Fuel tank disposal advice

So, I have a 2700 litre steel Kerosene tank sits at the back of the garage and feeds an oil boiler. It’s being retired in favour of an air source heat pump in the new year. I’ve contacted my local SEPA registered specialist who have given an estimate of £450 to remove and dispose of it. There’s around 2-300 litres of Kerosene left in the tank which the company don’t offer any partial pence per litre buy back. I’ll shop around, but just wondering if there is a DIY option here of pumping out the oil and keeping it/finding a good home and dismantling the tank myself. Obviously not charging in with an angle grinder. Anyone been in a similar situation? Should i just suck it up (pun intended) and get the professionals in?

Pic of tank:

Primus stove
Bialladin lamp

Await the apocalypse.

That’s a big tank. I’d pay up. Seems fairly cheap tbh!

My mate had this issue. He drained the kerosene and put it for free on facebook (with no promises about it’s quality) – it was gone in an hour. Then reciprocating sawed it (not angle grinder!) into bits and took to tip – didn’t take that long.

Fetch it down to Cumbria and I’ll not charge you £450!

Serious answer, that would be useful to somebody localish, shirley? Facebook it

Same thing here in the summer, oil replaced with heat pump. The heat pump installers removed the old one (was included in the quote), and we gave the oil, 300-400 litres to neighbors. The plastic tank was cut up as it wouldn’t get past the gate in one piece.

+1 on offer a ‘come get the fuel for free’ on Facebook.

This is great. Was kind of expecting everyone to say leave it to the pros, but it’s nice to see a mix. Will check the tank for a drain plug as don’t think my vacuum pump will be a match for this and that’ll be an extra expense

That’ll clean a lot of chains

 Will check the tank for a drain plug as don’t think my vacuum pump will be a match for this and that’ll be an extra expense

Bit of garden hose and siphon it. Try not to swallow too much 🙂

Just remember if your free oil collectors make a mess. Your on the hook for it.

Even small quantities of kero stink for a long time.

I know you said you won’t be charging in with a grinder but just in case anyone does, be very wary of cutting into it and it binding tight on the disc as the tension in the panels shift. I saw a very nasty accident where that happened, disc stopped dead, grinder body rotated into face. Lots of blood!

Just paid 60p a litre for Kero. Flog it!

If you can plug the vents and get another couple of hundred litres of fuel you could try and create a bleve explosion. Get it all good and hot but not quite enough for the tank to fail, simmer, then crank the heat up. Take it out of your garage first though, eh.

Its bunded so hopefully the potential for spillage is limited, I’d be tempted to let the collector deal with pumping it out but be on hand to supervise just to check they don’t something rash like drill a hole at the bottom and then run out of containers and leave you watching the fuel rise up the bund!  Best option might be a local neighbour still using kerosene as you can let them run back and forth with a couple of 25L jerry cans!

I’d be tempted to let the collector deal with pumping it out

One thing i didn’t mention is changeover times will be tight. Heating engineer will disconnect the tank and within an hour or so i want it drained and out so that a water tank and ASHP piping can be installed put on the back wall where the tank is. Makes it a bigger pain for mucking about with facebookers. Alternative is moving the tank out with oil in it, but it’s currently sitting on shonky brick supports. Is it wrong to turn the heating right up and sit in my pants for a few weeks to burn the oil? ?

Talk to your local tank guy. He’ll sort out and empty the tank.

I’m going through the same scenario as you op

I have a friend who will take the oil, but transportation is the issue. 200 litres will need either a lot of buckets/containers or a lot of journeys.

The containers cost money, and then there’s an issue of what to do with them afterwards. They’ll need Cleaning or disposal, which would be best if that’s someone else’s problem!

Find a local garage or workshop with a kerosene heater, they’d take the fuel. If you use 25 litre containers, which they probably use already, that’s only eight fills to use your 200 litres. I got rid of 150 litres that was a bit dirty that way, a mate with a garage took the lot with cries of joy (it was a freezing winter).

Contact the Kremlin, think Pootin is short of a few tanks!

The person who wants it could hire a small trailer fuel bowser on a trailer. It will come with a pump. Or just hire a hand pump to transfer into containers.  Some car wash places have big plastic drums going spare.

Check your local tool hire centre.