what fuels can you burn?

[Gooserider]

I'll deny it if asked, but a tightly rolled newspaper log soaked in waste motor oil, drained, then wrapped in a few layers of clean paper makes a fine addition to a load of logs in a gasification burner. No smoke, no odor, no half-burned paper residue, lots of heat. Works for other non-volatile flammables as well.

Small amounts of non-recyclable plastic also burn with no problems and no odor. 2000 degrees and lots of oxygen work wonders. Just another alternative to throwing stuff in the landfill.

Might work in a gasification unit, certainly wouldn't in a cat stove for very long - can you say poisoned cats?

The other big concern that I would have is that waste motor oil does contain a lot of toxic stuff, such as heavy metals, that are NOT going to get turned into something else - it's a stove, not a nuke plant! While you may not have visible smoke, I would be worried about either possible toxic fumes (cadmium and zinc are both present in used motor oil, and are quite deadly as fumes - ask any welder) or as contaminants in the ashes.

Gooserider

 

[Nofossil]

As with many things in life, it's often a matter of degree. The metals in your oil are the metals that your engine is made of. the same stuff is in your exhaust. As long as my wood stove burns less oil than my car, I'll be happy ;-)

Burning large quantities could be a problem (maybe), although there are waste-oil furnaces sold for exactly that purpose. A quart now and then is probably a non-issue.

 

[Highbeam]

And the old welding on zinc will kill you story is a myth. You may not feel real good if you inhale mass quantities of the stuff but you aren't supposed to inhale the smoke anyways. Not cummulative and not deadly.

I've welded plenty of galvanized things together. Cool green arc.

Now cadmium, well, I don't know about that.

 

[Czech]

An entire bedroom set from the mother in law, felt great. Forgot that the front was fake plastic after I got done cutting it up with the sawzall, the chiminea was glowing red and there really was no way to damp it. I'm still surprised to local FD didn't show up, looked like the well fires in Iraq. Oops, won't do that again.

 

[Czech]

There was an interesting thread last year, semi-OT, but I did try a variety of fuels that night in the pellet stove and the house was hot but still standing the next morning. The thread title is self explanatory and can be found below, I still LOL when reading this one! https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/3849/

 

[harmerd]

Anyone burn Bamboo? Pretty renewable.....grows well. I was wondering if it went too hot quickly.