Oil change prices

Smart move would be to carry couple extra in such case)

 

Ideally you stay with the engine specced oil, there really isnt a problem swapping between same weight oils so long as they meet spec. If your engine needs 15w40 and you put in a 5 weight, youre likely going to leak though.

 

Leak is the least of the problems. We've had a guy put 5 during summer hot weather, cuz it's synthetic.. lost the engine on hills, too thin.

 

You say that, but 4/5 of a gallon an hour for 3500$ and about 150k btu is the cheapest/smallest i found, and no thermostat on/off, itll burn till its out, you have to manually start the pan each time. Now i could be wrong, please point me to it if you know about it. but i havent seen anything that makes sense for a small time operator, ill stick with my diesel fired torpedo for now

 

I've never used a small unit. In my previous place it was heated by waste oil. It was a 100x200. Had a 10k tank below it. I had a deal with the local jiffy lube a buddy ran. I just went over there with my pickup and picked up their oil. I just put 2 totes in the bed of my truck.

Either way, if you are gonna heat the place, why not do it with the oil your gonna toss out. You still have to buy fuel for your salamander....no? Besides, I imagine you spend more than $3500 a year on crap that you can't even remember? Buy less beer and pizza then you could afford one.....I dunno.

Eliminator 120 Waste Oil Heater - 120 from ELIMINATOR | Acme Tools

This one has a thermostat and it's ductable.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...erm=4585375807245420&utm_content=All Products

 

The

My diesel torpedo is about 5 gallons a day when i use it, ill call it maybe 12 weeks total in a year

Thats 420 gallons of diesel

Lets say the waste oil heater is 3500$ and can manage the same exact heat output per gallon and gallons used (its actually a bit lower heat per gallon by 10-20% from what ive been able to figure out)

So if i run 120 gallons waste oil out of my truck for the year, im still stuck buying 300 gallons of diesel a year for heat.

So for an upfront cost of 3500$, i save 120x5 per year= 600$. Thats about a 6 year payoff. Im not saying its not worth it neccessarily, but its a very slow payoff if i dont do a lot more oil changes.
Fuel prices hit 10$ a gallon and things start to look more attractive i guess? But thats a highly speculative way of going about it. For those kinds of prices, i may as well install a heat pump in the garage and insulate it better, then i get ac in the summer too and electricity is easier to deliver than pumping fuel out of the truck (a big split unit cost is near 2k, 1500 on insulation and im money ahead)

Now, the less i heat the shop or more oil i get from changes for free, the more sense the waste-oil heater makes sense.

 

I heat my shop with a waste oil heater the shop is 60x80 and 40 years old and it has insulation but it's far from air tight .. I usually fire it up about mid Dec and it's still running yet today .. I keep it set at 50° but my future F.I.L sometimes likes to move his equipment in or out on the coldest days it seems and the recory time is not the best .. anyhow .. I burn on a average of 1500 gals a year.. but I get oil from 6 automotive repair shops and a few farmers and a fairly large CoOp.. If I didn't have them supplying me .. it would probably not pan out to well because I probably only contribute 1/3 of the oil I burn and that's including what my F.I.L donates there's more maintenance with 1 also .. as mentioned in a earlier post buring hyd oil in the mix helps and I'am changing the filter it seems about every 60 days because the free oil I get seems to have about anything that's liquid in it including anti freeze sometimes

 

Just go get the waste for free from the local oil change places. They have to pay to have it hauled off. Most will gladly give it away. It saves them money.

 

Well, this went from heating a garage to shops....lol. however, the local places are usually more than happy to give it away.

 

That is a possibility i had not looked into. Certainly worth stinking on a bit more