Adapting an oil radiator

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Has anybody played with the idea of adapting an oil radiator for heating the oil. New oil radiators are cheap and used ones are always being thrown out. Many have built in thermostats.
G

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Adapting an oil radiator

Has anybody played with the idea of adapting an oil radiator for heating the oil. New oil radiators are cheap and used ones are always being thrown out. Many have built in thermostats.
G

Hi there
Be careful with those things They are a sealed unit they heat up the space via convection
The heating element is at the bottom, the oil is heated up it raises to the top As it looses is heat it falls down to the bottom so it is heated again and so on
If you are going to use one make sure that it is completely open to the atmosphere so as to prevent an explosion from the water contained in the oil, steam is very powerful
I would have thought that one of those things would be better put to use as an air cooled condenser to recover the methanol from the glycerin as well as the biodiesel
Just a thought
Cheers
Chris

[Dodge Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dodge]

Re: Adapting an oil radiator

I would very careful draining the oil out of them it may be very toxic stuff.

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Adapting an oil radiator

Hi
If the unit is manufactured prior to 1974 that would be the case, very toxic The oil used those days was PCB very bad stuff
Any thing made after that is mineral oil, dino stuff, no PCB's in it
I doubt that the units thrown out are the latest models though
So be cautious Better still leave them alone for heating oil
However I do see a cheap condenser made out of them to recover methanol
Cheers
Chris