Hi all, I have seen a few posts with lots of information about oil
fired central heating systems so am hoping someone could help me out. I
have the sneakiest feeling my ex has sabotaged my oil fired central
heating by putting something like sugar in the tank. How would I go
about finding out if he has? Its still trying to kick in but stops
again after about 3 seconds. (i was turning down the main thermostat
the turning it up again) other than that it was fine up until this
morning....

cold babybanks

In article .com,
babybanks writes
Hi all, I have seen a few posts with lots of information about oil
fired central heating systems so am hoping someone could help me out. I
have the sneakiest feeling my ex has sabotaged my oil fired central
heating by putting something like sugar in the tank. How would I go
about finding out if he has? Its still trying to kick in but stops
again after about 3 seconds. (i was turning down the main thermostat
the turning it up again) other than that it was fine up until this
morning....

cold babybanks

1) Open front door
2) Walk to oil tank
3) Look at funny looking plastic tube type thingiwingy sticking up at
one end of tankiwanky.
4)If funny looking plastic tube type thingiwingy show no juiciwoosy in
tankiwanky phone oil supplier.
5) If funny looking plastic tube type thingeiwingy show juiceiwoosy in
tankiwanky phone service engine from yellow pagiwages.

I had an identical problem about 18 months ago with my ex. The fix was
to introduce 3 teaspoons of Allisons dried active yeast into the oil
storage tank. You can get it from Tesco - it's not organic but seems
to work OK. It's very important how you do this. You mustn't just
chuck it in as it can remain un-dissolved and find its way into your
burner with undesirable results. What you need to do is draw off a
quarter pint of Kerosene from your heating tank and put it in your
airing cupboard for a day or so until it achieves a temperature of 68.8
deg C . Next add 2 teaspoons of sugar to the kerosene and of course
the 3 teaspoons of Allisons dried active yeast. After about 20 minutes
you should have about 1 inch (2.55 cm) of froth on top of the kerosene.
Now is the time. Add the brew to your central heating tank via the
filler cap. You now have to wait for about 2 hours whilst the yeast
converts all the sugar in the tank into alcohol. You should now have a
tank of sugar free kerosene that has the special added advantage as
determined by NASA during deep space probes.

In article .com
babybanks wrote:
Hi all, I have seen a few posts with lots of information about oil
fired central heating systems so am hoping someone could help me out. I
have the sneakiest feeling my ex has sabotaged my oil fired central
heating by putting something like sugar in the tank. How would I go
about finding out if he has? Its still trying to kick in but stops
again after about 3 seconds. (i was turning down the main thermostat
the turning it up again) other than that it was fine up until this
morning....

Are you sure there isn't water in the tank? Seems more likely to me.

There is no way any water could have gotten in, the unit has been
pretty much sealed since the last filling (over 8 months ago) so
wouldnt that have shown up sooner? Also one of the neighbours is sure
they saw him loitering about on wednesday so i figured that would be
about the right time for it to start playing up.... also I love the
dried yeast technique but will have to make sure that it is whats in
there first
Bloody ex's - a right pain in the butt

babybanks - still cold but got the woodburner raging now

Seriously then - if you have a tank full off kerosine contaminated with
sugar then you have a major problem. It will cost a serious amount of
dosh to dispose of a tank full of the stuff but you really have no
other option. You need to talk to the company who supplied the fuel
who should be able to organize it for you. - sorry.

Robert wrote:
Seriously then - if you have a tank full off kerosine contaminated with
sugar then you have a major problem. It will cost a serious amount of
dosh to dispose of a tank full of the stuff but you really have no
other option. You need to talk to the company who supplied the fuel
who should be able to organize it for you. - sorry.

Utter crap. If the tank has a significant amount of oil in it (anything
more than a few hundred litres), you'd need a very large amount of sugar
to make any difference to its burning behaviour.

If it only has a small amount of oil in it (100-200 litres), filling it
up with oil will dilute the sugar to a point where it'll make no
difference to the combustion.

I thought the OP was a troll - just in case it isn't, i very much doubt
that anyone's added sugar to your oil. I think you have another fault.
How much oil is there in the tank?


--
Grunff

On 5 Feb 2006 11:11:42 -0800, babybanks wrote:

There is no way any water could have gotten in,

Condensation inside the tank slowly builds up in the bottom of the tank,
eventually it'll start to be drawn off with the oil.

the unit has been pretty much sealed since the last filling (over 8
months ago) so wouldnt that have shown up sooner?

More likley you are out of oil after 8 months, we can just about do 8
months over the summer and thats 2000l of oil. Just ordered another 2000l
after the last top up late Sept. Check the level. BTW you may need to
open a valve at the bottom of the sight tube to get the current reading.
Sight tubes should not be routinely left with the valve open in case they
fail and leak.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

The tank is still 1/3 full could be even up to nearly half full. I did
the little valve next to the gauge and it only went down by about 1cm.
I also have one of those radio controlled monitoring thingys which is
still saying "5" which I can only assume is still loads left. I shall
be getting one of my heating people on board today hopefully so it
should be all fixed soon with a bit of luck...
Thanks all
babybanks

I suspect you mean '68.8 degrees F'. Having seen your later email I do
wonder whether this is a troll but I do like the concept.

Rob

In article .com
babybanks wrote:
There is no way any water could have gotten in,

But you reckon it might have sugar in it ...

the unit has been
pretty much sealed since the last filling (over 8 months ago) so
wouldnt that have shown up sooner? Also one of the neighbours is sure
they saw him loitering about on wednesday so i figured that would be
about the right time for it to start playing up.... also I love the
dried yeast technique but will have to make sure that it is whats in
there first

I really don't think a bit of sugar in the tank is going to make much
difference to how well it burns - it will mess up a petrol engined car
but an oil burner is rather different.

Bloody ex's - a right pain in the butt

You're supposed to stop that once you've split up.

Hello all again, hopefully this will be tha last you will hear about
this from me! The nice guy came to fix it today, seems it was a
slightly dodgy non return value in the fuel line to the pump that was
the culprit. Now bearing in mind the system has only been in what? 8
months? I would have figured it lasting longer than that before going
tits up... either way it wasnt the ex, but has made me much more aware
of securing the bloody thing in future so he CANT do such stuff as he's
a sneaky bugger!! and it may in the future need this valve replaced but
seems giving it a bloody good hiding has cured it at the moment (oh the
joys of air locks eh?)
so thanks for all your help, and if in future I ever need to troll my
system i have facts!

not cold, in fact toasty babybanks who should turn the bloody thing
down but is making the most of it for a while

Utter crap - Sugar does not disolve in kerosine. It will settle to the
bottom of the tank in a layer no more than 10mm deep. It doesn't
matter whether there is 100 litres or 10000 litres in the tank it DOES
NOT GO INTO SOLUTION you plonker.