I searched around and haven't been able to find anything similar... It's been a few months since I had tank filled, gage reads less than 1/4. Ordered some oil and after pumping less than 20 gallons it sprays back. It won't take any more. He tries again, no dice. Since we use the oil for domestic HW I know there is no way the tank is full after 3 months of use. This happened while I was out so I don't know if vent whistle was working or not. Have been in the house since 2000 and never had a problem before. The guy said he was new at this and he wasn't sure if he was doing something wrong. Could he have had the flow rate cranked up too high? Ideas welcome...

 

Sounds full to me. If you have the the clear gauge that screws off lift the red indicator and see if it's stuck. Sometimes it gets stuck and reads incorrect. You could pull a extra plug off and stick the tank but sometimes a chore.

 

Hi Mike –

I’m no expert to say the least, but if your gauge reads ¼ and you were at full 3 months ago, then that says you used ¾ tank from late spring to this point in summer. That doesn’t sound right to me. I use oil also in the summer (isn’t that a joy, lol) for DHW, but I believe my average is much less than a gallon per day.

But I could be wrong and your rate might just be much higher. Just seems like that gauge can’t be right.

 

When I was monitoring my oil consumption for DHW more closely, I used about ⅓ of a gallon per day for two adults . . . . so 20 to 30 gallons for 3 months wouldn't surprise me.

 

Fuel consumption for just DHW is nothing compared to space heating. Suspect your tank's gauge is bad.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Today I was able to unscrew the plug and put a measuring stick in there and it looks roughly 1/4 full. Next I checked the fill pipe and put a small snake in there with no issues. On to the vent; it had quite a restrictive blob of white spider egg-kind of stuff under there. I was then able to pass the snake through without any issues. So I'm hoping it was only the restrictive vent causing the problem... We'll see. I was guessing on the previous fill, which was actually back at end of March.

 

Was the white stuff in the vent cap ?

 

Yes in cap and last inch of pipe.

 

I would think that if there was that much 'back pressure' that the whistle wasn't working.

Being a 'new guy' perhaps he needs to be better trained. If the whistle doesn't start IMMEDIATELY the operator must IMMEDIATELY stop the filling.

 

Was there a screen in the vent cap and is that one inch vent pipe? Can use a piece of old steel window screen under it till you get new cap if it was missing. Hope what you did fixed your problem.

 

There was no screen under the cap; not a bad idea. The vent was the problem. He had no trouble filling tank. Thanks for the help guys.

 

A neighbor just had a similar problem. There was a wasp nest in the vent pipe.