Determining level of water under oil in tank

[Cursitor Doom]

Hi guys,

Is there any way of dipping an oil tank to find out how much water there is at the bottom of it?

cheers,

CD

[GB]

Put rigid hollow tube vertically into tank. Finger tightly on top. Take the tube out.

[Cursitor Doom]

Wow! Never thought of that! You're not only a genius but a very fast one to boot!

[Jim K]

I'll wait for the punchline...

Jim K

[Dave Liquorice]

water

Transparent rigid tube, might work not tried it. You can get special gunk you spread on the end of a stick and dip the tank to the bottom. The gunk changes colour when it gets wet.

[Cursitor Doom]

Wow. YOu guys just the most amazing lotof knowalls ever! thanks many!

[GB]

You don't want a lot of air at the top of the tube. Just a thought to bear in mind.

[fred]

Sureley the O.P. has a filter bowl on the feed line somewhere. Foolish man if he doesn't. Transparent bowl is best

[Dave Liquorice]

I don't think many installations do, judging by how hard it was to find a glass bowl filter when I added one here to act as a monitorable water trap. So hard I think I bought a spare bowl and seal at the same time...

[GB]

Are you able to find things like that when you need them?

[Dave Liquorice]

The spares? TBH I'm not sure where they are ...

[GB]

[Michael Chare]

Is the feed pipe at the very bottom? I could have water in my tank below the level of the output.

[Dave Liquorice]

Below the level of the output isn't a problem. B-)

I think you will only get water up to the level of the bottom of the outlet, the water being denser will flow out in preference to the oil. The occasional drop of water in the oil might make a pressure jet boiler splutter and possibly go out but the flame failure detection will reignite the oil coming on behind.

The biggest problem is likely to be is water collecting at a low point in external pipework and freezing, blocking the pipe. The water turns into fairly firm slush plug, DAMHIKT...

[Huge]

BTDTGTTS.

Except I wanted something a little warmer than a t-shirt, as I waded through the snow to pour buckets of hot water (*) over where I think the oil pipe is buried.

(* Gas (bottled) cooker, innit.)

Having done that, the boiler chappie (who couldn't get down the drive to my house despite only living in rural Beds., not the bloody Himalayas) suggested coupling a footpump to the oil line at the house end and blowing it back through with compressed air. That worked.

[meow2222]

Multimeter on R range, wire to dip in