Waste Oil Heaters Can Drastically Cut Costly Shop Heating Bills - Engine Builder Magazine

Waste Oil Heaters Can Drastically Cut Costly Shop Heating Bills

When we looked at the numbers, it only made sense to invest in these heaters as a way to cut down on our heating costs, which can be sizeable here in the Chicago area.

The first time I was introduced to a waste oil heater was more than 20 years ago while I was working for Toyota. The heater burned the waste oil that accumulated from oil changes and transmission flushes to produce heat for the shop. It was a great way of getting around the high costs of natural gas used in conventional heaters, plus it got rid of all the used oil that the shop produced.

So, if your engine/performance shop creates waste oil from oil changes or other ­repairs, and you don’t already own a waste oil burner, better think twice.

I’ve turned off our natural gas supply and saved thousands of dollars since ­installing two burners, one for each end of my 6,000-square-foot shop, two years ago.Waste Oil Heater

When we looked at the numbers, it only made sense to invest in these heaters as a way to cut down on our heating costs, which can be sizeable here in the Chicago area.

The heat is clean and smells fine, and the burner burns the oil at such a high temperature that there are very little pollutants going out the exhaust stack.

The one down side of these burners, though, is having tanks to store the waste oil all summer to burn in the winter.

My shop has four 200-gallon tanks outside behind my building that we fill all summer long, and then transfer that oil to our oil burner tank in the winter when we’re ready to burn it.

The cost of those used tanks for storage was $125 apiece and the cost of an oil transfer pump was $450, including the hose that we installed to go through the wall for ease of oil transfer.

Oil Reserves
Between the stored oil and the oil we collected during the summer, we had enough to run the burners all winter, and being near Chicago I don’t need to tell you what a relief that was with the nasty winters we get here.

The burners themselves can be a ­little temperamental and I’ve found through experience that you can keep them running well and your costs down by having only one or two main guys who are familiar with how they work to repair them.

Make sure if you’re purchasing a new waste oil heater to ask if tech support is available. I have an 800 number from the company I purchased my heater from, and the tech support ­people are on the ball and know how to help you get things running when it’s down.

When they don’t work, your engine techs will start complaining quickly. So I keep a torpedo heater around with kerosene, just in case of a breakdown.

So far, we haven’t had to turn our natural gas supply back on at all. Knock on wood; waste oil burners still get a big “thumbs up” from Stephens ­Automotive.

 

You May Also Like

HP Academy Teaches EFI Online

The HP Academy was started to fulfill the need for some sort of formal training for EFI tuning. Two New Zealanders, Andre Simon and Ben Silcock, founded HPA in 2010.

With the ongoing COVID-19 situation, classrooms, as we know them, are not in session. You can’t physically distance in a small class in real life, but you can online. Virtual learning is now the new norm across the country. The racing industry is getting a leg up thanks to one school that is dedicated to online education. 

Utilizing Instagram

“When we started, we had no business at all… that’s when I started using Instagram,” Yaghoubian says. “Back then I didn’t know a lot about social media, but it works for business really well, and especially the automotive industry on Instagram.”

Higher Revving Education

We’ve all seen the ads in magazines and online for schools, classes and seminars on tuning an ever-increasing number of engines and even transmissions in today’s cars and trucks. The better ones will include the use of a chassis dyno to show real-time results of the step-by-step methods they teach.

Chassis vs Engine Dyno

We spoke with a couple shops that utilize both dyno types to get their take on the advantages, disadvantages and reasons to have one over the other or both.

Tradeshow Season

While the rest of the world tends to slow down in the fourth quarter, our industry is starting to rev up. That’s because it’s tradeshow season, and the excitement for next year is always palpable!

Other Posts

Peterson Fluid Systems’ Fat Boy Dirt Late Model Oil Tank

Peterson Fluid Systems’ new 08-0919 Fat Boy Dirt Late Model Oil Tank provides engine builders with more oil capacity when chassis space is limited. With a lower profile design and all the standard features of their race-proven DLM tanks, this tank is 18.62” tall with a 5-gallon capacity. Related Articles – Driven Supercharger Oil – Klotz Filter

Reasons to Change Your Differential Fluid

In our previous episode of AMSOIL Garage, we covered the topic of brake fluid. Similar to that fluid and the lack of understanding surrounding changing that fluid, differentials fall into a similar category. The differential is out of sight and out of mind, so people tend to think the diff is filled for life. That’s

PennGrade 1 Hosts Paralympian and Top Sportsman Driver Matthew Stutzman at PRI

Born with no arms, Stutzman drag races competitively using his feet.

Klotz Pure Estorlin Marine

Klotz Pure Estorlin Marine is high-performance lubricant for marine four-stroke engines.