Had an emergency yesterday afternoon. I happened to be hanging the washing outside when I noticed that the heating oil tank had split for about an inch about half-way up the side. The oil wasn't gushing out, but something Had To Be Done urgently. This was at 5:30 pm so the heating oil supplier had gone home. The next door neighbour and I managed to seal the leak temporarily with wet potter's clay and tape so that it just dripped, but I thought I can't leave it like that until the morning, so I called the fire station in Boston for advice (non-999 number).
There is no fire station in the small town where I live in South Lincs, so I called the Boston station and caught the resident fire officer just as he was about to leave. He said straightway he'd send a fire engine, as they had better sealing putty than the potter's clay. They use it on lorry tanks. Anyway, they arrived 20 minutes later - five blokes! Very helpful. Within just ten minutes the guy who seemed to have done it before had sealed it with the stuff they use, which is called Dammit (I've since looked it up on the internet). They covered the Dammit with several layers of what looked like black duct tape.
In the interim I called my heating engineer, who is coming first thing this morning with temporary bund tanks to pump out my tank into. I'll have to get a new tank, but I don't know whether to get a single-skin or a bund tank. The fire officer thought bund tanks were mandatory now, but I still see firms on the internet selling single-skin ones, which my current one is.
Thing is, I took delivery of heating oil yesterday mid-morning and it filled the tank brimfull, so probably the extra pressure of 2000 litres pressing on the tank was enough for it to give way. The tank was manufactured in 2004. I'm just hoping the repair will last until tomorrow morning, but if it bursts open again, the fire officer said just ring 999 as my details will now be on the system already.
Update: I didn't sleep much, so went out to check the repair during the night. It lasted about 6 hours completely dry, but at about 01:30 am this morning I noticed it was weeping slightly. At 04:30 am it was weeping more, and now, at 08:00 am it is dripping ~slightly~ (about a drip every 3 seconds). I gathered the leakage in a plastic bowl, which has accumulated about 2 litres overnight, though some of that may well be rainwater as it6's been raining off and on throughout the night.
The other thing was, a neighbour across the road two or three doors down had exactly the same thing happen to him, according to my immediate neighbour. He had his tank filled right up and it developed a leak soon afterwards! These tanks are now over 11 years old on the estate. They are, I see from the internet, guaranteed for ten years, but I had assumed they last forever.
Questions:
- What other course of action might I have taken?
- Should I get a bund tank or is single-skin okay? Note that bund tanks don't come in as many sizes (capacities) and are at least twice the price of single-skin. Howeverm I'm not worried about the cost at the moment. I just want to get it sorted.
- Should I NEVER AGAIN fill the new tank up to the top?
- Any further suggestions as to replacing the tank with the new one? My friendly heating engineer will do all the work, but I'm asking what points to remember? How heavy are these plastic tanks when empty?
The tank is round cross-section, about 1m diameter and 2m long.
MM