|
| I purchased an OMNI portable unit about 5 years ago, gave like $ 5000 for it. I have floor heat, propane boiler and love it, but have a lot of waste oil from being an independent mechanic, so I thought I would try this unit to "help" out.
http://www.econoheat.com/waste-oil-equipment/radiant-oil-heaters/
1st problem...no venting...this is made for outdoor environments, so lots of ventilation, I could smell some fumes, but noticed I was getting sore throat, and different times when customers would come over, they would ask..how can you stand the smell ? So something had to be changed.
This unit is cheaply made, my opinion, the fire tube / housing and frame are nothing to brag about, and basically disintegrated in one year....DISAPPOINTED ! There was none around in my area to see for myself, and this one came from Oregon, I think...
I went to work and fabricated a double barrel style from 10 ga. This has been an experimental screwing around since I started, but I had enough money invested, did not want to spend a whole lot more, but wanted it to work.
I did not want to bore another hole in the side of my building, so I placed it near a sliding window, and took a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate, bored a 8" hole in it and fit it in the window hole for my exhaust then I have a stack out side for the smoke. This works ok, is safe. I have it sealed so there are no air gaps, and can be taken down quickly, and it is made so I do not have to worry about fire.
I used to use the original oil tank ( 20 gallon ) and fill it every day...PAIN IN THE BUTT, so I now have my waste oil dump tote and pan. about 6 ft away, its close enough where it will draw the oil from that tote.....again temporary, and still experimenting. The burner unit has its own filter and I have my draw tube about 3" from the bottom of the tote for the sediments and any water / coolant to settle to the bottom. I drain the bottom valve once a year, and rarely get any water, but I really watch close what I dump in the tank.
I burn engine oil, 90wt, hyd-trans oil, ATF, synthetics, diesel fuel, but its all mixed / blended in that 275 gallon tote. I have removable doors to clean the barrels annually, might get about 1 - 2" of ash in a years time, the barrels are 48" long and 24" in diameter.
NO solvents or reducers or gas !!!!
I am sick and tired of the NOISE and dust....I have 2 fans set up to blow the heated air out to the shop, and made up my mind that I am going to convert this to an outdoor SS boiler, then plumb it into my existing floor heat . The burner unit noise is just under the scale of being intolerable....especially when the floor heat is dead silence, so I am spoiled, I know that.
This ole booger will pour out tons of heat, I been setting the floor heat at 50, and let the waste oil heater take the main shop and wash bay ( 60 x 104 ) up to 70* F and I have had it up to 90* F when doing some painting, ( one time deal ) but I was exhausting fumes outside a lot too.
I only run it during the day or when I am there to monitor it.
I'll burn about or just under 1 ( 275 gallon ) totes per month from Nov to April. I am out in the shop a lot, and in the evenings too many times till 10pm or so.
I am running out of time to get my outdoor boiler made, so I am going to enclose this one with sides and use a large cage blower, and cage the sides of the burner and insulate with fiberglass batting to cut the noise down, I played with a few things last winter and have a game plan to fab something up for this winter.
The burner portion / pump / fan, now that has been decent so far but has got me for a few things under $ 100 each time, but it gets tiresome of dicking around with it too.
In the bottom pic, you will see I was playing with my exhaust, I rigged up a "draft inducer" but have since done away with it figuring out that it was how I had my outdoor stack not making enough draft to pull. That is a south wall and we get a lot of SW wind here.
Now....if doing it over I almost wished I had invested in a $ 15,000 boiler right from the start, and tied it in with my propane boiler..... but...I am getting close to making it work for my shop for about $ 6000 invested.....
Edited by hf213 10/8/2018 08:00
 (0101161530a (full).jpg)
 (0101161531 (full).jpg)
 (0116161531a (full).jpg)
Attachments
----------------
 0101161530a (full).jpg (106KB - 172 downloads)
0101161531 (full).jpg (97KB - 171 downloads)
0116161531a (full).jpg (112KB - 152 downloads)
| |
|
Waste oil furnace anyone?
