New stove?

[mtarbert]

You guys have got to see this....http://www.murphysmachines.com/waste_oil_heater.html
Any comments?
Mike

 

[Roospike]

I just have a thing aginst stoves made with 55 gallon drums , maybe its just me.

Not to take away from the idea behind the product but builders need to stay from the drum.

hit link----> http://www.murphysmachines.com/waste_oil_heater.html

 

[Gooserider]

I could be wrong BG, but this might be an OK use of the drum - if you think there could be one... It looks to me like the design doesn't use the drum as a combustion chamber, but as the outside "shroud" of a heat exchanger. Looking at the pictures, it appears that the design uses an old propane tank as the combustion chamber, and the drum just sits over the combustion chamber and gets air blown through it by the fan on the top of the unit... All the drum is doing is acting as a "duct" to force the air to flow over the outside of the combustion chamber.

While one can question the wisdom of using a propane tank for a combustion chamber, it's probably better than a drum, and in this case I don't see anything inherently wrong with the drum for that application.

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

T'aint no BG in this thread til now Though waste oil burners have been around for awhile. I used to take my car to garage heated by one.

 

[restorer]

I know of two woodworking shops and two auto shops heated with WOB's. They are relatively conventional looking and provide good heat. This thing scares me. Looks like a real Rube-Goldberg unit. I think the demo of the burner was shown earlier on the forum. I certainly don't think my insurance would allow this even on site, let alone operating. They are funny that way.

 

[Gooserider]

T'aint no BG in this thread til now Though waste oil burners have been around for awhile. I used to take my car to garage heated by one.

ME BAD :red: It was to darn late at night, and I missed the whorehouse lighting on Roo's avatar! :cheese:

I agree the unit as configured looks a bit Rube Goldburgish, but I would be willing to bet that it was deliberate in order to get the robot-like image. Again I'm guessing from the pictures, but it looks like the basic configuration is pretty modular, and it would probably be an easy matter to rearrange the modules to look a bit more conventional. Of course you'd still have the barrel as shroud, but I wouldn't hold that as a negative in this design, so I'd expect it to be as acceptable to permitting bodies / insurance co's as ANY kind of home built WOB would be as an alternative to a commercial unit.

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

No problem, I could get mistaken for a lot worse company than Mr. Spike. Though he's younger and better looking than I am.

 

[keyman512us]

Whoever designed this baby? "The astronaut waste oil farmer"???

I'd love to ask "Where did you get this idea"???

"Just something I thought of when the lights were off and the TV was busted..."

I got a funny feeling I don't need to "buy the plans" for it...I'll just wait until one of my neighbors (on the other side of town) builds one, test fires it....and it lands in my backyard.

"ohh...you don't like my stove...I got just the thing to put in next week..."

Only on the internet...

Perhaps someone should go over to "churning-issues", post the link and ask "G-D" if this is an "eco friendly" heating alternative???

 

[Murphy2000]

Hello everyone.

I was looking at my web-stats on my site and noticed a bunch of visitors coming from here.. Found this forum and the thread about my heater.

I am the designer/inventor of this unit.

I will try to answer as many questions as I can. My construction plans come with support and I am almost always available.

 

[Murphy2000]

I just have a thing aginst stoves made with 55 gallon drums , maybe its just me.

Not to take away from the idea behind the product but builders need to stay from the drum.

hit link----> http://www.murphysmachines.com/waste_oil_heater.html

I agree with you. 55-gallon drums are not suitable as a combustion chamber. They are just to thin to expect any reasonable life from them.

My heater uses the 55-gallon drum as an air-duct-housing only. The drum never sees or comes in contact with any temperatures over 160 degF or so. This is why the green paint on the drum is still intact.

The combustion chamber is a propane tank that has much thicker walls and doubles as a safety feature being that it was a pressure vessle.

Life expectancy should be around 20 years.

 

[Murphy2000]

I know of two woodworking shops and two auto shops heated with WOB's. They are relatively conventional looking and provide good heat. This thing scares me. Looks like a real Rube-Goldberg unit. I think the demo of the burner was shown earlier on the forum. I certainly don't think my insurance would allow this even on site, let alone operating. They are funny that way.

Most waste oil heaters can only burn waste motor oil. Not many can burn waste vegetable oil because of the flash point differential. Many manufactured waste oil heaters are not configurable enough to accommodate fuels with higher flash points.

Rube-Goldberg comment:
Remember, this unit was built for about $100 from garbage I literally pulled from other peoples trash. There are no special parts and its easy to fix if anything should ever go wrong. You will never have to pay a manufacturer several hundred dollars for a $10 part. There are no filters to change or fuel nozzles to plug up.

You could easily make this unit look clean and "manufactured" by using a square air-housing if you have a press-brake to bend up some sheet metal. I could have done that but it would have defeated the purpose of CHEAP and EASY to build.

The unit is VERY reliable and fully configurable to your requirements and fuel supply. You can't get that by purchasing a $6000 manufactured unit.

Your insurance company would never approve anything that is not U.L. Listed. This heater was not meant for a commercial shop where insurance rules are strictly enforced. This project is for a barn or small shop to save you money on heating bills. This project is for someone who as a supply of waste motor oil to burn, or someone who is concerned about the environment and wants to burn waste vegetable oil.

As for any danger this unit possesses.. It uses waste oil as fuel and the flash ignition point of these fuels is so high that it is hard to get them to burn. This is a major problem with many waste oil burners. Lack of ignition because your trying to ignite a fuel that doesn't burn until it hits 160+ degrees F for waste motor oil and over 400 degF for waste veg oil.

The unit has been tested in a worse case failure scenario. The atomized fuel was delivered to a hot combustion chamber and after the hot combustion chamber had filled up, the unit was ignited. Nothing happened but it did ignite a little more aggressively. The flash point of waste oils is high enough to make them intrinsically safe from explosion. its not gasoline, its waste oil. Getting it to explode is actually difficult to do.

 

[Murphy2000]

Whoever designed this baby? "The astronaut waste oil farmer"???

I'd love to ask "Where did you get this idea"???

"Just something I thought of when the lights were off and the TV was busted..."

I got a funny feeling I don't need to "buy the plans" for it...I'll just wait until one of my neighbors (on the other side of town) builds one, test fires it....and it lands in my backyard.

"ohh...you don't like my stove...I got just the thing to put in next week..."

Only on the internet...

Perhaps someone should go over to "churning-issues", post the link and ask "G-D" if this is an "eco friendly" heating alternative???

Hi Keyman,
I am the designer of the unit.

I came up with the idea because I was freezing my nuts off when it got cold here in michigan. Turning the heat on in my shop costs about $400 a month. Necessity is the mother of all invention eh?

The astronaut farmer was a great movie!! I loved it!

I have 20 years of industrial machine design and engineering experience. I am both an engineer and metal fabricator..

My heater has been working all winter long with no problems. I'm on a farm with other people so I'm not the only one who uses the heater. Some of the folks who use it have done some pretty stupid things and the unit just keeps working.

This is not a natural gas fired unit.. no propane, no gasoline.. The ignition flash point temperatures on these fuels is low enough to make them very easy to ignite.. (that's why they are so popular). But the ignition flash point temperature of waste oils is so high, its hard to get them to burn. This makes an explosion a very unlikely event. Even so, my unit has been tested by me in a worst case scenario. Unburned fuel was atomized and delivered to a hot combustion chamber and then ignited. The unit lighted a bit more aggressively but showed no indication of explosion as you are describing.

Thank you for your interest.

MurphysMachines.com

 

[begreen]

Great info and welcome Mr Murphy.

OK, no sense of shame here. I'll ask, did you write Murphy's Law?

 

[Xena]

Haha! Guess keyman put both feet in his mouth on this one. :lol:

I think its pretty cool of you to not take offense to some
of the wise ass comments made about your invention.
Welcome to the forum Murphy.

 

[Highbeam]

I think this is great that Murphy came here and added to the discussion.

I hate to pay for plans for things like this. There are other waste oil burners on the net which do not require me to purchase plans. Arguably just as good at burning waste oils. Why should I pay money for these plans?

I sure would like access to the design details for Murphy's burner. Just to know how it works and why it is so much better that we should pay for the idea. Something for nothing? You bet.

 

[Murphy2000]

I think this is great that Murphy came here and added to the discussion.

I hate to pay for plans for things like this. There are other waste oil burners on the net which do not require me to purchase plans. Arguably just as good at burning waste oils. Why should I pay money for these plans?

I sure would like access to the design details for Murphy's burner. Just to know how it works and why it is so much better that we should pay for the idea. Something for nothing? You bet.

And I bet every dog gone potential customer just like you thinks the same darn way. Its a valid statement and one that I will have to learn to overcome if I am to sell any of these plans. I'm an engineer not a sales person.

So lets see if I can make some sense here,

Yes, there are free plans on the internet available to make a waste oil heater. They are all pot burners. They are very easy to make and very reliable devices. They are also very dirty, they emit a black sooty smoke and they are a pain in the rear end to clean and maintain. Every set of plans you find will be nothing but a steel shell with a pot inside. In fact, in many designs, it is literally a pot or frying pan from a kitchen.

Put one inside a wood stove, drip some oil into it and there ya go! Free waste oil heater plans.

You really do get what you pay for sometimes.

My unit is not a pot burner. There is no pot or pan to clean out.

If you know of any, I would like to see a "FREE" set of waste oil heater plans for a unit that is built from common materials and a unit that atomizes the oil before burning it. (A pot burner does not atomize anything it just burns the liquid in a pan by igniting the vapor).

In addition, a pot burner requires you to add a "starter fuel" like kerosene to get it going. It takes 20 or 30 minutes to get going good and hot. Pot burners can also not be shut off immediately. They have to cool down for hours before working on them.

My heater starts with no other fuel than a match. It can also be hooked up to automated controls to put it on a thermostat. My heater starts and stops much like a normal furnace. Its "warm up" time is about 60 seconds, like a regular furnace, and its shut down time to completely cool is around 60 seconds, again, like a normal furnace.

So there you go. How'd I do?

In addition to all this, I challenge you to find someone who sells or gives away plans with directions and diagrams as good as mine.

 

[Gooserider]

Welcome to the forums Murphy, it is nice to see if my guesses are correct on this ... Was I correct in my earlier guess that part of the design as shown was for the "robot look", but that it's fairly modular and it would have been possible to set the parts up a bit differently so that it looked more "normal"?

From what you were saying, I take it that you are using something sort of like an oil burner jet for the fuel combustion?

Gooserider

 

[Murphy2000]

Welcome to the forums Murphy, it is nice to see if my guesses are correct on this ... Was I correct in my earlier guess that part of the design as shown was for the "robot look", but that it's fairly modular and it would have been possible to set the parts up a bit differently so that it looked more "normal"?

From what you were saying, I take it that you are using something sort of like an oil burner jet for the fuel combustion?

Gooserider

Hi Goose,
The robot look was not intentional. Remember, this heater was made from garbage. The only thing I paid for was a 110 volt plug receptacle, a couple pipe fittings and a pump.

The rest was free and is what I had to work with.

The system is very modular. In fact, the burner technology has already been adapted to heat water. I am putting together a set of plans for it.

The technique I use to atomize the oil is nothing like any oil burner jet I have ever seen. My burner has no fuel nozzle to plug up. It is nothing like a conventional oil burner system.

Most who build it say its an ingenious design.

 

[Murphy2000]

And if anyone is interested, check out www.MurphysMachines.com

Thanks,