Are home heating oil additives like Exocet worth using

jollysilly

Are home heating oil additives like Exocet worth using

dogshome

Before gas arrived in our village 3 years ago, this house had oil fired heating for 30 years useing 28sec burning oil - There was never a problem with the tank, 50 yards of copper feed pipe or the boiler degrading - Every drop of oil used was as it came off the tanker.

Never having used an additive, I can't say one way or the other if one would save on oil consumption, but oil is so cheap at this time and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, why bother ?

greatcrested

I've periodically looked at reports, reviews etc over the years, and ignoring the blatant marketing info the concensus seems to be it's only worthwhile for Agas (Can't remember why).

So I've never tried.

Jamessherwood

Looks like all previous comments have no comparison. We live nextdoor to someone who has the same age and make Boiler and tank- (same builder). I have always used Exocet heating oil additive, the neighbour never does. Over the last ten years, they have had to have several services where sludge and choking of the boiler have occurred. When we have had ours serviced and the comments have been "Do you use your boiler much?", there is virtually no sooting and never any sludge. In fact the engineer recommend we do not get our serviced so often. In my opinion highly volatile additives will assist in standardising the burn you get from your oil. Most people do not realise that the oil you have delivered is really quite variable and will contain more or less heavier chain hydrocarbons which can cause incomplete combustion and sludge. In addition to this your tank can be infected with bacteria, the additives can help break up that sludge.

lohr500

I can't prove or disprove the claimed benefits, but I have been using additives for over 20 years now.

When our 30 year old plus boiler was changed a couple of years ago, the engineer did comment on how clean the combustion chamber was. I had also noticed how clean it was around the oil jet and burner nozzle when carrying out the servicing over the years.

We have never suffered from sludge problems in the tank or the filters either.

I use Hydra NBS Phoenix additive, purchased via Amazon.500ml treats 5000 litres and costs £33

At that price it works out at £0.0066 per litre of oil. A fraction of the oil cost.
So long as it isn't doing any harm, its not a large on-cost in the hope that it does actually help!!!

mark_cycling00

How and when do you add the additive?

I've heard that adding prior to a delivery is good because it all gets mixed in with the oil. Or can you add it any time?

Thanks 

lohr500

If I am at home when the tanker arrives I add it immediately before the oil is added to the tank. Otherwise I add it on the morning of the scheduled delivery. I suspect it disperses well on on its own, but the agitation caused by the incoming fuel can only help it to mix .

lohr500

Just as a follow up to the question on using additives.

I was chatting to the engineer today whilst he was servicing our two year old Grant Vortex Blue Flame oil boiler.
He was really impressed with how clean the combustion nozzle burner tube was and also with the baffles leading to the condensing tubes. He said they were the cleanest he had ever seen, even compared to other Blue Flame technology boilers he has serviced.

So either we've had some very high quality oil delivered over the past few years, or the additive is actually doing some good.