Has anyone ever seen this come out of an oil tank?


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Old 11-10-16, 03:12 PM
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Has anyone ever seen this come out of an oil tank?

Purchased a home in July and had furnace inspected and cleaned in October. 10 days later the filter was clogged with a substance the tech had never seen in 20 years. It almost looks like mulch or shavings.


I have shown it to the oil company (the previous homeowner was buying biofuel from Worley & Obetz since 2013 so we continued) and they have never seen anything like it either. We had the filter and nozzles cleaned and an additive added to the tank, but I need to know what the cause is in order to remedy and not have to lose heat again in 10 days.

Tank is relatively new - I am contacting previous owner to make sure it was actually new and not a used tank.

Tank was filled in June so did not sit empty all summer. We have not had oil delivered since June, so that did not stir up sludge either.

Could it be a by product of storing biofuel that has a lower petroleum content? Or rust? Or was our tank obviously vandalized?

I am a mom and a teacher so this is reaching beyond my knowledge, but no one seems to have any ideas so I thought I'd try here.

I'm also curious about your opinions on using biofuel - we were told it would have LESS sludge.

My options seem to be

1) wait and see if additive works, but pay for repairs and lose heat if it doesn't
2) have tank vacuumed, lose the 250 gallons of oil and stop using bio fuel - won't fix the problem if it is actually the tank itself though
3)replace the tank completely at significant cost, especially b.c. furnace is old and we may switch to propane or gas in the next few years
4) Have Tiger Loop installed to stop pulling from the bottom of the tank

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Old 11-10-16, 03:21 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

A tiger loop doesn't help with pulling from the bottom of the tank. That is dependent on how high the suction tube is set from the bottom of the tank.

Could it be a by product of storing biofuel that has a lower petroleum content? Or rust?
I would have it analyzed before doing anything.
 
 

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