I remember back when I was a little kid I used to play gas station with the water hose and the oil filler tube. I know I watered many places, neighbors, relatives. Seems the garden hose and the oil fillers were on the same side of the house. I put a lot of water in oil tanks. How much trouble did I cause?
Van Chocstraw wrote in news:JMadnQItct7aeobWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
I don't know, but no matter what you did, you weren't evil. Little kids aren't evil, even when they do seriously wrong things. (And what you did was a prank, it wasn't a major crime.) The kid's behavior just means that they weren't taught the appropriate values and behaviors and need to be re- educated. Children's minds have not developed to the point where they are capable of fully reasonable thinking. They don't understand consequences to other people when they take actions.
Adults (who understand the implications and consequences of their actions and exactly how their actions hurt others) who choose to take actions that hurt others -- perhaps they can be called evil.
But not little kids pulling pranks.
FA
The concept of evil and mens rea (sp?) doesn't even enter into it. It doesn't even rise to the level of a prank- it is just a kid playing, and not understanding that just because something fits in a hole, it doesn't mean it is okay to do so. See electrical outlets and butter knives for a better example. Children are like monkeys- they love to mimic behavior and explore their world.
Oil heat wasn't common in my childhood, but the filler holes I saw all had padlocks on them, issued by the fuel oil company. Homeowner had one, and the route driver had one.
-- aem sends...
Just remember that "evil" spelled backwards is "live" so all is well.
Don
Depends on intent. Could be an innocent kid playing gas station, could be some evil little bastard that wants to make trouble for the homeowner.
I remember when I was young, the gas meter was on the side of the house, and for some reason I liked to go over to it and pee on it. Luckily there isn't any oil heat here. Some years ago, I went to upstate NY (my Dad's home town) with my folks. My Mother saw the oil tank filler pipes and said that the people up there were also lucky I wasn't around. Larry
I am 52 and still regret I didnt turn off a hated neighbors gas late one nite. My mom heard of my plan:(
I figured then neighbor would wake up in the AM to a really cold house, and find a old padlock just to slow them down a little
Since nobody's answered your question directly yet.... If you put more than a gallon or so of water into someone's oil storage tank that would be enough to raise the "water bottom" in the tank to the tank's outlet port level,causing water to be sucked into the oil burner, making for no more heat.
The repair would have been a service call to remove the bottom drain plug from the tank to get the water out, followed by disconnecting and purging the water from the burner feed line. Not an inconsequential job.
About 35 years ago when I was Chief Engineer for The Scully Signal Company I developed a combination tank gage and floating suction line we named "The Scully Snorkel". It drew the fuel oil from about one inch below the surface, effectively keeping water, ice and sludge from screwing things up as long as you didn't let the tank level get to low.
They are still selling them:
PS Someone suggested we call that device "The Scully Topsucker", but the world wasn't quite ready for that back then.
Little boys are evil. When they grown up, they're evil,too.
Why don't they put a drain valve on the bottom front of the tanks like on air tanks. Then it would be simple to drain water, sludge and rust. I can see myself installing one if I ever get a new tank.
accidental release of oil, when a dumb person or child decides to turn valve?
The outlet should be capped or plugged. With a bit of goop, so it takes a wrench to remove the cap or plug.
Offhand, I'd have to guess that anyone who actually did this would remember the answer to his own question. Especially a generation or two ago, when spanking was legal.
On my last oil tank which was inside the basement, the tank was slightly tilted and the oil line to the burner went to the low point of the tank. There may have been 1/2" of oil below it at the most. Never had a problem, the dirt was filtered all the time so there was no build up of sludge, and a bottle of... I forget what it's called... once a year kept any water from building up.
Then again, I never ran the garden hose into it.
If he'd tried that crap around here he'd have ended up in a shallow grave, and deservedly so. Of course, very few people around here have rugrats, which is one of the main reasons I live here.
Hmm. The outside oil tank at my old garage had a valve down there and I checked it for water now and then.
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