The cold and the heating oil

Hello,

A week ago it got into single digits and my oil just gelled up.
So I called a heater guy, he suggested to take the oil from the top (4 inches from the bottom). I agreed. In addition he told me that he will remove the circulating oil line.

So he did that and even yesterday with temperatures around 20F, the oil tank kept shutting down.

So my question is. Did I make the wrong decision? Even if he told me water/sludge collects on the bottom, but then you got 200 Gallons of weight trying to push out?

Now everything is driven by gravity... any little of oil gelling up will slow down the flow?

Also he told by removing the circulating oil, any air would cause the oil burner to shut down....

Should I ask him go back to the bottom?

Thanks!

 

What you are asking has been debated ever since oil burners have had pumps capable of pulling fuel from the tank. Having been in the trade 30 years & having oil heat myself, I'll tell you how my tank is set up:
Single line in from the top terminating about 3" off the bottom.
Two filters -- Large cartridge type followed by a spin on with 10 micron filtration.
Tigerloop after the filters.
Tank is sloped 1.25" from the high end (where the oil pick up tube is) to the low end where there's a drain valve.
I burn only ultra low sulfur, off road diesel fuel
Tank is treated annually with a biocide.
I have NO fuel related problems

 

I burn oil and can only repeat what my old time delivery man (he owns the company) said. At the start of cold season he will add some portion of Kerosene to the oil for outside oil tanks, specifically to prevent it from becoming too thick. If your area typically isn't cold enough for something like this it may not be a standard practice. Maine is cold enough.

Talk to your oil company if your service guy doesn't know. I don't know how much he added to a tank.

Bud

 

Bud, That's a large part of why I burn diesel. It has cold flow improvers already in it. Before I got into service work, I drove an oil delivery truck & for our customers with outdoor tanks, we added 20% kero.