Cleanburn CB-2800 furnace practical questions

OK, so I have installed this Clean-Burn CB2800 furnace in my shop. I mounted it under the ceiling. It is fully working now.

I bought it for $400 with oil tank at an auction.

Because I often part out obsolete machinery, I get some used hydraulic oil, plus new oil from all closed down companies that I visit, etc.

I just wanted to get some practical tips on using it.

Does anyone run it when you are NOT present at work, unattended?

What kind of oils to stay away from? Should I refuse all "cutting oils"?

Any gotchas or some such to know about? How do I know that my flame is looking good?

We used to use, used engine oil from a sitting drum.. BAD IDEA.
It was to thick to go thru the orifice tube and we ended up cutting it w/ diesel fuel.
Stay away from any "oil" that wont burn..
We run ours in the winter with the thermostat down low when closed.. THEN turn it up when present.
It just takes to long to warm the outside shop when turned completely OFF.
Ours has a "flip-up" lid to see the pilot lite.. as far as the flame goes.. you'll know when its hot..

Most hear oils can get a little thick to burn well unless you thin it with some diesel fuel. Also avoid at all costs any chlorinated solvents, they aren't flammable and will actually corrode the firebox in a hurry.

Where can I encounter those chlorinated solvents? Do they have a special smell or something?

I do have too much farm diesel fuel, I can always add a couple of buckets to a 250 gallon oil tank...

What I want to do this winter, is only run it when we are at work. So I will maintain a base temperature like 50 degrees, with natural gas heaters, and when we get to work we would turn the oil furnace set at 60 degrees on its own thermostat.

Chlorinated solvents are non flammable. If they're mixed with oil, they might burn so you could try some samples to see if you can tell the difference. Not that you want to mix them to burn, just that the oil might burn in a sample that you wouldn't want in your furnace.

I see chlorinated solvents in non flammable brake parts cleaner, also dry cleaning, paint shops, anywhere a non flammable degreasing solvent is needed. That and PCB oil are the two things to NOT burn.

Don't chlorinated solvents give off a deadly gas when heated?

The shop I used to work at had lanair that was the primary heat source it ran day and night keep your oil tank indoors you want 2 oil tanks keep the strainer well off the bottom to let water and dirt settle have the tanks tilted to the drain to let water out thats why you want 2 tanks let one settle while you burn the other one and then the oil you using is room temp We had to cut with diesel
If you get a drum of oil you suspect has water let it freeze and then pump it into your tank
Of course get a book to set the flame

lantraxco said:

Don't chlorinated solvents give off a deadly gas when heated?

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Phosphene! That's why carbon tet. is no longer used in fire extinguishers.

You can't clean the oil your going to burn enough to make your problems go away. Everyone here has great ideas but one thing no one mentioned is antifreeze. Lots of used oil is contaminated with anti freeze and of coarse it doesn't freeze in the drum so you have to drain it off the bottom of one of your tanks like settling tank they described.

Now I will step up on my soap box. IMHO These things have no place in a production repair shop. If you or one of your mechanics is repairing, cleaning and handling used oil from places at say $100/hr billable you WILL lose money keeping one of these things running. It is very easy in the winter to spend 8 hours a month monkeying around with the fuel,antifreeze,water and furnace. After many years I switched to propane for a 8000 square foot shop and the worst propane bill I had was $800 for month. The shop was well heated all day/night to keep pipes in the walls from freezing probably 60+ degrees. My propane furnace ran for at least 5 years with zero maintenance or problems......TIO

I forgot to help you with some of your questions. I ran my flame about half way across the firing chamber. It is suppose to be cone shaped. This changes constantly depending on oil viscosity and whether your shop doors are opened or closed. When you open your shop doors the air pressure/vacuum changes affecting the combustion gas. This is a fine balance between oil pressure, air pressure and combustion air vent setting. We had our furnace mounted to far away from the wall so it had to be exhausted thru the roof. Once about every 3 years the snow and ice on the roof would be just right and dislodge and sometimes completely remove the stack and cricket. Of coarse this was at the worst time possible. The propane furnace can be horizontally exhausted thru the wall at nearly any distance. I would filter with a cleanable screen water separator type filter at least the size of a quart jar between the settling tank and primary tank. TIO

With the gas prices being where they are, and by converting therms to BTU, I calculated that every gallon of oil I would burn saves me about $1.37 in gas bills. So, a 5 gallon pail saves me about $6.85.

One way or another I do get used oil. I need to manage it in some way in any case and I need to dispose of it. Any kind of used oil management involves the same steps (not mixing it with nasty stuff, water etc). A oil furnace would at least get me a financial benefit.

When I do work, I generally bill at about $100/person/hour, but I do not bill all the time at $100/hour. I only bill the billable time. The rest of the time we are here, cleaning the shop, doing our own repairs etc.

I definitely see your point about the value of time spent running that shop furnace. But what is the alternative? You still have to manage used oil that you generate.

I have the original 250 gallon tank and it has a bottom drain. Just yesterday I drained about a gallon of water from it.

I'm not sure the current situation with environmental companies taking used oil but that was how I was dealing with it. Sometimes they paid me for my used oil, most of the time they took it for free once in a while I had to pay them to take. We used a place called emerald environmental not sure if they are just regional or national. They took my spent antifreeze and sold me 50/50 recycled antifreeze at the same time they were picking up the oil. Currently the program is to give it to other companies in the area that have used oil burners. I understand there are places for these machines where they function productively (maybe). One year I finally created a cost code for just the waste oil burner for the mechanics to charge their time to and the a/p dept to charge vendor parts and repairs to. After keeping track of this it was very easy to see I was "burning" money. I never had enough mechanic hours to keep up with equipment repairs, most of the time they were on overtime by the end of the week....TIO

I have been running mine for 10yrs or so. A cleanburn 1500. it has around 7500hrs on the meter. I leave it on all winter long set at 60. I don't see the problem that TIO has with monkeying around the oil. you have to put it in some kind of container after removing it from equipment. I have a 250gal tank in corner of my shop. all I burn is straight used oil, mostly used engine oil. no need to cut it with diesel. do not leave the power on to it in the summer or long stretches of it not being used. there is a heating element in the main control block that will bake the oil dry and clog up the gun if you leave it on for 6 months with out it running. ask me how I know this. Ha. I burn 700 or so gallons each winter. Mine has been very reliable. To get rid of water in the oil I have a drain valve at the bottom of the tank. I check it once and awhile. easy peasy.

I forgot what series ours is got about 1500 hours on it an love it. We do pay them an 800 dollar per year to service it. The key is don't let every hand dump in it I made a waste oil cleaner out of a drum. Has a bottom drain and a clean oil drain about a foot off the bottom. And a water heater element. I fill it with oil then turn on the heater. Depending on the temps. Over night the water will settle out and can be drained off. The clean oil valve is opened and I have an old worn belt drive hydraulic pump and filter base there.

Taylortractornu said:

I forgot what series ours is got about 1500 hours on it an love it. We do pay them an 800 dollar per year to service it. The key is don't let every hand dump in it I made a waste oil cleaner out of a drum. Has a bottom drain and a clean oil drain about a foot off the bottom. And a water heater element. I fill it with oil then turn on the heater. Depending on the temps. Over night the water will settle out and can be drained off. The clean oil valve is opened and I have an old worn belt drive hydraulic pump and filter base there.

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This is pretty neat.

I am wondering what do they actually do for maintenance, replace anything or just cleaning?

i

They clean and service it I always have them change the atomizer nozzle we had one fail after they left one time. I never had to fool with any sort of furnace growing up. The main reason we bought it was at the rubbish landfill we had to document where all my waste oil from the machines went and who picked it up now I point and show mdeq the heater. We have a100 gallon truck tank in the shop we fill once a week. About every other week I'll put a hand barrel pun in it and pull any moisture off the bottom. My pick up filter is 4 inches from the bottom too.
We keep the 40by 40 shop at 50 when not here. The rest of the time about 60. I have a screen on the full bung it's a funnel made from half a refrigerant tank. With a 2 inch pipe nipple welded to it and a screen. I have a shop vac o put on the breather an it pulls it through the filter.