Pumping kerosene (heating oil)

Jez

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,073
Hi,

I have 2 large tanks of kerosene on this land which are used for heating systems for various outbuildings and the two houses. I would like to transfer oil between the tanks occasionally if one of them gets overly low in order to allow me to run them out at the same time, so that i can get one large delivery to fill them up and thus getting lower prices and less hassle of the multiple visits from the lorry etc.

Id like some sort of pipe that i can stick in the top of one, then in the top of the other, and then switch on some kind of pump in the middle.

So, the question. What sort of hose/pump do i need for this! And where might i obtain such a beauty.

Many thanks,
Jeremy
 
i saw a nice overclocked one did 297mhz on MM.

Just kidding!!!!!

I have no idea use a garden hose and run if it looks like its going to blow up.
 
Depending on the distance between the tanks use a drill pump. Only £12 from machine mart and it's plastic-on-plastic for the rotor housing so there is no danger of ignition. Chuck a couple pieces of garden house onto it and away you go.

I used mine to shift lots of red diesel from storage tanks, great when coupled with a cordless drill.
 
SB118 said:
Depending on the distance between the tanks use a drill pump. Only £12 from machine mart and it's plastic-on-plastic for the rotor housing so there is no danger of ignition.
Click to expand...

plastic on plastic can still cause a static charge iirc, maybe best to earth them first?

KaHn
 
Id never heard of machine mart before, looks like a good store! :) One in swindon which is relatively close i guess.

Am i looking at the [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Clarke CPP3000 - Drill Powered Water Pump [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Compact lightweight electric drill powered pump, ideal for transferring light liquids such as fresh water, sea water, dilute organic.. [more] [/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]£10.99 (£12.91 inc. VAT)[/font]​

?? Says its for water, i assume it must be ok with kerosene if it was ok with deisel. Looks powerful enough, one tank is approx 1m higher than the other, and around 30m away. 40-50ltr/min sounds great too.
 
That's a more heavy duty version of what i picked up. Mine was plastic body with plastic internals.

Similar to this one but with integral barbs. Might just have been a shelf item not in the catalogue.
 
Which would you get? The £13 one on machine mart or that £5 one off ebay?

How does the drill attach to the ebay one do you think? It doesnt look to have a spindle like the machinemart one? Also, the connections on the ebay one look annoying, the machinemart one looks like i could just slip hose onto either side

Cheers for your replies matey :)
 
If you check your local hardware place they should have a better version of the plastic pump, i just grabbed the ebay link as i couldn't find the exact one that i've got.

The larger one might be fine, but it's got metal moving parts which would make me somewhat jumpy when pumping fuels.

I'm looking for a pic of the one i've got, or i'll dig through the shed tomorrow and snap mine.
 
Found a pic here, doesn't look much but i've used mine to empty fuel tanks on cars when broken down/being sold, etc and that was just using a cordless. When i used a mains drill i could emtpy tins of used veg oil and that is a touch thicker ;)

With the distance you might want to consider a non-return valve when you are trying to prime 30m of hose.
 
This is the description of the one on machinemart, it does mention heating oil:

Compact lightweight electric drill powered pump, ideal for transferring light liquids such as fresh water, sea water, dilute organic solvents, motor oil, heating oil, insecticides & liquid fertilizers.

Youve made me worried though about the metal innards! Re the priming thing, i assumed that the pump would just pump air for a short time and would pull the fuel through?
 
A piston pump will be self priming, but a rotary pump will not.

Ways to tell will be a piston pump will have the inlet and outlet on opposite sides of a flat (or nearly so) round "head" on the opposite end of the cylinder from the rotating component. A rotary pump will have the inlet in the middle of the flat part opposite the part you turn, and the outlet will be on the circumference of the circle.

If I confused the hell out of you (which considering my dodgy description won't be too hard) I can draw up a quick pic in paint.

Oh, and at the slow RPM's a cordless drill will be spinning (500-1500RPM) the chances of a spark igniting fuel oil with metal pump components are next to nil.


[EDIT] Why not just use a fuel pump from a Diesel car? I would imagine you could scavenge one out of a scrappy for peanuts. Self priming, designed for the medium you're pumping, cheap to use and cheap to pick up. Biggest problem would be supplying it with the required 12VDC....
 
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i dont think a pump from a car will lift to the heighgt you need, especially over such a distance.

need something with a decent head output. and seeing as the pump will have to be at grade...you catch my drift?

what is the elevation from grade to the top of the tank.

the pump is going to need priming i think to help keep the inlet line primed, to aid in drawing the fluid form the first tank.

not that i design process plants or anything ;) i dont work with small stuff normally. only big boys toys. which in fact is far more simple. but the principles are the same.
 
For the volumes you'll be working with, get a mains-operated pump. It will be slightly more expensive initially, but if it's something you are going to do on a regular basis, the outlay is worth it....
 
Um, it may be me being stupid, but why don't you put the pipe at the botom of the tanks. That way the level of kerosene will balance out on its own without the need for a pump.
 
that would be possible. but i would only suggest that with a permanent piping connection, and a balance valve.
also. if the tanks do not already have these connections then they will need to be emptied, and have the new connection added to the tank. not so easy.

you could connect the 2 drains of the tanks to balance them both, but when you are finished you end up with a long long pipe full of wasted fuel oil (30metres)...unless it is a permanent fixture, then it doesnt matter so much.

you will be creating a low point in the system. would need a drain on the balance line if for any reason you needed to disconnect it, you need to drain it first.
 
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I'll ask my Dad for you later.

He has a lot of experience with large gas and fuel tanks, and used to maintain the guages for loads around the world.
 
Ok be very very careful with this sort of thing,

DO NOT use any electrically driven pump unless it is rated for this sort of duty. While kerosene is not petrol it will still burst into flames if you treat it badly enough.

Be very careful of leaks you do not want to lose a drop cause the fines for polluting ground water and heaven forbid any surface water are HUGE.

Water contamination would be a problem with the "autoblancing idea" casue you would have produced a new low level.

There are allot of laws on this sort of thing and while i have in the past worked on tank farms (for oil refinerys and airports) I am way off speed on the rules for "small users".

How much Qty are we talking about, How far apart and any hieght diffrence involved? and how fast do you want job done?

Also Tank sucking is likely if the vents on the tank are not designed for what your doing, (for those who dont know this is pulling a vaccum on the tank by pumping the fluid out faster then the breathers can let air in) Fuel tanks are not designed for vaccum service so it will crush up like a tin can under only a few mH20 , and ive seen it done on tanks 50m wide and 25m high before.

I would suggest talking to your supplier and asking him if you can split a load between the two tanks, got to be easier that this mini buncefield in the making.
 
Whitestar said:
Um, it may be me being stupid, but why don't you put the pipe at the botom of the tanks. That way the level of kerosene will balance out on its own without the need for a pump.
Click to expand...

Was about to say that myself!!!!
 
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