Waste oil in Boiler anyone???

[quick87ss]

I have a Switzer 1000 gallon boiler. I absolutely love this thing. I'm running in-floor radiant heat on both floors of my 3000 sq ft. house. The first floor has a 1.5" slab of gypcrete. And a dhw coil. This boiler performs absolutely amazing! I keep the house at 73 degrees and have had no problems whatsoever. The family and I are in shorts and t-shirts, no socks all winter. My brother has an identical setup as I do and loves his just as much!

Anyhow, I do all my own vehicle maintenance and so does my entire family. We all have waste oil laying around. I'm kicking around the idea of trying to burn some waste oil in my wood boiler. I'm not thinking of switching back and fourth from wood to oil but more like just supplement a burn on a cold night or if my water temp got too low, I could use a little oil at the end of a burn. I'm thinking maybe a quart at a time or so.

Has anyone tried this before?
I'm back and fourth between trying to make a compressed air/siphon burner or just drip some oil in on my hot coals.
I'm very thankful for the advice and knowledge here and appreciate any help/insight!

 

[TCaldwell]

I think your in uncharted territory, there was a thread a few years ago of someone installing a oil gun into a downdrafter,burning waste or cooking oil. I believe it was a success.

 

[TCaldwell]

I think most of his efforts went into filtering.

 

[3fordasho]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/eko-40-wood-waste-oil-hybrid.163413/

 

[quick87ss]

wow thanks for the quick replies. I've heard that oil guns are quite picky about having filtered oil. I'm guessing its due to the nozzles. I think they use small orifices in an attempt to achieve high efficiencies. I'm not too worried about how efficient the thing is at burning oil, I am just looking to use up some of my waste that is lying around in jugs. here's a video of a very simple (and crude) setup that I think would go nicely into the side port on the Switzer boiler.

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The guy in the vid is a little off kilter but you get the idea, LOL!
I did pick up one of these from ebay for about $20. It looks like it would work,
(broken link removed to https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-Brass-Diesel-Waste-Oil-Based-Fuel-Burner-Spray-Nozzle-1-0-1-5-2-0-2-5m-New/153197100093)

 

[StihlKicking]

I wouldn’t recommend anyone else burning anything in their OWB outside of the manufactures recommendations. That said I take full responsibility for what I do and my OWB burns waste oil just fine.

 

[quick87ss]

I think at the quantity you're talking there's probably no need for any dedicated burner. I burn our waste veggie oil, I just soak it up into sawdust and put it on top of a large flat split towards the side in my down drafting Atmos. Works fine, I just have to keep it off the insulating ceramic nozzle, I'm sure it would degrade it if oil got there before vaporizing.

I never thought of soaking the oil up in something. I'm not quite sure that would take care of the volume that I have available to me. How much can you burn at one time? How much do you think you can burn at one time? You must have plenty of saw dust available also. I wonder if simply using pieces of scrap wood would work? I may have to give it a try.