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Pittsburg, Kansas | Anyone have any experience with the Lanair waste oil heaters? Guy selling them says just have to clean the cleanable screen once in a while (no spin on filters, just screen in canister), clean the buildup in the heat exchanger a couple times (mid heating season and at the end of the season) and says they are not much trouble at all. Is he giving me the used care salesman pitch, or are these heaters really not much of a hassle? Prices seem reasonable enough compared to at least one other brand I priced from a dealer. John |
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Wi | I have a love hate relationship with ours. We have an MXB250 that we use as a boiler to heat the floor.
They are a lot more maintenance than other heating methods. You have to be very strict about keeping gear lubes and any water/glycol products out of the fuel supply. Keeping it clean is also very important. The strainer doesn't need cleaning too often but the one around the pump itself can clog up as well.
If you keep everything cleaned and adjusted well they can run fairly well. One beef I have with them is that you have to buy the entire preheater assembly as one now. I find myself tearing it apart a couple times per winter to clean out buildup.
At the end of the day, if you have the oil to feed it, its not a terrible way to go but just remember it is much more maintenance than a simple gas boiler.
IMO if you can get natural gas its not worth it, but otherwise it can be if you have the oil to feed it. |
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Somerville, Indiana | no experience in our shop, but have understood it to be important to keep the supply of oil warm, as it better to leave the temperature even in the building rather than letting it get cold-as in below freezing a good bit-then firing it with cold oil...Have heard some are mixing in some diesel to cut down on the soot buildup but don't know how successful that is...I know that Raben Tire lost a building in Newburgh that had a waste oil heater in it, initially blamed the fire on the heater but later there were doubts...They didn't fire the one in Evansville up after the one in Newburgh may have acted up...Ryan is considering one, I will ask the guys in their shop tomorrow and post back here tomorrow night, John. |
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Wi | Let me add that its important to note the differences in waste oil heaters. The one we have is a true burner that uses air to inject the oil just like an injector in an engine. The oil is all run through a pre heater to warm it to operating temp. The preheater is built in and can be turned off if you want to burn diesel or heating oil.
Other waste oil setups like drip burners are much different. |
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central mich |
We have had a Clean Burn for at least 15 years. It had been used for a year or so when we bought it from the dealer. It is a 275,000 btu or maybe 285,000btu. It has been about trouble free as any waste oil heater. We burn any kind of petroleum product including gear lube. We have a 4'x4'x'4 holding tank below the furnace and we do drain the water off. Do not just have a 90 degree elbow coming out of the shop as water will enter the furnace. You need a T so the rain, snow and soot can fall to the bottom. We have a 10" steel pipe for our chimmney with a drain/cleanout on the bottom. When we did not have the clean out the 10" vertical chimmney actuall filled the 15ft from the ground to the T above with ash and then it would fill up the horizontal furnace pipe coming into the vertical and then back the ash up into the furnace. We just leave the clean out on the bottom open and we think it makes a draft to keep the ash flowing out.
We have seen Lanair and other brands but there is a reason that Clean Burn probably outsells all the other brands combined. I do not like the position of the Clean Burn discharge pipe as it is on the side rather than the back so you have to have a bunch of extra pipe and elbows. We have not cleaned it for at least two years but it is best if it is cleaned once a year.
Friends have tried other brands but for us I would prefer a used Cleanburn to a new other brand. |
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Renville County, MN | We have Clean Burns. Have a dealer not to far away so if we need a part we can go get it and be back in about 3 hours. They have been very trouble free to speak of. We have one with 6000hrs on it and another with 5000. Keeping the oil going into tank clean is critical I think. We strain and filter our oil before it goes into holding tank. They we hardly ever have to clean the main screen and filter. Cleaning the ash out kind of sucks but it needs to be done. I have a shop vac dedicated just to furnace cleaning. They are more maintenance and hassle but once you get yourself set up for the oil and handling of it its not to bad. We have the dealer go thru and service our burners every summer which I think is good money spent. |
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Eastern Iowa | John Burns - 9/12/2013 00:22
Anyone have any experience with the Lanair waste oil heaters? Guy selling them says just have to clean the cleanable screen once in a while (no spin on filters, just screen in canister), clean the buildup in the heat exchanger a couple times (mid heating season and at the end of the season) and says they are not much trouble at all. Is he giving me the used care salesman pitch, or are these heaters really not much of a hassle? Prices seem reasonable enough compared to at least one other brand I priced from a dealer. John
That is probably true if you have a clean consistent supply of oil for it. I have a SunFire, my oil supply is not so consistant and I am changing oil pressure and air pressure every day it seems. |
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Extreme SW Minnesota Iowa border | After 20 years of being around one, the key to the oil supply is having a huge tank that can let everything settle out. And only draw from the top half of it. We had a 1200 gallon tank, and never would take it off the bottom. Usually, the oil was so clean on the top of the tank, you wouldn't even stain your hands black if you had to work on it. It was still black, but a clean kind of black. |
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Portland, ND | We have used one for 11 years and it is a POS. They have changed the gun design a half dozen times to try to make it better, but it needs to be disassembled during the season and cleaned. They just want you to replace the gun assembly every year at the cost of anywhere from $3-900. They don't care about fixing the last model they sold you.
Buy a clean burn!!! |
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| I have two Lanair furnaces and get along great with them. The biggest thing I have found in keeping them trouble free is to filter the oil before putting it in the tank. |
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Dearfield Co. | I sell my used oil now.There are places that buy it to mix in with highway asphalt .I have had about evry waste oil heater made and they all have issues.We filtered the oil and ensure it was as clean as possible as well as kept away from any water and you still have issues at times.To top that off most of these heaters are heavy polluters and I believe have health risks |
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| I have oftened wondered about the pollution. When mine are running there isn't any smoke so I would think they are burning clean.
Edited by TD15 9/12/2013 09:47
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| ive had a lanair for 4 seasons. I really like the heat it makes. I clean mine once in the summer and clean the oil screen once during the season. Ive called Lanair several times if I had problems and they are top notch on service help. Yes you have to keep your oil clean and your burner but you are burning used oil so if you cant handle that call the LP truck |
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Wi | red mechanic - 9/12/2013 10:58 ive had a lanair for 4 seasons. I really like the heat it makes. I clean mine once in the summer and clean the oil screen once during the season. Ive called Lanair several times if I had problems and they are top notch on service help. Yes you have to keep your oil clean and your burner but you are burning used oil so if you cant handle that call the LP truck
Lanair's service has been top notch. You get a guy on the phone who actually knows the machines inside an out, at least everytime I've called they have always had the right answers in the right order. Unlike a lot of places, they generally talk you out of just buying parts and send you through all of the other checks before reccommending what parts to start replacing.
a4t-1600 - 9/12/2013 08:20 I sell my used oil now.There are places that buy it to mix in with highway asphalt .I have had about evry waste oil heater made and they all have issues.We filtered the oil and ensure it was as clean as possible as well as kept away from any water and you still have issues at times.To top that off most of these heaters are heavy polluters and I believe have health risks
If you are using one of the styles we are all referring to it should burn very clean unless it is not setup properly. You barely see any emissions. Far less than any wood stove. |
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Dearfield Co. | I barely see emissions on my signature 600 and it still doesnt fit into pollution guidelines lol.I barely see emissions on my catalyst equipped wood stove but they are deemed polluters in Co.Judging from the waste oil heaters being sold along the front range I guess they must feel the same way. |
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Pittsburg, Kansas | As far as health issues it would seem you would need to be standing outside the building to be worried about them. The flame is vented directly to the outside via the chimney and the heat is transferred indirectly via the heat exchanger. Nothing about the flame or fumes should be open to the inside of the building. At least that is the way I see it, but I do not own one so do not know for sure. They appear to me to work the same way as the heat exchanger on a vented propane stove. John |
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Somerville, Indiana | The Raben Store in Owensboro, Ky., has two waste oil heaters...To get the full scoop on the heaters, email me for their phone number. |
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Lanair used (waste) oil heater
