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Photograph of an outdoor heating oil tank Heating Oil Tank & Piping Sludge Prevention or Cures
Part 4: Oil piping changes to avoid sludge or water problems

Sludge & crud or contaminants in heating oil storage tanks: installing a Scully Snorkel® to avoid picking up oil tank sludge & water and other oil piping changes, some simple & inexpensive, can often solve a problem with oil storage tank sludge, debris, water & clogging that otherwise leads to loss of heat.

This article series explains the causes and cures for heating system problems due to sludge in home heating oil tanks, including problems of clogged oil piping, clogged oil filters, oil burner malfunctions, and loss of heat due to sludge in the oil tank. We explain why sludge is a problem in home heating oil & why it leads to loss of heat.

We give first aid advice for what to do if you ran out of heating oil and want to avoid stirring up sludge when oil is delivered.

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Scully Snorkel or Piping Changes Leave Oil Tank Sludge Harmless at the Oil Tank Bottom

Scully Snorkel oil tank gauge & fuel pick-up - Scully Signal Company


Install a Scully Snorkel at the oil tank. Scully Signal Co. produces a line of MagneLink™ Snorkel® Gauges - oil tank level indicators that include a floating oil-burner feed line fuel pickup.

The "Scully Snorkel" as it's popularly called among oil heat folks, incorporates a floating heating oil pick-up that uses a float to pick up oil from one inch below the surface of oil in the heating oil storage tank. [16]

By picking up heating oil just below the surface in the oil tank we avoid picking up sludge or water that - if present - will be at the bottom of the oil tank.

Incidentally, the Scully Snorkel gauge and oil pickup assembly can communicate with Scully's IntelliTank™ electronic automatic fuel recorder system.

Illustration of a Scully Snorkel gauge and heating oil pickup, courtesy Scully Signal Co. (permission req. 2013.) More details are

at OIL TANK GAUGES

Change oil tank piping pick-up taken off of the bottom of the oil storage tank to enter the tank from a fitting at the tank top. Close off the piping at the oil tank bottom.

Oil tank piping sketch of tank top pickup arrangement (C) Daniel Friedman

Some heating oil piping techs just close the service valve at the tank bottom and remove the piping.

I'd also install a cap on the valve outlet to assure that the valve can't just feed oil to the building floor.

Oil tank piping from tank top - 2-line (C) Daniel Friedman

A new oil supply line (or pair of lines if it's a two-pipe system) are routed from the top of the oil tank.

Inside the oil tank the pick-up line is not dropped all the way to the tank bottom. rather the line is kept 4-6" off of the tank bottom to avoid picking up water or sludge.

Watch out: when re-routing oil tank piping from tank bottom to connect through oil tank top, check the total lift required against the capacity of the oil burner fuel unit.


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SCULLY SNORKELĀ® or OIL PIPING CHANGES to AVOID SLUDGE at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.


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INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to HEATING OIL, OIL BURNERS, OIL FIRED HEATERS, OIL TANKS

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