Waste oil sink for oil heater tank

A couple of years ago we installed a new Clean Burn waste oil burner to heat our shop. I was concerned about the oil that would be poured into the outdoor tank that supplies oil burner knowing the kind of debris and crud that gets into drain pans under a vehicle or piece of machinery, not to mention going outside in the weather to empty drain pans, and didn't even want to think about the mess that would inevitably happen by doing so.

Sooo, got out a notepad, measuring tape, and started designing something to remedy the problem. Designed a waste oil sink to locate in our utility room that has the compressor, mop sink, water outlets, parts washer tank, and pressure washer. The room is on an outside wall, can locate storage tank for oil heater on the other side of the wall.

Got the design figured out the way I wanted it built, drew an isometric view, and three view drawings of the design with the desired dimensions and type of materials to use. Took the drawings to a local fabricator, and they did an excellent job fabricating it, very pleased with their work. Then I just had to source the components needed and plumb it all up.

Anchored the waste oil sink against outside wall using anchor plates on bottom of aluminum legs. The entire sink is fabricated from aluminum sheet, with square aluminum tubes for legs.





Has removable steel expanded metal drip tray to drain filters, buckets, and drain pans,





and the removable perforated steel metal stainer basket at the bottom of the sump.





The sump outlet on the bottom is connected to an oil transfer pump mouted to the floor under the sink.

Installed ball valve on sump outlet in case line would have to be taken apart for repairs.





Piping goes to transfer pump.





Simple electrical light switch mounted on wall to turn pump on/off.





Pump sends oil to a high capacity filter with by-pass valve in filter housing, then sends the oil to the storage tank outside.





We've been using our oil burner for 3 winters now, haven't had a single issue with the oil or operation of the unit. And it sure is nice to empty your buckets and drain pans indoors.

Very cool Atco!

Did you consider adding some baffles before the strainer?

Nice Job

Very nice job, I really like the details you put into your sink and drain. Being able to strain, and let any pans be stored and complete drain is great. This is a very nice set up, thanks for sharing.

We are installing a bulk tank to put our waste oil in, and we have been bouncing around idea of how to pump it outside to the bulk tank. We have been looking a cutting a plastic 55 gallon barrel in half dropping a expanded metal platform, and use a sump pump to transfer to bulk tank. Bill

Yeah, I though about it Rob, then decided to keep it simple and just utilize the strainer basket. So far it has worked very well. If you look at the pic that shows the strainer basket, you'll see a yellow bucket to the right in pic. That's a pile of crud from a drain pan when helper removed the belly plate from a leaking Case 9050B. Geeezzzzz...and he left it for me to clean out of the basket. Grrrrrrrr. LoL

The oil pump is designed for waste oil transfer, has polymer impeller or something like that. I haven't had a single issue with this set up thus far.

Hi Bill. I can't remember for certain, but I'm thinking the fabricator built the sink for like $1,500 dollars, something close to that. The pump ranges from 300 to 500 dollars depending on where you look on interwebz. Seems like a chunck of money, but I was looking for something that would be a permanent fixture and would last a long time with maximum benefit.

When my X employer built the new shop several years back we buried the tank under the shop floor along a wall where the heater was going to be placed.

For a oil dump we did like you but used a fiberglass wash sink and made a grate that set on the bottom to catch the big chunks. We used this setup for 6 years or so until someone way above my pay scale decided to remove ALL waste oil heaters company wide.

NIce work by the way.

At a shop I worked at before had a set up near the same as yours, there was the drain sink and also an air pump to suck oil out of quarter drums. Being an automotive shop most every thing was on an hoist so our drain buchetts and everything would fit under the car. The only difference in our sink was the strainer, it had a place to insert scotch brite pads to help catch stuff. kinda of a pain because no one would ever clean them, and the oil would then back up and take along time to drain out.


looks goods and sounds like it works good

looks pretty neat. Better start marketing it.

Greg said:

looks pretty neat. Better start marketing it.

Click to expand...

Yeah...many things I wish I'd go through the trouble of building and marketing. But, typically just move on to the next project...and I usually have several things on the yard to work on, not to mention the daily changing of events.