Oil heat question

RayWohlfarth

My customer has two oil fired burners. They are in desperate need of replacement and the owner is planning to replace the boilers with natural gas ones this spring. The supply oil line, 3/8" tubing, has a hole somewhere between the buried tank and the burners. The tubing is buried underground. Any suggestions of what to do is certainly appreciated. Not sure if the return tubing drops as far into the tank as the supply. Thank you in advance

Ray

RayWohlfarth

Here are the tank connections Not sure if the returns go low enough to suck oil Thanks

ratio

Just spitballing, Ray, but when I had my old galvanized water service replaced, they chained a new piece of K copper onto it & pulled it in with the hoe. Maybe something similar will work for your customer?

Jamie Hall

I like @ratio 's idea up there. The only real risk there is that the old line may not be strong enough anymore to withstand the pull — but if you know it's leaking, the sooner you get it out of there the better.

Which brings up a rather more expensive point: if you know you have a leaking line, you know you have contaminated soil. Fortunately, heating oil or diesel doesn't migrate in the soil the way gasoline does — but it's still contaminated soil. Sooner or later the owner is going to be responsible for remediating it. Which entails digging the line up, locating the leak, and removing the contaminated soil around it. If they are going to do that, might just do the job combined with replacing the line.

Grallert

I wouldn't trust any of it. Sometimes you can just move the return line over to the suction side, but again it all looks sus. You don't want to be the last person to have touched a fuel spill. You could remove the bypass plug and install a tigerloop. I would suggest a temporary tank above ground or indoors.

HVACNUT

(1) Run new temporary exposed oil lines. Go through a basement window or something, and run the tank dry. Do what's needed to protect the oil lines.

(2) Pump over to 55 gallon drums near or in the basement. Run new oil lines from the drums. Do what's needed to protect the drums.

(3) Tiger Loops for both burners. No guarantees.

leonz

Please don't hate me for the suggestion Ray,

but he can keep the existing oil system and use a permanent EPA approved above ground Highland Petrohopper equal to his buried tank size and have an oil tank within a tank with the Petrohopper design and use a Petrometer oil level gauge to provide him with the tanks oil level at all times or he could leave the gauge outside using an exterior all weather gauge in a weatherproof enclosure supplied with the gauge kit.

He could empty the buried tank and filter the oil as it is pumped into the Petrohopper and occasionally add either HEET or 911 fuel treatment to it with each load of fuel.

The Highland Petrohopper has been in use for several decades now and with its tank within a tank design it makes the EPA happy.

The Highland Petrohopper has two attached(welded) skids that the outer tank rests on in its design to allow it to be placed on pavement or a heavy pressure treated lumber floor.

He could run the new single oil line in the old trench with the Petrometer gauge tubing in grey schedule 80 plastic conduit from the tank to the building and make a 2 pipe connection in the building from the single suction line.

The Highland Petrohopper oil lines/gauge connections are connected in the top of the tank through the access cover for a top draw connection an easily accessed. An oil level gauge comes with the tank or you could use a remote petrometer gauge as well oo.

Petrometer - 1329-225A - Brochure (1).pdf

petrohopperG_LIT_Hopper-Series (1).pdf

Greening

I'm sure your insurance company (and city hall) will have an opinion on what to do here. I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole, but I don't work in the industry either so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

Maybe customer hires a firm to pull the tank and clean up soil ASAP as that might reduce the contamination (and cost).

Then consider some type of temporary tank outside or in the basement.

RayWohlfarth

Thanks everyone I think he is going to change it all out to natural gas. He has n industrial contracting firm and will just do it a few months before schedule. That whole EPA thing scares me Dont want to be the one they want to blame. My lawyer and I thank you all

Ray

EBEBRATT-Ed

Take the threaded elbow off at the top of the tank on the suction line. Put on a compression adapter on that the tubing will slide through using the old pipe as a sleeve push the tubing to the bottom and pull it up 6-8".

If you don't have a slip through fitting just drill a standard compression adapter out. Run the oil line through a window and sleeve it through electric conduit or greenfield if needed.

EdTheHeaterMan

Is the tank leaking? or is the fuel line leaking? a leaking fuel line is rarely a contaminated soil problem when the line is above the tank and above the burner. That leak shows up as a loss of fuel to the burner and the system goes out on safety. @EBEBRATT-Ed's idea is what I would do as a stop gap, until the gas boiler is commissioned.

Tiger loop at each burner in order to eliminate the need for a return line. That way you only need one of the 4 lines. That one line can handle the GPM of both burners firing at the same time. After the fuel filter, place a Tee fitting to feed each tiger loop separately.

Is there only one fuel line leak? Is the other burner trouble free? If that is the case then use the good fuel supply line until the boilers are decommissioned.

RayWohlfarth

@EBEBRATT-Ed Thanks I appreciate it Just like Macguyver I love it

@EdTheHeaterMan The tank is still in good condition. Five years ago, the same thing happened. We did as you suggested and had both boilers running off the one 3/8" pipe. I think you gave me the idea back then. Now it's doing the same thing.It wont pull the oil out of the tank and we get 25 psi on each burner. It must be sucking air like I do when carrying laundry up 2 flights of stairs. Thanks

Ray