Heating oil tank with holes in it

mattb_3

My friend has discovered some holes in his oil tank at the top. He is thinking he has to replace the hole tank (approx £1000). He also has the option of switching to gas (approx £3000 for new gas boiler and installation).

I suggested just patching up the tank but he's worried that he could potentially lose a whole tank of oil if it springs a leak.

Has anyone got any ideas or advice?

Thanks in advance.

navig8r

The way to repair a metal tank is to weld a patch on it and you wont get any one with any sense to do that!!

The only way to go is a new tank, your friend owes it to their pocket and environment if it leaks again.

Dave

moonrakerz

If the tank has gone through in one place it is likely to be getting pretty thin in other places, so it probably isn't worth trying to patch it.

£1000 sounds an awful lot for a new tank, even a plastic one. A point to remember is that a plastic tank not only costs more than a metal one, but usually is bigger than a similar capacity metal one. When mine went, I put in another metal one.

JanVdB

£1,000 does indeed seem expensive. I bought a brand spanking new 1,400 litre plastic oil tank for £204.45 inclusive of VAT, delivery from Derby to Northern Ireland and complete with a 10 year warranty!

In fact having checked out most of the major online tank distributors, I think you could be hard pressed to find an oil tank costing £1,000.

I got a local installer to install it, sourced from The Oil Firing Technical Association [OFTEC] website essentially the oil heating equivalent of CORGI. He fitted a new oil supply line, new filter, shut off valve and fire valve to the boiler for less than £200.

Hope this helps.

Jan