"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
On Oct 31, 9:48 pm, "Logic316" wrote:
My heating oil tank is pretty old, and is located in my basement. I
have no
idea how much rust might be inside it. Is there any way to gauge it's
structural integrity and approximate remaining lifespan?


How old is "pretty old"?

Typically some water gets pumped into the tank at each delivery.
The water sinks to the bottom, the oil floats on top of that water.
The water rusts out the inside of the tank, resulting in unexpected leaks.

Last month I had a 20 year old, buried 290 gallon tank at my home replaced
with an above ground oil tank.
The building inspector said 50 percent of the buried tanks he sees are
leakers.
I should of asked him what is the average age of the leakers.

Well, it was there since before I was born and I'm sure it was there when my
dad bought the house. So it's 37 years old, at least. I've been pouring a
gallon of alcohol into the tank every year for the past 10 years just to
help keep it clean and get rid of any condensation. It's mounted above the
floor, so I imagine it would probably last somewhat longer on average than
one that's buried. The thing I don't understand is, why the hell didn't the
manufacturers bother galvanizing these tanks? Like a little coat of zinc
would have killed them?

- Logic316


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