Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about 5 meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that this was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife thinks there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?

On 08/05/2018 10:23, wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about 5 meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that this was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife thinks there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?


In general my oil tank does not smell. I suspect you have a leak.


--
Michael Chare

On 08/05/2018 10:49, Michael Chare wrote:
On 08/05/2018 10:23, wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about
5 meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that
this was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife
thinks there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?


In general my oil tank does not smell. I suspect you have a leak.



Or because it's just been refilled possibly some spillage outside of the
tank.

Last summer in very hot weather I was standing on top of a fuel tank nk
(one foot on a ladder, one foot on the tank) cutting down a friend's
overgrow hedge and despite a prolonged spell of hot weather in the
preceding couple of weeks no smell of fuel was detected.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Thanks both.

I have called in the experts.

On 08/05/2018 11:09, alan_m wrote:
On 08/05/2018 10:49, Michael Chare wrote:
On 08/05/2018 10:23, wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about
5 meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that
this was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife
thinks there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?


In general my oil tank does not smell. I suspect you have a leak.



Or because it's just been refilled possibly some spillage outside of the
tank.

+1

---
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"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
Or because it's just been refilled possibly some spillage outside of the
tank.

+1

Sometimes you can get a lingering smell from outside of the filling
company's hose if it's got oil smeared along the length (eg because some oil
has spilled on it while it''s been wound up on the rell on the lorry) and
that oil then transfers to the ground that the pipe has laid on during
filling.

It doesn't take much oil to leave a very all-pervasive smell. I don't notice
it too much - it's not as bad as petrol, although being a heaier fraction it
doesn't evaporate as quickly) but my wife notices it. Even if I get a bit of
diesel on my hands when I'm filing up the car (despite wearing the plastic
gloves) my wife says she feels sick and makes me go wash my hands.

Yes in his vegetable plot.
He might have a not verywell fitting cap?
Brian

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"Michael Chare" wrote in message
news
On 08/05/2018 10:23, wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about 5
meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that this
was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife thinks
there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?


In general my oil tank does not smell. I suspect you have a leak.


--
Michael Chare

wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about 5
meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that this
was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife thinks
there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?


I wonder if just occasionally a batch is more aromatic for some reason. We
do not have a tank but our neighbours do and it is only a few years old.In
2016 it stunk like blazes all summer though fortunately it did not pervade
the house.
The greenhouse was affected badly as being up the garden it was fairly
close on the other side of the fence and with side and roof vents open in
warm weather sucked the smell in. We get on well with the neighbours so it
was no problem to mention it and they were quite embarrassed , being not
too practical people they let me poke around the tank . Found no leaks and
even dug a few inches around it to see if any spillage soaked in the soil
but no wetness found. There was a loose cap on a pipe but that turned out
to be the dip pipe for the built in bund compartment and that was dry.
Nothing more could be tried so had to live with it for the year,
2017 no problems at all. All that was different was the oil inside which
had been refilled a couple of times.
Do the suppliers vary the composition of heating oil slightly between
summer and winter?
I wondered perhaps if the neighbours in 2016 got a top up of winter grade
if such a thing exists just before the season changed and that if it had
more aromatics in it we were stuck with it warming up in that summer.

GH

"Marland" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Do the suppliers vary the composition of heating oil slightly between
summer and winter?
I wondered perhaps if the neighbours in 2016 got a top up of winter grade
if such a thing exists just before the season changed and that if it had
more aromatics in it we were stuck with it warming up in that summer.

Almost certainly heating oil is like diesel in that there are
(theoretically) different grades for summer and winter.

However heating oil, unlike diesel in a vehicle, stays in the tank for many
months, so if they filled up with summer oil it may go waxy in the winter.
So heating oil may *all* be winter grade to allow for the worst case of -20
deg C in a cold winter, even if supplied during the summer.

I've forgotten how long our 1400 litre tank lasted.

For diesel, are there disadvantages with winter diesel (cost; combustion
temperature and hence vehicle performance)? I presume there must be,
otherwise they'd use winter diesel all the time to avoid having to manage
the changeover.

On 08/05/2018 11:09, alan_m wrote:
On 08/05/2018 10:49, Michael Chare wrote:
On 08/05/2018 10:23, wrote:
Hi All,

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about
5 meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that
this was just normal for the weather we had this weekend. But my wife
thinks there must be a problem.

So, are your tanks also smelly at the moment?

In general my oil tank does not smell. I suspect you have a leak.

More likely if it has just had a recent delivery that there is a minor
spill or overflow of diesel foam from the expansion vent.

Or because it's just been refilled possibly some spillage outside of the
tank.

+1
Last summer in very hot weather I was standing on top of a fuel tankÂ* nk
(one foot on a ladder, one foot on the tank) cutting down a friend's
overgrow hedge and despite a prolonged spell of hot weather in the
preceding couple of weeks no smell of fuel was detected.

I generally notice a trace from the expansion vent but nothing more than
that. A good indicator of a leak is next time it rains hard look for
rainbow like interference colours on the wet surfaces near to the tank.

If it is a metal tank it might be worth getting someone to do a
thickness test as they eventually fail on the boundary between the water
accumulated at the bottom of the tank and the oil. Leakage tends to be
faster when there is a full tank of oil above providing the pressure.

My old one was shown to be rust held together by Hammerite when it was
replaced - it looked fine externally but had rotted on the inside.

But my money is on the recent delivery being a bit messy. YMMV

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Wed, 09 May 2018 15:12:35 +0100, NY wrote:

"Marland" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Do the suppliers vary the composition of heating oil slightly between
summer and winter?
I wondered perhaps if the neighbours in 2016 got a top up of winter
grade if such a thing exists just before the season changed and that if
it had more aromatics in it we were stuck with it warming up in that
summer.

Almost certainly heating oil is like diesel in that there are
(theoretically) different grades for summer and winter.

However heating oil, unlike diesel in a vehicle, stays in the tank for
many months, so if they filled up with summer oil it may go waxy in the
winter. So heating oil may *all* be winter grade to allow for the worst
case of -20 deg C in a cold winter, even if supplied during the summer.

I've forgotten how long our 1400 litre tank lasted.

For diesel, are there disadvantages with winter diesel (cost; combustion
temperature and hence vehicle performance)? I presume there must be,
otherwise they'd use winter diesel all the time to avoid having to
manage the changeover.

Paraffin (kerosene) is/was used to create a 'winter fuel mix' for diesel
engined vehilcles where up to 25% of the mix was paraffin(kerosene) which
did reduce performance slightly. Unfortunately, because paraffin
(kerosene) isn't available with road duty tax pre-levied, that advice in
diesel engine car(automobile) owner's manuals' of three decades or so
back, became "Up to 25% of unleaded petroleum (gasoline) may be used to
lower the waxing temperature during the winter season." just to stay this
side of "The Law".

So, my guess is that there's no such thing as "summer" and "winter"
grade paraffin (kerosene) or, for that matter, JP4 aviation fuel for
passenger jets routinely flying at altitudes where the air temperature
can be as low as -60 deg C. Otoh, there obviously are summer and winter
grades of DERV which might[1] matter in the case of large tanks of the
stuff used to fuel large emergency standby generators.

[1] A permanent installation of such a diesel powered standby emergency
generator only needs to ensure that the fuel storage tank and pipework is
kept above a minimum temperature which is usually done by the simple
expedient of keeping it indoors alongside of the 100KVA or larger genset
in the generator/boiler room or house. Otherwise for an outside tank,
it's just a matter of insulation and some form of tank heating and
insulated pipe feeds wrapped with heater tape.

The energy costs of keeping 'ordinary' diesel from waxing under very
cold winter conditions in an emergency backup system is chicken feed
compared to all the other running costs of maintaining such a system
serviceable at all times, especially since it removes the question of
when to change from 'summer' to 'winter' grade diesel fuel.

Although a smaller tank of 'winter grade' fuel *might* be maintained as
an emergency startup fuel in case a problem in the temperature
conditioning of the main tankage arises at the worst possible moment,
it's more likely that redundancy in the pipework tape heating system
would be utilised to overcome that very small risk of failure - I'm not
an emergency standby power systems engineer by trade.

--
Johnny B Good

On Tue, 8 May 2018 02:23:43 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

We recently had our tank refilled and it was very smelly within about 5
meters in any direction of it over the weekend. My feeling was that this
was just normal for the weather we had this weekend.

Ours doesn't normally smell but a hot still day there can be a bit of
odour. Tank sit's in full sun.

--
Cheers
Dave.