Sprang a leak today.

[DaveyHep]

Noticed a Kerosene whiff around my tank the last few days. Found had a weep at the tank filter bowl.
stripped it down and changed the o-ring and bottom bolt seal. Boxed it back up, turned on the oil, and suddenly oil was shooting out the side of the bowl....wtf !
Further investigation showed corrosion under some crud on the inside had pitted the metal and eventually holed the bowl in a tiny localised area (approx 1mm).
Lucky i caught it when I did. Could have been 2000l of Kero into the ground.
In future, when removing filter bowls, I’ll be sure and give it a proper clean and a good visual inspection.
Just thought I’d share.

 

[Aquarius]

Useful information that, I’ve never worked on anything other than NG, so tips are always welcome.

 

[Stigster]

This kind of situation is why the Guernsey government banned the installation of any bottom outlet tanks and insist on top outlet only with an anti-syphon valve in our regs. The whole island was declared a water catchment area and it has been many years since a bottom outlet tank has been allowed.

Do you guys still fit bottom outlet tanks over catch pits like we used to do?

 

[DaveyHep]

Bottom outlet tanks are still very common over here. No requirement for catchment pit. Top outlet tanks make a lot of sense.

 

[SimonG]

There's only one top outlet tank I look after. Also probably a 70/30 split on bunded. 30% being bunded.

 

[SJB060685]

All our customers were bottom outlet tanks, in fact the only top outlet tank I've dealt with is in my sisters property.
Catch pits if you will are still about to this day in my area, although most tanks have been replaced to bunded, or triple skinned and fire rated.
2000L into the ground would of been a very costly clean up bill if you couldn't prove it was an accident

 

[DaveyHep]

All our customers were bottom outlet tanks, in fact the only top outlet tank I've dealt with is in my sisters property.
Catch pits if you will are still about to this day in my area, although most tanks have been replaced to bunded, or triple skinned and fire rated.
2000L into the ground would of been a very costly clean up bill if you couldn't prove it was an accident

As I do my own servicing I doubt I could have proved that it had been done.
My existing tank was installed when I moved in, and must be at least 20+ yrs old. I was planning on moving it soon, so think I might splash out on a new top entry. I shudder to think what could have happened.

 

[SJB060685]

Oil causes massive amounts of damage to both the environment and fabric of a building. I know a fellow engineer who had a problem where a vaporising burner in a Rayburn was not isolated at the OCV when the flame went out, oil kept be fed to the burner and through capillary action oil kept rising up through the burner and leaking out. By the time the owners returned to the property a few weeks later the damage had been done and the insurance paid out close to 100k to rectify everything if I remember correctly.
If you lost 2000l into the environment the environment agency would get involved and that can be thousands in a clean up bill

 

[Stigster]

I'm surprised they haven't banned bottom outlet tanks at least for new installations in the UK. I'm also surprised to hear that secondary containment (what we call catch-pits) is not mandatory either.

Here's a link to our regulations and guidance on oil tanks in Guernsey, if anyone is interested.

https://gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=75200&p=0

 

[SJB060685]

I'm surprised they haven't banned bottom outlet tanks at least for new installations in the UK. I'm also surprised to hear that secondary containment (what we call catch-pits) is not mandatory either.

Here's a link to our regulations and guidance on oil tanks in Guernsey, if anyone is interested.

https://gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=75200&p=0

In some very rare circumstances, secondary containment/catchpit/bunded however you want to define it is not needed but that is very rare.

 

[SimonG]

They cant ban anything when it comes to oil.