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275 gal oil tank basic basement install advice

hh409
hh409 Member Posts: 14
i plan on removing my old 550 in ground heating oil tank and installing a

basic 275 horizontal tank in the basement. are all tanks,

warranties,fittings lines etc. generic basic items or are there specific

manufactures that make a better product. granby is a name i see

appearing a lot. the plumber i plan to use said any tank that is "UL"

listed is adequate, and that doubled walled tanks or containment tubs

would be overkill.



based on my research so far it seems nobody puts too much thought into

oil tanks. many experienced plumbers i have spoken to say for a basic

275 basement install they just get whatever the local supply house has

in stock providing its UL rated. the local plumbing supply places i have

called just stock "basic" single walled tanks.







i have a nice discrete corner where a basic 275 would fit nicely. the

decision i need to make is whether to get single walled basic or double?

tomorrow i will call granby to get info on their double walled tank.

perhaps i am over-thinking this too much, i hear catastrophic failure would be unusual. i need to make a decision ASAP

before the in ground tank runs too low and ill be forced to get another

minimum delivery.







i am leaning towards the basic single walled with an alarm perhaps?

any thoughts?







thanks

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thanks in advance for the advice

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Comments

  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Steel Oil Tanks:

    I heard recently that Granby was going to stop making single wall steel tanks.

    The town I live in quietly passed a local regulation ordering all single wall tanks whether inside, outside or underground to be replaced with double wall tanks.

    I have a 12 YO inside tank. Inside single wall oil tanks last a minimum of 20 years and do not suffer catastrophic failures. They just start weeping on a connection. Still, I am being forced to replace a perfectly good oil tank for no other reason than that someone thinks it would be a good idea. No thought on what it will cost me.

    Double wall or Roth/Schutt type tanks aren't all that more expensive either. I personally wouldn't put in a new single wall tank unless you are going to LP or Nat. Gas.

    Which in my opinion is part of the plan to switch USA heating to Nat. Gas. Then they will really own the price. The Wall Street Crime Syndicate will control the price from in the ground to the meter at your house. No middle person except the speculators and Hedge Funds.
  • billtwocase
    billtwocase Member Posts: 2,385
    Ice

    You may be misinterpreting that "law". If your tank is replaced, it may be only with a double wall tank. I think that has become the norm lower Cape. I only deal with upper Cape, and that has not been a thing yet. They can't "make" you replace your tank prematurely. 
  • bill_105
    bill_105 Member Posts: 429
    edited March 2013
    What I was thinking

    Was Wall street crime syndicate, speculators, hedge funds,catastrophic failures and weeping. Then along comes that wonderful,"Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to getcha"  :)
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Local Regs:

    I haven't gone to the town offices about it but I had a gas inspection and I think that the plumbing/gas inspector made mention of it. I asked someone on the board of Health that I fly to work with often and he affirmed it. But didn't agree with it.

    Then, there's the issue of Septic Tanks. Three towns went into cahoots to build a septic disposal station back a few years ago. Before I moved here. To keep the plant solvent, you MUST have your tank inspected and pumped on a regular basis. They keep track of the inspections and pumping's. I get a letter regularly reminding me that I haven't had my tank inspected or pumped and it is time.

    When I built the house in 2000, it was built as a 4 bedroom house. It is a standard 1 1/2 story Cape with a 2 car garage. Because I lacked the wisdom to leave the above the garage unfinished, and finish it for an office, with no closets, bathroom, or any other amenity that would make it qualify as a bedroom, the building inspector ruled that it had the "POTENTIAL" to be a bedroom sometime in the future by putting in closets and putting  dormer and making it a legal bedroom. So I had to redesign my septic system for a FIVE bedroom house. So, I have a five bedroom septic with two people living in the house. My wife spends 5 months in Florida.

    I have spent 12 years cultivating the flora and fauna of my septic tank. I told them that they could take their list of approved septic pumpers, one who is all the way from Worcester, and use it next to the john for convenience. That I still have open water at the inlet of the tank and less than a 3" crust at the outlet. That I had put risers in the inlet and outlet with cast iron covers so the yard didn't need to be dug up to inspector or pump. That if any one of they or their minions wanted to drop by and give it a look, they were welcome to. Other than that, I'll send them photos of the outlet tee.

    But I wasn't going to pump it, just so they could fund the treatment plant.

    The plant just closed because of a lack of pumping.

    The reactionary tree huggers are always trying to find ways for punishing other people. While some of them have overflowing pits and fields.

    Don't do as I do, do as I say.

    The grass is always greener over the leech pit or field. If you see Phragmites growing in a yard and there are no other like kind wetland plants around, they are probably feeding on the Nitrogen in the septage. Because as an old farmer friend of mine says, if you don't use nitrogen in your daily functions, you ain't of this earth. Our atmosphere is 79% nitrogen.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    I think:

    I think that they call that collateral damage.

    Comes under "The Laws of Unintended Consequences". No good deed goes unpunished.

    Their good deed, they gain wealth. Your consequence: You pay for it. Whether you need to or not.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    "THEY"

    I think that "THEY" have made an arbitrary and capricious decision by ruling on how long a steel, inside tank will last.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    Chortle

    couldn't agree with you more, ice!  Lovely series of posts.



    Just don't ask me about my septic system... but I do get 40 tons of hay off that field every year...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    40 tons of hay:

    You nasty invironmental rascal.

    All that Nitrogen being sucked up by the root system. Sucking Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere and sending back the original atmospheric pollutant, sent there by plants. OXYGEN. And then, in the form of Dew, that moisture in the atmosphere collects Nitrogen and deposits in on the plant leaves where it gets absorbed and used. Then. there is all that polluted rain. Polluted with Nitrogen, watering the plants of the earth. Simply disgusting.

    Simply shocking.

    I spread my used horse poop and soiled bedding on all my plants and lawns. I have never ever taken my animal soil to the recycling center and paid to get rid of it. What I don't use, someone will take away. Free for the taking. First come, first serve.
  • STEVEusaPA
    STEVEusaPA Member Posts: 6,506
    I"m more of a suburbanite Ice....

    could you explain "used horse poop"?........lol
    steve
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Explanations:

    Easy.

    Fresh or "new" is fresh out of the animal and goes out to the manure pile with the soiled bedding. Wood shavings. The good pine kind, NO sawdust. It gives the animals breathing problems.

    Used, is when it comes out of the pile when all the little natural orgasms have had their fun, heated up the pile and supposedly killed off all the weed seeds by the generated heat. The stuff you pay good money for to spread on your lawn and shrubs.

    In Central Florida, W. Palm Beach and Wellington, there really isn't any topsoil. So all the horse facilities pay to have their used horse poop picked up and taken away. Taken away and mixed it with sand to make loam. Found in the finest yards in Florida. All from used horse poop.

    Another factoid of useless information, Horses are adapted Ruminants. Unlike a cow, deer, goat or any other ruminant animal with multiple stomachs, horses only have one and need to eat a lot more than a cow because they don't process feed as well as a cow. So, their manure is just chewed up grass, hay and grain. High in essential plant food that lawns and gardens just love. It makes the best plant mulch.
  • MikeL_2
    MikeL_2 Member Posts: 486
    extend tank life & reliability with good install practices .........

    Most supply houses stock 12 gauge single wall tanks; 10 gauge tanks are available by special order.

    We like to air test new tanks once we get them into the basement, usually to 3psi for 24 hours.

    Connecting the fill and vent piping with swing joints will help reduce stress on the bung welds as the tank settles during filling.

    Pitching the tank towards the bottom port and connecting the oil line there will reduce the accumulation of condensation / moisture.

    We keep the oil line piping tucked under the tank, out of harms way, and always secure the filter sturdily to an adjacent wall.
  • Ron Jr._3
    Ron Jr._3 Member Posts: 603
    Some tanks specifically state

    not to pressure test a tank on a new install . And honestly I think we had just one out of thousands that had a leak on the first fill up .  A good idea is to have someone at the tank while the first delivery is pumping in .  Swing joints are a good idea and we use them all the time too . We even use a swing joint out of the bottom , just in case someone uses the valve as a step up  :)  If it's a basement tank we try to pipe the supply and vent through wood instead of concrete so there is always a little play . Ever have a tank fall a bit when cutting the fill pipe that was going through a cement wall ? It's a miracle they dont tear apart at the threads on the nipple with all that weight !
  • heatpro02920
    heatpro02920 Member Posts: 991
    I havent done a new oil tank install in

    11 months!!! {I had to look it up}....  I remember doing at least 3 tanks a month not that long ago, not anymore...   I have done replacements in the last year, but for the most part when the tank is ready to go the boiler isnt far behind, so I just sell them propane most of the time... 



    Swing joints are code here so that is not an optional install {nor should it be}, I invented a wooden triangle that we paint black with a red sticker I have made that says {Fireomatic shut off beneath} That we place over the bottom tap, it has a cutout for the oil line and I always mont my oil filter at the tank on a wall with a peice of strut and hangers {we plasma cut a relief in the strut so the filter can sit inside it a little and the piping can reach the hangers}.  I used to install the filter on the tank like everyone else, but over the years wanted to distinguish myself as better than the normal comapnies so came up with my own method, back when we were actually doing them, I have had many insectors scratch their head and say "wow, good idea, looks good"....   Also had inspectors say "wheres the stairway switch?" and when my tech showed him it was outside the mechanical room door not on the stairway "we got failed" this happened today, so I had my tech move it, even though I could show him the code, I would rather not, now the customer has 2 emergency switches...
This discussion has been closed.