Oil tank addative?

Jamie_6

Do they make an addative for residential oil tanks to help clean out the sludge?

Jamie

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Robert O'Connor_6

FPPF

I have used this stuff with success.
http://www.fppf.com/catHomeH.html

You may wish to employ double filtration to solve your problem. If that doesn't work there are companies that clean tanks.

Usually though at that point we just change the tank.

Regards

Robert

ME

BillW@honeywell

Oil additives

The easy answer is yes, these are available. However, you shoul check to see why there is a sludge problem in the first place. Excessive sludge is a sign that water is getting into the tank, either from a leak or a bad load of oil. The problem shows up as a grey or brown slimy coating on the filter that will eventually clog it completely. The culprit is an organism that lives on the interface between the oil and the water in the tank bottom, living off the oil, and growing. The water becomes increasingly acidic, and eventually will eat right through the tank.

It's easy to check for water, just get some water paste from you supply house, coat the weight on the end of your tank tape with it, and lower it slowly into the tank, until it just touches bottom. Allow to sit for a couple minutes, reel it back up and see how much water the color change indicates.

The tank can be pumped out, checked for leaks, and a good-quality algecide and a sludge dispersant can be applied. The key is to ascertain if the tank is leaking. No amount of additive will cure that. If it's leaking, replace it. A wide variety of these products are available at oil-oriented supply houses.

Constantin

Another approach...

... done by sailors and other folks who have to deal with bad fuel from time to time is to 'polish' the fuel by combining a good fuel filtration system (i.e. RACOR turbine or whatnot) with a fuel transfer pump and simply pulling diesel from the tank through that rig until all corners of the tank are clean.

That's one way of doing it without necessitating a second tank. However, as Bill pointed out, the real trick is to figure out how the tank got contaminated in the first place. Bad fuel oil companies do not merit your business, yet how is a HO to determine the quality of the fuel in the first place? Problems usually don't show up for months, making correlation all the more difficult.

The one benefit of domestic oil heat though is that unlike diesel in a marine environment, you're not most at risk during a survival storm situation. When the motion gets rough at sea, the innards of the tanks get agitated to the point where the contamination disperses throughout the diesel. Subsequently, your engine filters clog up when you need them most. Hence a lot of power boats now offer dual redundant filter stations so you can change one while the other is in use (I'm sure this is a job we'd all love to do in a heaving boat).

Lastly, I wonder to what extent I'd have to worry about tank leakage due to water acidity issues when using something like the Roth safety tanks that are made of plastic on the inside.

Weezbo

pump the tank.

change Up to a tiger loop combo.

Ken D.

Additives

Stick the tank with water finding paste to see how much water is in tank. If it is more than an inch, pump the water out. Less than that I have used a variety of chemicals. You can use a water dispersent and sludge disolver, or get a preparation that does both. Read the labels. I have used Aquaban, Sludgeban, Aquasolve, Sludgesolve, Four In One,etc. Add to tank before delivery so the chemical mixes. You may need to treat more than one tankful. Be careful as some products are pour depressants only. They keep the oil from waxifying in extremely low temperatures. Beware of terms on the labels that say "helps or may". My experience says they don't work well. Hope this helps.

Unknown

My tank has seen

it's fair share of crappy oil . When I used to do conversions to gas I would get the leftover oil in the old tank . Crude aint the word for this stuff . I would change my filters at least once a week with that stuff , usually at 1am on a 15 degree night ( well , hell , it was free ) . This was about 10 years ago .

For about 4 years now I dump in Sid Harvey's STR-2 . I also buy my oil COD . Haven't had a plugged filter or strainer in years . I just got my hands on a used Roth tank which I'm going to install when the old tank runs low . I'll take a pic of the inside of the old tank to see how it looks . Gotta be 25+ years old , been sitting outside with no cover all that time .

Unknown

My tank has seen

it's fair share of crappy oil . When I used to do conversions to gas I would get the leftover oil in the old tank . Crude aint the word for this oil . I would change my filters at least once a week with that stuff , usually at 1am on a 15 degree night ( well , hell , it was free ) . This was about 10 years ago .

For about 4 years now I dump in Sid Harvey's STR-2 . I also buy my oil COD . Haven't had a plugged filter or strainer in years . I just got my hands on a used Roth tank which I'm going to install when the old tank runs low . I'll take a pic of the inside of the old tank to see how it looks . Gotta be 25+ years old , been sitting outside with no cover all that time .

J.C.A._3

Try,

Ed Kitchen at Ultraguard. They may just have what your looking for. (I'd bet some money on it)

Like Robert said, if a tank seems that bad, maybe replacement is in order. Chris

fuelservicemanagement.com