Oil backup. Who needs it?

Let the oil boiler run occasionally. I learned my 'backup' wasn't worth a damn. I let it sit a few months, and the fuel pump was sticking, and tripping the reset.

JP

JP11 said:

Let the oil boiler run occasionally. I learned my 'backup' wasn't worth a damn. I let it sit a few months, and the fuel pump was sticking, and tripping the reset.

JP

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I plan on exercising the oil boiler once a month.

We installed the MeSys / OkoFEN unit two years ago. Tough call, but we trusted the installer and took out the old oil unit to make for a cleaner install of the new MeSys boiler. After over two years we are completely thrilled with the dependability of the MeSys boiler. It has had ZERO issues of any kind. Actually better than the oil unit was, which seemed to have something go wrong almost yearly or every two years at best. Pellet price is guaranteed to stay constant by MeSys too, for two years. No more oil for us!

Letsburnwoodnotoil said:

We installed the MeSys / OkoFEN unit two years ago. Tough call, but we trusted the installer and took out the old oil unit to make for a cleaner install of the new MeSys boiler. After over two years we are completely thrilled with the dependability of the MeSys boiler. It has had ZERO issues of any kind. Actually better than the oil unit was, which seemed to have something go wrong almost yearly or every two years at best. Pellet price is guaranteed to stay constant by MeSys too, for two years. No more oil for us!

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Great post and welcome to "Hearth" !

I'm in the process of retiring my 25 year old oil boiler. It's only run a few hours a year for the past few years and it hasn't improved with age. I'm replacing it with a small propane fired on-demand water heater that can provide DHW when needed but also act as a backup heat source for the above-mentioned vacations etc.

As usual Nofossil has it right. I've had the oil side of my Tarm serviced every fall and it sits too long to be of any use when you need it. Haven't burned any oil in 4 years now, though I would like to flip the switch when I go hunting so the wife doesn't have to worry about it. Another issue is condensation in my outside oil tank... that water adds up when you're not
removing it with a burn now and then. Propane will wait till you need it, cleaner, etc. I'm going to burn oil on the weekends this winter to keep the burner running... and to stretch out my lower than normal seasoned wood supply.
Anybody got a Tarm running on propane?