I am expecting a my oil dealer to make a delivery in the next week tank is 7/8 full but he's due

I learned that a long time ago.............the company with whom I have my service contract for my stove is not the same as where I get my oil.

I have used the same company for oil for the past 10 years......that's not to say I don't call around, because I do...........but they match the lowest price so it's a win/win situation. Plus, on occasion, they put a coupon in our local paper, so it's not bad!!

Again, the company that does my service I've also used for years. It's worked for me so far!

Elle

yardleypa said:

.... I have found a plumber who is willing to service the oil heater for $85 per year as oppossed to $325 my oil co was charging......

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So does the $85 include replacing any parts, and is he available 24/7? If the $325 is a service contract, it usually includes most parts, and 24/7 emergency service. If the plumber does all that for $85/yr, that is a GREAT deal!.

I should have added this, oh well........

I have the middle contract which is approximately $210 a year. This includes a full annual cleaning, free of charge so to speak, and free calls during the day and nites til 7 p.m. It also covers the typical parts etc.

Something went on the furnace--I forget what it was, I could look up the paperwork--but the part alone cost more than the contract by quite a bit. Yes, they had to come on a Saturday, not covered by my contract.

My out of pocket costs for that visit? $21.20

I can handle that. The contract has been worth it for me.

My house was built in 1953, and has the original furnace. It's efficiency is still there, as it's cast iron, and even the service company says that to replace it would be a waste of money, particularly now with the use of the pellet stove.

My goal next year is to get my hot water heated on electricity, not oil. Then I won't EVER need the furnace!!

So, while I don't use the contract all that much, I do get a cleaning included which is approximately $165 a year, leaving about $40 or so for the contract.

To me.............very much worth it on a 55 or so year old furnace.

yardleypa said:

Nay he is not including parts but you know what I have had my contract for ten years and they have never replaced any parts the only time I see them is if I run out of oil They will come and bleed the system

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So you had a service contract and didn't have them do the once a year service/cleaning? And don't speak so fast about them not replacing any parts.....read what FoldsCt said about the cost of a part vs the service contract cost.

Using your logic, if your house hasn't burned down or a tree fallen on it in 10 years, then you can cancel the homeowners insurance. Just give a carpenter $85/yr. and he can rebuild it for you.....oh, plus the price of the house.

Just playing devils advocate here, but I'd keep my fingers crossed if I were you.

I've (helping)cleaning boilers since I was seven years old. It never occurred to me to have anyone other than my father clean it every year. Cost me a nozzle and a filter, if he didn't already have it on the truck. He almost died from a burst brain vessel a few years back and it occurred to me then that I had no one to clean my boiler. So I bought a better vac and some brushes and learned a few things. Now I do my own. Ain't no harder that changing you car oil or replacing your breaks.

I prefer to barter than to pay outright. You gotta have a guy. I gotta car guy, a venison guy, a printing guy, (I'm the guy with the truck + plumbing), a splitter guy, chipper guy, hunting cabin guy, etc.

As for oil, I used to have an oil guy- paid .10 over rack price- those were the days. I don't prepay or buy early, but I got a guy that will deliver with 24hrs and beat any local price.

I don't have any service contract on my furnace, and I have no oil contract with any oil company.
Once every 2yrs I call a "local boiler guy" and ask him to do a service...He charged me $75 last year.
For oil, I usually start at PriceEnergy...which used to have a deal with BJs. I go online, check their price,
and usually place the order right on the webpage. It gets delivered within 48hrs, sometimes that same day,
and I get an email stating how many gals and the price.

Easy Peasy.

Jim

yardleypa said:

OK maybe I burnt 40 gallons this year so far which is not that bad considering how cold it has been . The stove is doing its job I turned on the oil heat when the kids started complaining the bed rooms were cold so a 1/2 hour of the oil heats the whole house.I know when I get my next delivery he is probably charge me over $3 per gallon should I cancel the delivery and buy it off the lowest priced advertised price on the newspaper at $2.20 I have found a plumber who is willing to service the oil heater for $85 per year as oppossed to $325 my oil co was charging,you people must have the same issues ,what are you going to do, you will get a better price off the newspaper than your dealer is willing to give you as he is trying to win new business with the advert but will not give you this price. I await your responses

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Did you prebuy your oil or are you on auto-delivery?

What I do is check COD pricing at 4 local dealers and order a delivery when I want/need it. That way, I have control over what I pay and when I get it. I give them a check when they deliver.

Being on auto-delivery gives the dealer opportunity to over-charge, IMO.

To the OP... MANY oil companies won't deliver unless you are getting a "minimum amount" of oil. Around here it's usually 100 gallons, and some companies want 150 as a minimum. Not sure if that will cause any issues. Wonder if you could cancel the delivery now, wait till you need at least 100 gallons and order it then. Will the price of oil remain low, go lower, or go higher by then???

I always have my furnace serviced by a local independent guy. The furnace is about 6 years old, and the guy is a friend of a friend. Does that make him my "furnace guy"? Probably... Anyway, he'll come 24/7 should I need him, but thanks to the XXV, I doubt I'll be calling him at all this year! Years ago when I made the mistake of running out of oil, I called the oil company for delivery and they wanted $50 to "start" the furnace again. Told them no thanks. Bleeding the oil line is rather simple once you've seen the "furnace guy" do it.

Hey pigs, I thought this was "the pellet and corn crib" to much crude is rude! J/K

But seriously, I do what lobstah does. NO contracts! I buy it when I need it. And a local
burner man charges me $130 for an annual cleaning.
And if it craps out in the middle of the night, so be it...I'll crank the Stove!

i used to have a service contract on my 30 plus year old oil fired HW boiler, and a market rate plan with PETERSON OIL, who sucks out of Worcester MA, and the year after I bought my PS, they returned my check for the service agreement, after being with them for 6 years. When I called to ask why, they told me I didn't buy enough oil for them to give me a service agreement. Since I still do my DHW and backup heat with oil, I found a local service guy who comes out once a year for 75 bucks and does a cleaning. Have had 1 call other than that for 125 for a bad cad cell, while he was here had him replace a few feet of rusted vent pipe and the barometric damper, seventy five bucks. It always amazes me how many people buy their oil from a guy who decides whether to put in a 0.75 GPH nozzle, or a 1.25 Gallon Per Hour nozzle, which is usually replaced every "cleaning". Kind of like asking the fox to watch the henhouse?

I used to deal with Peterson a long time ago...and I agree. They wouldn't give me an account because I wouldn't give them my social security number.
Credit card on file wasn't good enough for them, so I called when I wanted oil, and gave them a check when they delivered. After a year of two of that, I got pretty tired of dealing with idiots and went independent.

Jim

breklaw said:

It always amazes me how many people buy their oil from a guy who decides whether to put in a 0.75 GPH nozzle, or a 1.25 Gallon Per Hour nozzle, which is usually replaced every "cleaning". Kind of like asking the fox to watch the henhouse?

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Why do you care as long as the burner allows either? It's not like a higher flow rate nozzle "wastes" oil - you'll burn more oil faster which leads to more heat faster and thus the thermostat reaching the desired temp faster which results in a faster shutdown of the furnace. What does it matter if you need 50,000 BTUs and you get it 2/3rds faster than with the lower flow rate nozzle - once you've pumped those BTUs into the house, the thermostat turns the burner off.

Replacing them at every cleaning is a good idea as they wear from the flow and are less efficient in creating the atomized spray pattern the burner ignites as they age. Just like replacing the fuel injectors in your car.

My car fuel injectors go 10 years. I don't change my furnace nozzle every year, depends how I feel.

quite frankly, bullshiot. you can overfire a boiler and compensate with air to make your numbers look good, and it may not be the best, cost effective adjustment for your house/boiler size/flue situation, etc... optimizing your oil burner at the LEAST amount of fuel is counter productive to the local mom and pop shops- they make their money on oil sold-`````` period.
I spent a few years tuning gas/oil systems, huge ones at that, and because we were manufacturing a product, experimented with firing rates, nozzles, diffuser sizes and angles, draft, CO and O2 levels and GPH/CFM. Your boiler/burner can be made more, or less, efficient, by the guy who services it. By a LARGE margin. Not saying that any or all burner cleaners/tuners would ever do it, but I would not bet my weeks pay that it has not happened.

breklaw said:

quite frankly, bullshiot. you can overfire a boiler and compensate with air to make your numbers look good, and it may not be the best, cost effective adjustment for your house/boiler size/flue situation, etc... optimizing your oil burner at the LEAST amount of fuel is counter productive to the local mom and pop shops- they make their money on oil sold-`````` period.
I spent a few years tuning gas/oil systems, huge ones at that, and because we were manufacturing a product, experimented with firing rates, nozzles, diffuser sizes and angles, draft, CO and O2 levels and GPH/CFM. Your boiler/burner can be made more, or less, efficient, by the guy who services it. By a LARGE margin. Not saying that any or all burner cleaners/tuners would ever do it, but I would not bet my weeks pay that it has not happened.

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In other words, the most efficient nozzle is the smallest one that will keep your house warm on the coldest night of the year. An oversized nozzle wastes fuel.

Chris