Contaminated Heating Oil Delivery

claz

Hi

We have oil central heating, a 1200L tank. We have an 'oil watchman' that monitors the level of oil in the tank without needing to go outside. We order our oil when i gets to number 1 on the watchman. Unfortunately that was the week before xmas. We therefore ordered some oil later than usual.

Oil was delivered on the 8th of Jan whilst we were out at work. We ordered 1000L and by this time the watchman was showing 0 (this means it has 120L left, so a fair bit left) from the 7th.

That evening, following the delivery of the oil I turned the heating on (it had been turned off to ensure no sediment went down the pipe etc after filling). Later that night (noticed at midnight!) that the boiler had stopped firing. Luckily DH was home by then and proceeded to try and fix it (originally thought it was an air lock) however, he pumped through water and a mix of diluted kerosene.

Obviously at that time of night there was no a lot to be done but he pulled through approx 4 litres of water before at 1am I told him to give up and come to bed!

The following morning the oil supplier came to our house (after a long winded phone call) they totally deny any contamination however both me, my hubby etc and the heating engineer who then fixed the boiler were not convinced.

I am not sure how to proceed, i am not sure we can really prove they contaminated but how come it was fine until after the delivery?

On the plus side i paid on my credit card, given that te company is denying any involvement would it be worth making a section 75 claim?

thanks

bobmedley

You have no proof they delivered contaminated fuel. Your tank was run down to almost empty (and Watchmans are not that accurate, so again no proof that 120l were left), so the reasonable assumption is that your tank emptied to the point where any water present was drawn into the boiler.

Put it down to experience & move on.

BES Supplies sell pads you can put into the tank that absorb the water - Google them.

mark-w20

Oil floats on water, therefore that is not possible no matter how low the watchman was reading, if the tank had enough water in it to be drawn out the outlet then it would happen the same whether the tank was full, half full or nearly empty.

claz

We did wonder that bobmedley, but why would heating work am, turned off then all day, oil delivered at 11, then put back on at 7 but did not break till between 10 and midnight. If the water was in the tank before the fill up it surely would have broken before or shortly after the delivery?

We siphoned off a lot of water, the oil company came out and got another bucket off.

Just not sure what to do, do I need to write to the company to officially complain?

claz

Also, approx 18months ago we had to go away the oil ran out (brother in law forgot to order for us!) the tank ran dry, complete air lock in the boiler. It was sorted but there was no water then.

The tank has no cracks/leaks etc

Now we have half a ft of water!

bobmedley

Water can get into a tank through condensation, leaks around the filler cap or air vent, small cracks etc. and remember that we have just had the 2nd wettest year ever.

This still points to your tank having water in it, and not the delivery tanker, so I'm not sure what proof you have that they were responsible.

The oil company have helped by draining off the water, you should now check the tank carefully for all the potential entry points for moisture.

"oil delivered at 11, then put back on at 7 but did not break till between 10 and midnight"

It's possible that the oil being poured into the tank put the water into suspension, and once it had settled again with the water at the bottom, it was drawn into the oil line.