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Waste oil heater

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dhermesc

Well-known Member
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s we a couple waste oil heaters for our shop. They had a 15 gallon or so pot on the bottom with a 10 stack that stood about 6' tall. They were great for using in machine sheds that were nowhere near airtight and put off a fair amount of heat while using up your old motor oil. I haven't seen a new one since then and can't find them anywhere online - I can't even find plans on how to build your own. Does anyone know of a place still selling them (new or used) or plans for building your own online?


I've only seen one at a farm auction in the last 30 years and it sold for $600 - much more than I ever thought it would bring considering it was in pretty rough shape.
 
Is this what you are thinking of. Smudge pot heater
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I think what you are asking about may be called an orchard smudge pot heater also known as a salamander heater. These were possibly out lawed by the Gov. due to air pollution. I found some reference pictures by googling. Leroy
 
Those are about 50X more complicated than the ones I am talking about. The ones we had back then would be more along the lines of a short pot belly stove that you could move around. No fans, not electricity involved.


The ones we had were made out of galvanized metal with an enclosed bushel basket sized reservor for oil on the bottom with with stack made out of 8 or 10 pipe with baffles that stood about 6' tall and vented into shop area - so leaks were a good thing. They would heat a small area so you could slide them close to where you needed the heat while working. To get them to start you dumped a little diesel fuel on top of the oil then shoved a lit piece of newspaper in the pot to light the diesel fuel which then started the oil burning.
 
Smudge pot heater or orchard heater. We had a few on the farm but burned diesel in them. See my photo I posted. You can still buy the. Google smudge pot heater or orchard heater.
 
I have an energylogic heater and it is a very good unit. Not cheap to buy but cost of fuel is zero. I've had to service the burner once in the 15 years I've had it. It doesn't get used full time, I just start it when I want to heat the shop but it heats the shop quickly and is thermostat controlled so it will keep the temp right where you set it. ADB
 
I just googled 'waste Oil heater' and came up with a whole bunch of stuff. My only personal experience with one was at my German mechanic's 5 bay shop where he performed all kinds of maintenace on cars to include oil changes. I did most of my own oil changes back then but would take my waste oil to him. His stove was made in Germany and specifically designed to burn waste oil which it did very well and heated his entire 5 bay shop. He had an extra set of burner nozzles and would change them out daily because the nozzles would get sooted up. Took about 10 minutes to clean with a brass brush. I didn't find the particular brand of stove he had and maybe I will be able to remember it?? He died several years ago so there's no way I can check.


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Please be careful of these open flame heaters!
The term:
Salamander heater,
Brought back memories of this event:
Fire Breaks Out at Steel Mill, at least 7 Injured.

WEIRTON, W.Va. (AP) _ A fire that spread from floor to ceiling within minutes injured at least seven people today at a Weirton Steel Corp. mill.

The blaze broke out at 9 a.m. at the No. 9 tandem mill and was still not controlled at early afternoon, firefighter Shawn Bowers said. The mill rolls steel into sheets after impurities are removed.

From where I was, it spread from floor to ceiling within minutes, said employee Jim Decker, who was burned on the arms. Within 15 minutes, you couldnt tell which end of the mill was which.

The fire was into the rafters and bosses were telling everyone to get out, he said. They were really concerned for our safety. Im OK physically. Mentally, I dont know.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. The section of the building where the fire broke out was down for repairs at the time of the fire, which was contained to the one building on the nearly 800-acre complex.

The cause of the fire was a salamander heater. They were changing out a roll out table and forgot to unhook the Hydraulic line. The line broke under pressure spraying fluid at both high pressure and high volume onto a salamander. The Flame thrower then spread burning fluid over the whole mill.
Insurance payout was over $100 Mill.

Not a fun day!
Keith
 
smudge pots where primarily used for frost prevention in orchards, check ebay, I have seen that a couple of vendors were selling them in California ,

I bought about 30 or so at an auction last year and would sell one, they would likely ship as they can be disassembled and everything fits into the tub if I remember correctly. email is open
 
I think some of you have the wrong concept of how a smudge pot heater originally worked.
They originally were fueled with coke. No not the coke from a 2 liter bottle or the drug of choice by many.
The hard coke as a by product of making gasoline.
The pots smoked fiercely.
This blanket of smoke covered the field preventing heat radiation to the open night sky.
The same way a cloudy night does not get as cold as a clear night.

This practice was pretty much outlawed and they switched over to burning diesel or kerosene and using the heat from the pot to heat the field above 28 degrees.
The rising cost of diesel and kerosene has pretty much made smudge pots obsolete.
You can still find them especially if you look where oranges are grown.
They cost about $100 old used and $300 new.
 
My buddy had one of those heaters and about burned his shop down with it--He would get my waste oil and also several other neighbors--He went out one cold morning and filled it and lit it off--He said in a matter of a minutes the thing was roaring and fire was coming out of it everywhere! He had a old shop with about a ten foot ceiling and the fire got into that but the fire station is only a mile from his place and they got there soon enough and got the fire out. We figured it was partially my fault for if I junked something out or had some old gas I would put it in my 250 gal tote with my waste oil--Must of had too much gas in it! We still talk about it but that is the last time he used it.---Tee
 
If you spray hot high pressure oil onto any kind of heater or open flame you'll probably have a really bad day.
 
My dad had a homemade one in his shop years ago....sorta. His garage was an uninsulated shed that at least kept the wind out. He used an old cast iron box stove, and filled it with wood and anything else that would burn. He had a 5 gallon pail of used oil suspended near the stove and a small petcock in the line to control the flow of oil. It was cold in most of the shed, but near the stove, once it got hot, it thawed out the ice filled tracks of the dozed he had in for track work. I don't think it was an approved appliance.....!

Ben
 
...and he used old galvanized water heater tanks with the ends cut out for stove pipes and a chimney....the thin metal stove pipes turned red pretty fast!

Ben
 
We only used ours in a machine shed with 10' walls and a 16' peak that was open between the trusses. A LOT of heat came off the burning oil and would melt the snow off the roof in an hour or so. The used motor oil would burn remarkably clean and hot - something about the way these fed oxygen to the fuel made them sound like a idling jet engine. When working in an uninsulated tin building with gaps everywhere these heaters were great. Yesterday with temps in the teens + wind chill I would have loved to have one - God knows I have enough old motor oil to burn.
 
When I was a Ford Service Manager around 1990 we heated our service department with a couple of them. It was a way to use up the used oil we accumulated from all the oil changes we did, plus we picked up the used oil from a couple of independent shops in town.

When I was with GM we also heated our service department with one large one. We had a 1500 gallon tank in the basement below the oil change hoist, and the used oil was piped right into the tank. Then pumped back up into the heater on the ground floor.

The ones at Ford were kind of cantankerous, while the one at the GM dealer seemed flawless. But, that's been 25 to 30 years ago and I haven't heard any of them lately. There's a NAPA parts store and service department in the old Ford building now and they have modern gas heaters. Don't know what they do with their drain oil.
 


I wouldn't dream of coming in the house without first changing clothes and showering if I was heating my shop with a smudge pot or two, even if I had plenty of holes in my walls and roof. You couldn't keep me from making it weather tight and insulated.
 
I have used wasted oil heat in my shop for 20+ years. The quality of the newer style heaters is about the same as new cars. I have a new Clean Burn heater that I installed two tears ago. The new technology is amazing. Burns very clean with lots of heat. Trouble free. The old units needed attention almost daily. Only draw back is the price. Not cheap, but if you spread that price over ten years of use it is affordable. Al
 
They were popular around here too and all were home built out of 55 gallon steel drums and some regular wood stove vent piping. They used an adjustable, gravity flow, drip tube to fuel. These were in closed shops and vented through the wall or a glass pane in a window was removed and they went through there with a suitable adapter. Course shops around here back then were home made and leaked like a sieve so C.O. wasn't a problem even though they leaked.
 
I have been heating my shop here in Central Ohio for 20 years with a Lanair waste oil furnace, it works great. I have a couple different water knock outs in my system,,it runs trouble free. Keeping the water out of the oil is the main thing..It's earning it's keep this morning..It's 10F out now
 
YTEPA, according to the EPA,you only have used oil to burn in a heater. Waste oil is a hazmat, and you have to have all of the paper to go with it. Used oil is not controlled. Just a little piece of information I picked up in an EPA inspection. He wanted the storage tanks labeled as such,they were before the day was over :)
 

There are a lot of guys on You Tube building used oil heaters. No fans, no moving parts, nothing but air intake and oil. Real simple. Worth a look. I'd consider building one but my oils are usually water contaminated, not sure how to work around that.
 
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