best way to remove some oil from an oil tank

[sawdust1]

I'm doing some work for a lady who is switching over from oil heating to colour gas.
I said i would have whats left over when it happens, should be about 1,500L at 20p
per Litre so worth doing.
The problems is i need some oil now, i have ten 25L drums ready but trying to work
out the best way.
I have three 1 inch bore water pumps which i do not want contaminated with oil and thought
they would be to strong a flow to do the job safely.
Thought to syphon with hose would be to slow. And years ago when doing similar with petrol i had
a mouthful so a bit scared to do it again.
I did not want to interfere with the connections at the tap end as she has the heating on.
Any suggestions please.

 

[graduate_owner]

I bought a drill powered pump some years ago and it is surprisingly good. The inlet and outlet pipes are 3/4" and it needs a decent drill running at about 2500 rpm. I filled a 40 gallon drum from my oil tank in about 3 minutes.

K

 

[sawdust1]

Yes i did look on eBay for a drill pump, was going to get one for £10.
Still thinking about it as i did not know if they where any good.

 

[graduate_owner]

Cheap enough, but I had to spend about £15 on plastic tubing. I think mine came from CPC Farnell catalogue. I have used it quite a lot for transferring oil from barrels to tank and vice versa ( when I needed to re-site my oil tank, for example).

K

 

[mbartlett99]

Drill pump is an easy way - use them all the time for lube oil and dirty lube. Get a Jabsco one if its reasonably priced. A decent battery drill will suffice if you can't get mains - though you'll go through a few batteries.

 

[RogerS]

And if she asks you to remove the tank......

drain it of oil (that's obvious)

vent it thoroughly ( perhaps not quite so obvious)

if it's a steel one, then you can angle grind it into two halves to make it easier to move....

BUT....

whatever you do if there is some oil remaining at the bottom of the tank after you have manhandled it about a bit, DO NOT think...'Ah, I know how to get rid of those odd pints. I will stick a cloth into the oil and light it like a candle. It will draw up the oil like a kerosene lamp. All civilised like.

No...it will not. It will get the oil up to ignition point and it will all burn. DAMHIKT. Only luck had me venture outside to find the 6Ft flames starting to lick underneath the rafters on the single storey extension.

 

[RossJarvis]

One way could be to put the outlet into fuel can/drum and pressurise the tank with a compressor, I've done this on a few different tanks. You don't need too much pressure, just volume of air and a bit of tape round the air hose and cap usually works. You need to close any breather pipes and if lucky a siphon will start and that does most of the draining, though continued air pressure speeds it up.

 

[mbartlett99]

And if she asks you to remove the tank......

drain it of oil (that's obvious)

vent it thoroughly ( perhaps not quite so obvious)

if it's a steel one, then you can angle grind it into two halves to make it easier to move....

BUT....

whatever you do if there is some oil remaining at the bottom of the tank after you have manhandled it about a bit, DO NOT think...'Ah, I know how to get rid of those odd pints. I will stick a cloth into the oil and light it like a candle. It will draw up the oil like a kerosene lamp. All civilised like.

No...it will not. It will get the oil up to ignition point and it will all burn. DAMHIKT. Only luck had me venture outside to find the 6Ft flames starting to lick underneath the rafters on the single storey extension.

Now that I would've paid to see. :lol:

 

[adidat]

I moved about 600l with a drill pump, but be careful as I ended up melting the internals as the tank was quite far from the oil barrel I was moving it to. When I realised what was happening the whole unit was almost on fire so that was a very close call....

there where no bearings in my unit just a metal rod set in plastic so it's basically liquid cooled. I think I had been spinning it the wrong way.

Clearly scrumping heating oil is a Somerset/Devon thing!!

Adidat

 

[SKCC]

I was in a similar predicament recently and i used a Jiggle Fuel Syphon that i bought of ebay for less than £10. It could fill a 25L drum in a couple of minutes. I seen it in use on Youtube before buying if you want to check it out.

SK

 

[stuartpaul]

......

BUT....

whatever you do if there is some oil remaining at the bottom of the tank after you have manhandled it about a bit, DO NOT think...'Ah, I know how to get rid of those odd pints. I will stick a cloth into the oil and light it like a candle. It will draw up the oil like a kerosene lamp. All civilised like.

No...it will not. It will get the oil up to ignition point and it will all burn. DAMHIKT. Only luck had me venture outside to find the 6Ft flames starting to lick underneath the rafters on the single storey extension.

Is it just me that finds that almost Darwinian?

 

[nev]

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/produ ... AOEQ2SsIYw

 

[sawdust1]

Thanks chaps now sorted.
Hi Adidat, "oil scrumping" i like that.