does, is let you know when the naughty boys have visited and your tank is MT. I too am a dip stick kind of guy.

 

[knighty]

if you look inside can you see inside the tank / the oil?

I'm thinking if its a double skinned tank it could be the breather for the outer skin/bund?

 

[voipio]

I've found the Watchman Sonics to work well, though the claimed 200 metre range is only with a clear line of sight. They use the 433.92MHz ISM band, so other remote control.signalling thingies will potentially interfere. Fitting it correctly to the tank is important. They need to be positioned on a horizontal surface, so they look vertically downwards with a sufficiently large hole for the ultrasonic transducer horn to have a clear aperture to "look" through. The "give" in the foam sealing washer that they come with, allows the mounting ring to be set perfectly horizontal, if the two screw holes lie along the line of any slope in the tank top. Also, internal structures inside the tank need to be avoided, to prevent unwanted ultrasound reflections. I used a 32mm step drill right up to its largest diameter to widen a too-small hole on one tank, because it wasn't 100% reliable, and fitted a similar device to another tank, and drilled the same sized hole, and both have worked reliably ever since.

The only quirk, as such, is when the tank is 100% full, it will occasionally give a 90 or 80% reading, due to double reflections of the ultrasound pulses, presumably.

 

[Gareth J]

Paste ordered.

Debating a remote sensor contents gauge unit. Any suggestions?

Watchman Sonic Advanced

Monitor your oil tank contents 'at a glance' from your home. Make it Smart by adding the Watchman SENSiT & Watchman Advanced Smart Wi-Fi tank level USB receiver* WATCHMAN HELPLINE: 02838 364415

www.fueltankshop.co.uk

There must be 4 or 5 of these on immediate family's home tanks. I often peek at their oil level when in kitchens and they all seem to keep working. I recently had to replace the battery in ours, maybe it's 5-10 years old.

 

[Misterg]

Paste ordered.

Debating a remote sensor contents gauge unit. Any suggestions?

Watchman Sonic Advanced

Monitor your oil tank contents 'at a glance' from your home. Make it Smart by adding the Watchman SENSiT & Watchman Advanced Smart Wi-Fi tank level USB receiver* WATCHMAN HELPLINE: 02838 364415

www.fueltankshop.co.uk

Bought a Watchman one second hand about 8 years ago, and other than one battery change, it's still going strong. When it gets down to two bars I order more oil.

I used to be a sight-glass / tap the tank kind of guy, but running around trying to buy oil in 25L drums on a Saturday morning lost its novelty pretty quickly. Domestic harmony is also improved by a constant supply of hot water.