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Oil heater "What have Got ? "


Frederick
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I have  been left with an oil heater that I am a bit wary of . It has a container for oil on one side you fill through the top and  feeds through a valve to a mesh dome that obviously glows when lit.and heat convects out of the front slots.....It has a chimney made up of  flu pipe sections that vent out through the wall ...I have never come accross one of these ....there are two  80 gallon drums of oil ..and its red in colour...I have been told that the fuel may be farm  "diesel "  and  I am not to happy about firing this thing up.    I have seen them  in the "Brico " so they are still sold its not ancient ......what have I got ?.....a parafin heater and two drums of diesel ? .and just how good are these things ?

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Sounds like a fixed version of the old oil heaters everyone used to have years ago.

Either the oil is farm diesel or more probably Fioul, which is Mazout; basically, domestic heating oil (lower rate of duty to road fuel) used in all oil-fired central heating systems.

The top quality stuff flows down to -20C and is far cleaner: cheaper fioul  tends to be dirty and needs filtering before using in any heating appliance.

Normally, your sort of heater uses paraffin or in France, petrole; not to be confused with essence, which is what you put in the car!

Personally, I would be careful about using the oil in your heater; until and unless you can ascertain the manufacturer's specific gravity recommendations. That type of heater is normally designed to use less viscous oil, mainly paraffin/kerosene, which vapourises more easily. I would also be very careful until it has been serviced and checked out by a suitably qualified and certified French heating engineer: as if the whole place goes up, your insurance company or mutuelle may well repudiate any subsequent claim.

We have a Deville which does use fioul, but this is a totally different type of burner: this type heater, is still available and still used, but expensive to run and dirty to maintain!

 

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