Waste oil furnace 

Would be nice if he sold diagrams for what he did..that's a really nice conversion great job

Hey Matt, could you provide prints or a diagram for your conversion? This is by far one of the nicest and cleanest builds I’ve seen on RU-vid.

Thank you! I think that, like most projects, it may seem quite intimidating for a "first timer." But once you dive into the work it isn't all that difficult. I think that a competent auto mechanic could duplicate this project. I didn't know what I was doing when I built my first one either! There have been quite a number of people on the Garage Journal who have built similar furnaces after following my videos and posts.

Innovation and invention is what drives this country. I am proud to be one of the contributors. And you are correct; I STILL don't know yow you became an expert on a furnace that I designed and built.

I certainly appreciate the engineering modifications you have accomplished and the cogent, logical explanations you present. You have done a good job of presenting the information at a layman's level of understanding. I suspect there is a good deal more involved and that your background and experience allowed you to accomplish this, whereas it might bedifficult for the typical home mechanic. Thank you.

I appreciated your idea of the 20 second timer for the float switch. I had one fail on me a couple of years ago and whilst I "only" lost 20L of oil the cleanup was hideous. I set the time constant on my timer to 75 seconds because when the outside temperature dropped the oil became more viscous and the boiler kept locking out. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

You are quite brilliant! Wish I had you for a neighbor so I could pay you to build me a unit like this with such great safety features. Excellent video, great details. Simply astounding.

Great video. I just picked up a fuel oil boiler with a Beckett burner on it with the same intentions. I appreciate you sharing your methods here.

Great build! I have this video saved for reference for when I'm done building my shop!

I had a store bought one for waste oils, and i can attest to these things giving an excellent amount of heat, I heated a 6 bay shop with one, and the oils were free... They are illegal in some places, only because the big oil reclaimer around here lobbied the government to make a bylaw against them,, Bullshit, these things burn cleaner than a regular furnace, but I believe it was safety kleen that lobbied this, their profits were in danger...... Great conversion , you should sell a plan set on how to do what you did qwith all links to buy the parts, I would be first in line to purchase. Thank you for uploading and sharing. Cheers Neal Ward

Impressive. Loved the clean burn. Semi-truck oil changes are a good source of oil.

YOU are a true real ENGINEER , verry rare these days . regards from Sweden

Great work! I have made the same thing but for a hot water tank. Thanks for your guidance. Waste Oil burner

Dude that is freaking awesome. Nice job.

Thanks for the tip! With fall approaching I have my furnace apart, doing some routine maintenance. I will consider changing the primary control...I do have a problem with oil dripping from the nozzle after shutdown.

Awesome video u seem to have the kinks worked out I'm just in the process of putting a waste oil burner together I have just made but I'm not sure how I would get the burner to switch on when the oil is up to temp I'm using a becket burner with a nozzle block I've made from aluminum stock with a cartridge heater in it I'm getting close to getting all the wires hooked up would appreciate some help thks Nigel .

Beautiful. Seriously, the plastic loom to protect your wiring harness, smoothly bent copper tubing without kinks, PID controllers handling oil temp...super nice. Perfect application for the SSR's but you might want to consider adding an upstream mechanical relay and an overtemp sensor because those solid state ones like to fail _closed._ But really outstanding work....

Very impressive! I always look forward to watching your videos

Next time we change out a decent oil burner I am going to build one too. Great vid.

That "dude" in the video is me. I select my donor furnaces for their combustion chamber design. I don't just use any old furnace. And I am no idiot; I am well aware of the liability of putting together a furnace that is operating on a fuel that it was not designed for. What I don't understand is how you suddenly became an expert on a furnace that I designed and built; one that you have never even seen.

Pretty freaking rad. You went at it like Tim the Tool Man Taylor!

You do really nice clean work.

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing in detail!

Hey Matt I’ve been meaning to convert our furnace to used oil in our Auto Repair shop way up here in Canada on Vancouver Island .we have had a bad cold snap and snow this year so I’m now kicking myself for not getting this project done. Any basic info / parts list would be much appreciated. Thx Mike

Love this unreal man I would pay good money I mean really good money for one of these good work man u r the waist oil master

Do you know if it is possible to dilute home heating oil with used motor oil and or commercial cooking oil for home heating and with out making any changes to the home furnace? Also at what present would be the maximum dilution? Hope you know and if you do not can you guide me to where I can find the answer.

What is the biggest BTU furnace I can install this setup on? I think my shop needs at least a 140k.

matt verley, great video. i wanted to ask at 2:50 you explain about the float switch being timed with a manual reset. where can i find the timer you used, thank you

Thanks for sharing! Food for thought...

have you check the co and combustion on it? no soot doesn't always mean it burn right. although often it does mean that

A bolt on flat strip surface heater on the tank bottom would save a lot of work in welding the threaded flange and the overheat/low oil issue. You can buy them in just about any size and wattage. They won't burn out as they are always dry.

Very good video and very nice build. Thanks a lot!

I am using a stainless Hago siphon nozzle; it uses compressed air to atomize the oil and siphon it through the nozzle. The oil supplied to the nozzle is at atmospheric pressure; the function of the oil pump is just to circulate the oil to keep it preheated. The tip of the nozzle looks like a small venturi; large opening for the air, small opening for the oil. Yes, the blast tube still uses a retention head. I made my own one out of 11GA T304 stainless to achieve a better burn pattern.

The exhaust gas is pretty hot (touching the vent would lead to instant burns); but the siding is concrete-based, and the door is steel. It burns clean enough that it doesn't deposit any soot on the paint, so no worries about running it so close to the shop. If you want to build something like this, I suggest you go to the garagejournal (link in my video description); I have an entire "how-to" writeup there, and lots of other people have contributed their own furnace builds.

Nice contraption you build sir .

Have you heard about the used oil furnace from 1950's that ran on water? Patent was issued to army service men in Texas for only adding water line to T fitting for used oil burner on used jeep engine oil, to get 50% increase in efficiency. That was not what was written in their application for Patent. SS coil tubing in brick insulated firepot of oil burner hooked to input common water line. Oil furnace started. Temperature gauge monitored for temp up to 1500 degrees F. Then valve opened so as superheated steam is allowed in T fitting with oil to tiny nozzle. Nice burn flame runs constant. Then oil line shut off. Furnace still runs. Shock wave from 90 lbs pressure to zero AMBIANT in fire-pot forms Hydrogen and Oxygen torch flame that also heats heat exchanger. Normally water molecules separate at about 3000-6000 degrees which is too much energy. The vibration shock wave allows for disassociation at lower temperature. Electric motor with dual shafts ran 2 oil pumps at 90lbs. If water shut off, and cooled down, then furnace has to be restarted on oil. A much smaller unit in crate was shown to a US senator in Washington building underground parking , as an open trunk display. This was somewhat similar to the propane operated camping stove with circular pores, vertical round fire brick insulated chimney, and interior SS tubing of water. When steam introduced to T fitting, the fuel used was shut down leaving burning circular torch flames. It probably used minerals free distilled water so as nozzle would not clog. (US Patent office not allow for over unity for public.- Free Energy is eliminated in issued US Patents. US- 1958, 2,863,499.

I built a waste oil furnace pretty much the same way. How are you regulating the oil pressure after it is split of of the pump. I put a needle valve going to the burner. What do you use?

Hey Matt would you by any chance sell me the parts list that you used to build your waste oil furnace. I bought an fuel oil furnace with a Beckett burner and could use part list and maybe how to plans thanks

I'm trying to find a way to heat my Rv with waste oil. I make black diesel for old diesels and it works great but Im having trouble finding something I can set up for my camper I just don't have the mechanical know how yet I guess. I've also seen some wood furnace with forced air heat exchangers which would work well but I'm not sure I could build them Build looks great tho very thought out

Can one of these be installed in molbil home 75x14 and do you sell these

Do you sell the parts needed and the plans? I think that would be a well sold combination. Tell me when you plan to sell the combo. I have a furnace ready to transform. Thanks for the demo.

sorry. I hit Send before I proofread. I'm having trouble understanding how the burner unit knows to come on after the nozzle heater temp and the oil reservoir temp have come up to operating temperature

Hello, I want to know, will these waste oil boilers work for Hydronic Radiant Floors

Curious how you clean the soot out of your heat exchanger? I've built several and soot build up is alway the downfall!

Did you plug the nozzle port on the fuel pump and just plumb the inlet port and the return/bypass port?

Do you have any Schematics on how to build a oil furnace like that one I'd like to do that for my shop.

It uses about 2 cfm (just a rough guess based on how often my compressor cycles).

Nice rig. What do you use to heat up your waste oil prior to be pumped into the furnace?

I have had good luck burning WVO in my shop furnace; of course it is converted to a siphon setup similar to the furnace in this video. I have never tried to burn WVO in an unmodified burner. I'm not sure of they year of the furnace in the video; I would guess around 2000. As far as differences between this one and yours...I have no idea! I have wrenched on a number of oil furnaces over the years, and they were all very different from one another.

What size siphon nozzle do you use actually a 1gph nozzle or is metric 1.5 or 2.0mm

Hi! Do ou do this as a service to pay for? Thanks! Love this!

Love the furnace so much I building my own. Could you explain how the burner blower turns on after the temps are up. Thanks

great info! can u tell me what the part number of the the relay controlled by the float switch? I was a little confused as to how this relay was used to both power the transfer pump and power the heating element in the tank. ? or did u use two separate relays since you don't want power to the tank heating element until the full tank condition is triggered (float switch contact opens). Are you wiring the float switch in series before the temp controller so that the controller doesn't see the heat call until the tank is full?

Do you have a schematic drawn up for this? If so, could I get a copy? Great design.

Do your temp controllers shut off with the thermostat? Or do you let the keep temp?

I would agree, if this was a standard pressure nozzle setup. I have the siphon nozzle tee-ed into the pressure side of the pump, and returned to the siphon tank (at atmospheric pressure). The oil dripping is what is left in the line that runs from the tee to the nozzle after the pump shuts off. Adding a few seconds of igniter/air operation after the pump/blower shut off would eliminate the drip, I think...

The furnace in this video came with one installed; I removed it when I did the conversion. The function of a tiger loop is to eliminate air bubbles in the heating oil, correct? I think that, since I am intentionally introducing air into the fuel at the nozzle, the tiger loop would have little effect on the furnace's operation.

a pre and post purge control should definitely help that have you ever looked into a tiger loop?

thanks for the reply. I understand how the thermostat works. I'm just not sure how once the thermostat is turned on which turns on your temperature controllers how does the owner know to turn on after the temperature of the preheater has reached its maximum temp

Please explain, is it legal to burn waste oil in residential heating furnances and sell filtered dehydrated used engine oil as fuel? I am not talking about #6 oil furnances, im talking about "waste oil" or "used engine oil" sign will be in the reciept.

you mentioned making a insert for the beckett out of aluminum would you have the dimensions i have a few pieces of aluminum i could machine

My furnaces use a Hago siphon nozzle with a machined aluminum heater block; ckburners sells them.

Do you have a parts list and schematic of this unit.

He has a link in the description to a forum build thread for more details. Y'all have to have a pretty advanced understanding of how a waste oil furnace works before converting a fuel oil job over. I got a waste oil furnace for next to nothing. They are around in the cold parts of the country for cheap. Get one and learn it before doing this. Just my 2c.

You are very smart. Great job

Hi Sewerzuk, I've been watching you vids on gensets for quite awhile. I bought a 5 kw military unit because of them, Thanks. Do you build any conversions for other people? If you have viewed my vids, you can see that I have no time for other projects but have a need for a unit like this. I'd like to see one built as a water heater instead of an air heater. In what part of the country are you located? Steve.

Hey Sewerzuk: I'm looking at purchasing a used but well take care of 'Bryant' oil furnace with the intent to burn WVO which I use in my converted 6.5L Diesel suburban. The furnace is an 2005 model: what year is the one in this video and is there much difference??? I really appreciate your videos and would love some advice for converting this furnace for WVO thanks. Chad

Genius ,what does it cost in total for that conversion ?

pretty cool! I'm a master plumber & an oilheat teck., you should consider a newed primary control with pre & post purge. It would establish the air pattern, usd less electricity and clear kut the combustion chamber upon shutdown. A beckett genesis would do the trick- regards.

Do you have any pics of your burner nozzle ???

I have a converted Beckett using probably the same kit you used, I'm just at the delima of an oil pump, I bought the complete burner from craig and he removes the pump; have you had issues with the oil pump running WMO insted of #2 heating oil?

I must have missed something are you introducing air with the fan only or do you have another means that is pushing air through the nozzle?... I don't know how big the orifices on those novels you are using, but on standard nozzles the orifices very small like smaller than the width of a human hair, and any kind of flame impingemet warps the orifice leading to bad flame pattern. Is your burner still being used as a retention head when you burn waste oil?

I am using a blend of 30/60 (30%diesel and 60% used oil )I only have trouble when the temp of the tank gets below 25 F. would like to know about your burner tip so I can fix or change mine .. Thanks Tjay

Manuscript delivered to Patent office was approved, but redone to Patent, to only allow 50% efficiency increase of oil furnace by addition of steam from water line to spray nozzle. Military soldiers off duty during 1950's collected used jeep oil to burn in used oil furnace. They attached water line SS tubing coil in insulated fire pot and by monitoring temperature point would open valve for T fitting to allow steam line mixed in. The steam had been changed to super heated steam with flame on coil. At 1500 degrees F, the oil valve was shut off , allowing A Hydrogen and Oxygen torch flame to continue. Furnace provided constant heat unless water line shut down. If temperature then was reduced, then oil had to restart furnace to get it back up to proper temperature. Motor had dual shafts for 2 oil pumps for 90lbs. each. The highly sensitized H2O at great pressure was subjected to vibration shockwave when exiting pinpoint hole nozzle to AMBIENT. The gases separated and burned with the 10Kv ignition. The lowered dissociation temperature of steam was realized, rather than normal 3-5000 degrees F. A much smaller working burner unit with fire brick surround in large box was shown to senator in under ground parking garage. No further news came afterwards.

I used a Magnecraft TDRSOXP-120V and its matching socket that I purchased off of ebay. If you just search that part number you will find several suppliers

How well does this burn synthetic oils ???

Do you have schematics or how to convert it to burn oil And how much it cost

do you know how many CFM of compressed air you use. or just over all consumption?

I have a regular oil burning furnace in my garage and would love to convert it to burn all the waste oil I have instead...do you have a parts list and supplier list along with step by step instructions published any place that Could help me in this?

Vert vert Good concept. I plan to make this and adding 1 or 2 lpm of hho gas.

great job on your heater. I also built one with more pre heating i have a low amp ap for fuel filter then after the pump its heated once more to 200 deg then a 3rd time in the nosel to 312 deg. I didn't no how to use compressed air, I would really like to know more about it. I have to add adout 10% #2 diesel to my oil to make it work but with air I wouldnt have to. I hope U read this and get back to me s1gumb9 thanks for the Utube, all my friends R now looking 4 oil heaters.

Also, adding a barometric damper would reduce vent temps; I just have the pipe installed for testing...

I've burned over 7000 gallons through my first furnace with no problem... Still, I take the time several times each year to inspect the heat exchanger and other related parts to make sure they are not failing. I highly doubt you have seen a properly built and maintained waste oil furnace melt down "a hundred times."

Joe from Ohio great deal,what did cost to make it?

Where did you get your nozzle and what size is it

Did you have to install a barometric damper?

How often does it need to be cleaned? I imagine there is a fair bit of ash in used motor oil.

Very nice. As an HVAC technician I find your design very interesting. I wouldn't have thought you could get that complete a burn with waste oil in a converted furnace. I would guess thats a 95% + furnace you used? By the ways guys who wonder about no smoke, a more complete fuel burn = less smoke. Look it up before you jump all over it.

How do you avoid nozzled drip?

Thanks!

this guy certainly knows what he's doing

A person can modify a piece of equipment to suit a purpose other than that which it was originally intended. Cars are a perfect example; bolt on and re-engineer enough stuff, and you can turn a stock Tacoma into something capable of running the baja 1000. I'm doing something similar with these furnaces...no, they weren't designed to run on waste oil. But with proper tuning, modification, and redesign, they will run on waste oil just fine.

So is that side tank the only reservoir for the oil? You were saying the furnace used around a gallon an hour and that tank looks like it holds at most 2 gallons, not all of that would be usable due to the float switch. So are you manually adding oil to the tank all the time or do you have some sort of remote tank to pump oil to that reservoir?

I'll take one an are you in the States..?

I Want One! I gotta get parts together this summer to build one.

awesome job

thanks. that helps out a lot.

looking good

Did you tie your siphon nozzle into the the inlet side or the outlet side of the pump? Would it be necessary to have the small oil tank located on the side with this recirculating setup as compared to your older design that relied heavily on siphoning the oil... Seems like this setup somewhat primes the siphon block.

Hey Matt I am having a problem finding the run time relay you are referring to for your pump and float valve safety feature, can you point me in a direction of what you used