Oil frozen

steveymp

Never had that problem, but I installed my own oil line with the plastic covered copper piping and then put a grey foam tubing around all the pipe and burried it well into the soil, make sure you lag the exposed ends at your tank and boiler as well.

Kero should not freeze until it gets to -18ºC apparently you may as others have said have a bit of water or condensation in your tank, my boiler man is coming tomorrow with a devise to test the content of the bottom of mine, if a lot of water he can extract it with his big pumpy thingy too;)

david39

There is a wax content in heating oil and diesel fuels. At very low temperatures, the wax separates from the main body of the oil into semi-solid globs and stops the flow of the fuel. It can be seen in samples of the fuel as blobs of a substance that looks like candle wax.

It also happens to diesel vehicles where fuel lines along the chassis from the tank to the engine are exposed to low air temperatures as the vehicle travels along the road. If temperatures fall far enough and for long enough, underground feedlines on heating systems or even diesel forecourt installations will fall victim to the problem.

After the start of September, fuel companies put an additive into their products to inhibit this, but product bought during the spring and summer months will not contain it and will be especially vulnerable. Where winter product has been mixed with summer product, the resulting oil will have less resistance to cold than the all-winter fuel.

Some of the more extreme temperatures encountered in recent days will have affected even the fully treated product as the current UK standards do not require protection down to the minus teens we have been experiencing. Putting more of the additive into the already frozen fuel (if you could get hold of any) will not solve the problem as it needs to be mixed and, if the pipelines are solid with wax, the additive will clearly not reach them.

The only answer is to get the temperature to rise in the pipeline, which will happen when the cold weather subsides. The oil will then be fine afterwards as the wax will disperse itself naturally.

thriftyminx13

Got the guy out today, there was ice in the pipe. But got her serviced as well so feel more content!!