Serviced the Oil Burner, Burning Old Fuel

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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Jul. 25, 2015 9:27 pm

Today I finally decided it was time to service my oil burner on the Weil McLain boiler. I was kind of curious about what I would find since the heating oil in my tank is from January 2011. Since that time I have added about 35 gallons of kero, and the fuel was treated with a stabilizer when the tank was filled. I estimate that I've burned about 150-175 gallons since then. Filter was still nice and clean, nozzle looked great, performance is great, no issues.

What REALLY impressed me was how clean the nozzle/turbulator was on the burner. I bought this Riello burner brand new and installed it in 2009; since that time it has burned about 1500 gallons of oil. I did brush the boiler out once before, but it was burning so clean that I never bothered to touch the burner. I figured when it had burned about 1500 gallons it would be a good time to service it. Today was the day. The combustion chamber was squeaky clean with just some red power here and there (dye from the fuel). The pins in the boiler were still very clean, I could barely get anything off them with the brush....very impressive compared to the soot that used to collect with the previous burner, regardless of settings.

Just thought I would share in case anyone else is getting nervous about some 4-5 year old heating oil in their tank. I haven't had any issues and expect it will be fine for several more years at least.

 
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EarthWindandFire
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Tue. Jul. 28, 2015 3:11 pm

The Riello's are known as the Rolls Royce of burners.


 
scalabro
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Post by scalabro » Tue. Jul. 28, 2015 7:10 pm

Mixing in Aviation kerosene with your #2 will effectively make it last a lifetime, especially in an underground tank.

You can buy it at any small airport that has small turbine jets or helo's.

 
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Rob R.
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Joined: Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:26 pm
Location: Chazy, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
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Post by Rob R. » Thu. Jul. 30, 2015 6:04 am

I only added the kero because the monitor heater in my guest house died and I ended up removing the tank last year. Thankfully there was room in my tank to accept the remaining kero from the outside tank.
EarthWindandFire wrote:The Riello's are known as the Rolls Royce of burners.
What I like about them is they usually run perfectly at the recommended factory settings. I set mine according to the instructions and had an oil tech. do a combustion test on it, he said it was perfect. Compared to the 30+ year old burner that it replaced, the Riello uses less excess air, and produces a much cleaner burn with a lower stack temperature.

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