Rant about Home Depot

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SteveHGraham
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by SteveHGraham »

A friend of mine was in the oil business. He told me heating oil was diesel. He said refiners put red dye in it. People would call his company to place orders, and they would say, "I don't care where you get it. Just make sure it's red."
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
curtis cutter
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by curtis cutter »

In Washington, "Red" diesel is for off road use only. If they find it in an on road vehicle fuel system the penalties can be rather severe. We also must pay sales tax on red diesel so there is a point where the sales tax (upwards of 10% in some areas) can exceed the road fuel tax of about .45 cents/gallon.
Gregg
Just let go of it, it will eventually unplug itself.
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steamin10
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by steamin10 »

It is told to me that heating oil has a higher percentage of wax in it which doesnt effect furnace oil much. All the farmer types here use red diesel in their farm trucks. Some big rig guys are using drain oil in their older mechancal diesels up to about 30% and it works OK. They claim the lubricity of the oil helps the old engines live longer. I dunno. The elctronics dont like the mix. A guy that worked in a truck shop ran 50% drain oil in his Ford pickup without any lasting problems. It made some white smoke for a minute until it warmed up, but that was it. He used a house type filter to clean his oil and had a drum all the time.

I dunno, Engines are expensive. Doee this constitute abuse? Or is it just another biofuel thing...
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
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Harold_V
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by Harold_V »

In regards to using drain oil, I have a neighbor who is doing just that. He runs the oil through a centrifuge to clean it up, and runs it in his Dodge Cummins, mixed with diesel. So far, so good.

I tried burning drain oil in my boiler, which handles it just fine mixed no more than about 10% drain oil, but the ash that results is quite interesting. Much dirtier than plain old heating oil. Just last week I climbed up on the shop roof (the boiler is in the shop) and brushed the stack, with the cleaning the boiler the next project. I was shocked to find it quite clean--clean enough to not warrant the effort. I haven't been burning any significant amount of drain oil, however. Not enough to make a difference in cleanliness.

H
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curtis cutter
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by curtis cutter »

Does the source of the drain oil make a difference? My two principal vehicles bun no oil and I change my oils frequently and I would be curious if it actually contains less contaminates therefor burning "cleaner".
Gregg
Just let go of it, it will eventually unplug itself.
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Harold_V
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by Harold_V »

Interesting thought. I have no idea.. I just know that the oil I've used tends to leave behind a lot of "dirt" that isn't found when burning just heating oil.
The thicker oil alters the flame characteristics, which likely could be dealt with by changing the nozzle, but I don't have a reliable source of waste oil, so it isn't worth the effort. I discard the oil I get from my vehicles by burning in the boiler, and I drive very little, so I don't accumulate much.

Wish I had a reliable source of auto trans oil, though. It's lighter than engine oil and would likely burn quite nicely---much better than engine oil. I talked to a guy some time ago who was burning the stuff in his diesel truck. Said it ran perfectly well and he couldn't detect a difference in performance.

H
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neanderman
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by neanderman »

Harold_V wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:05 amI can still remember when diesel, here, was only 18¢/gallon. (Did I mention I'm quite old?)
I remember gasoline (petrol) at less than $0.25 a gallon, US -- sometimes it was as low as $0.10 when two nearby stations would get into a 'gas war'. I can also remember, in the wake do the Oil Embargo, when it hit $1.00 a gallon for the first time. I was working as a pump jockey at the time and had to listen to customer after customer complain about the cost.
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liveaboard
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by liveaboard »

We all complain about the high cost of energy today, because it was so much cheaper just a few decades ago.
And yet we still enjoy incredibly cheap energy if you look at it from a historical perspective.

Just a century ago, a windmill was built in the village where I live, a large undertaking and investment, an industry and source of income for a family thereafter.
It made a couple of HP for grinding grain into flour. That was the value of 2 HP.

A few centuries before that, there was only animal and human power.

Today we think nothing of driving along at 60 MPH, a speed that requires maybe 50 HP, just to go to a social event or whatever.
Heat, light, and hot running water are thought of as basic human needs.

Our species only acquired these things in the last 0.1% of our time on earth.

Oil costs basically nothing. it gets pumped out of the ground for pennies, and then sold at market rates, which is based on supply and demand; the more pumped out, the lower the price.
The total remaining supply has no bearing on the matter. We pay tax and the small costs of delivery, and of course the profit to the oil company.

But basically, even though it costs more now than it did when we were young, energy is still dirt cheap for people who have Dollars and Euros.

After a long hot shower, I'm going to get in my car and drive 40 miles to go shopping.
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Harold_V
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by Harold_V »

From my perspective, the cost of energy is more a reflection of the loss of buying power of the dollar than anything. We pay more, but with (far) less valuable dollars.
Prior to the gold reserve act of 1934, here, in the US, an ounce of gold was valued @ $20.67/troy ounce.
Today, while the price is not stable, a troy ounce sells for $1,222.70 (as I type this message). A troy ounce contains 480 grains, just as it always has.
So, what changed?

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
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tornitore45
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by tornitore45 »

Taking Harold gold data the ratio quoted is 59.15 In Gold parity terms the $3/gal fuel of today is $0.05 adjusted for inflation.

Of course all is relative, price is just a number. The real value is the time of paid labor one has to expend to obtain the good.
That depends on how fast the money rolls into your checking account.
Mauro Gaetano
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John Hasler
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by John Hasler »

You can't really adjust for inflation that far back. Too much has changed. We spend a large fraction of our incomes on things that did not exist in 1933. The average American travels by air frequently and owns a car that would have been competitive in major road races then. The majority of homes are air-conditioned. We gripe about the cost of service for pocket radiotelephones with more computing power than any of the few people who had even conceived of computers would have thought the entire world would ever need. Food is nearly free in terms of fraction of income. Most people eat a restaurant meal nearly every day. We complain about the cost of healthcare most of which simply did not exist then.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Rant about Home Depot

Post by SteveHGraham »

Don't start about healthcare. I went to a doc in the box in a strip mall for a strep throat test, which is a 5-minute in-office procedure that costs the provider very little and carries nearly zero risk of lawsuits. They charged me $50 and Aetna $600. Healthcare is expensive because providers charge too much.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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