Make a Waste Oil Heater

With this waste oil heater you can heat a shop or garage, or even your home. The fuel is "free for the hauling."

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by AdobeStock/4th Life Photography

UPDATE & ANNOUNCEMENT, March 2006:

I read with interest and some concern the letter from Mary Hammersmith in the February/March 2004 issue regarding the waste oil heater from the September/October 1978 issue. I helped build that heater in 1978. I used it in my home and wrote the original article about it.

Here’s the fly in the ointment: When this stove was designed and built, most motor oil was formulated for larger-displacement, precatalytic-era vehicles. As demands of fuel economy and federal emission standards began to affect auto manufacturers, they had to make smaller, harder-working engines that operated at higher temperatures than the older engines, especially with the introduction of catalytic-converter systems in the mid-1970s. Subsequently, motor oil sometimes flashed in the crankcases of vehicles, and in the early 1980s, an anti-flashing agent was added to motor oils for safety reasons. This raised the oil’s combustion temperature significantly. Naturally, the performance of the waste oil heater was affected, and the original MOTHER EARTH NEWS stopped selling plans when complaints brought the problems to light.

Modern waste oil shop heaters use a different technology than our old drip-style burner. The new UL- and EPA-approved models have special pre-heaters and pumped-injection systems that vaporize fuel for efficient combustion at high temperatures. The difference between MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ waste oil burner and the commercial models is vast, and I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the EPA would never approve this technology if it were a manufactured unit.

Richard Freudenberger

  • Updated on Jan 8, 2022
  • Originally Published on Sep 1, 1978
Tagged with: asbestos, oil heater, oil stove, waste oil
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