Copper oil supply lines: what are those loops?

seized123

In photos I see nice circular loops in copper supply lines to the burner. I don't have those on mine, but I do have flat-laying loops above the tank.

Any purpose to these besides extra tubing in case of alterations/ repairs?

For my new upgraded one-pipe supply line, should I make sure there are loops both inside and out? If so, does it matter where the inside ones go (before/after filter, for example, or whatever)?

And how do you make those things - tube bender I guess combining 180 degree bends ...

pecmsg

Movement. Expansion contraction. 
less stress when it has to be moved out of the way for service. 

For a larger loops, by hand or my B Tank. 

All others a bender prevents kinks

Jamie Hall

Mostly for expansion and contraction and flexibility to make connections or take them apart -- loops are nice and neat, but so long as the pipe has wiggles in it, not a big deal.

seized123

Okay, so mostly the idea is to have lots of extra tubing in some form, loop or not, thanks!

pecmsg, what’s a “B Tank”? Like an acetylene tank you just use to just wrap the tubing around and make nice circles?

Big Ed_4

Years back before the tiger loop there was a time that we added loops , in theory it was a form of a check valve . It did not work The upside down filter was another....

EBEBRATT-Ed

Have loops or not it's just for extra tubing the amount of expansion is nothing to consider.

Wrap the tubing around a coffee can or something if you want

MikeAmann

Ed beat me - coffee can, peanut can, etc.

mattmia2

It helps isolate the vibration from the burner and other equipment from the lines attached to the structure somewhat too.

Big Ed_4

Tank hum , it brings me back...

EdTheHeaterMan

I remember the first time I added a loop to a oil tank in 1974 or 1975. The old model J pump had a small plastic air cushion wafer in the pump to reduce the gear set hum from traveling back to the tank which acted as an amplifier. Of course, while doing oil burner tune ups, we would always remove the 8 bolt cover and either clean or replace the strainer. Once in a while, you would find one of those wafers in the clean-out Jiffy-Juice bucket when you were done. OOPS, oh well... too late now! and off the the next call. Most of the time there was no problem anyway.

But the office got a call from a customer about this strange noise coming from the tank. The records show that I just completed the tune up the week before. The service manager took me aside and explained "Tank HUM" and how to fix it with a coil of copper tubing. It stops the harmonic path of the vibration from the pump the the tank.

I was given the task of returning to fix my screw up the next day. When I arrived, I explained the problem to the customer and how it can just crop up after years of quiet operation. But that when I found out yesterday, I was going back to fix it. I thought about it all night and what could possibly cause this noise, and looked it up in my old trade school textbook. That is where the old timers found out about the coil of tubing would fix it.

I added a 2 loop coil at the tank with a flare union and Viola! The noise was gone. Two days later that customer called the office to thank me for the extra effort I made on his behalf. The boss keeps all those complement and complaint cards on all the employees.

Every time there is an employee review, those cards come out. Once I knew this, every time a customer would complement me on a job well done... I would tell them, "you really think so? You know, My Uncle Frank was having a particularly bad day when I left to shop this morning. If you would just call the girls that answer the phones in the office, and tell them what you just told me, that would make his day!" I had the record for complements from customers. My stack of complaint cards was about 1-1/2" tall while the complement stack was over 6" tall. Uncle Frank said I was the only service tech in the company that had more complements than complaints. Go Figure!!

We didn't have social media back in the day, but it never hurts to ask for a good review today, I like the "Boss is having a bad day" approach, it gives the customer a little more incentive!

Mr Ed.