After walking into my first cool/cold evening in my 30x40 shop with a clutch to install, income has been good enough this year that I got the bug for a good waste oil heater. I have been blowing used oil in with air on top of Bois d' Arc wood for a good hot fire in a wood stove. The drawback is it's slow to get going, lots of work to get and keep enough wood, and I can't keep it going without constant stoking. I have several steady sources of good clean oil. Ebay has some small units for $2200, but I found a used Lanair unit for sale with a current bid of nearly $800 (11/9). Can these units be left on overnight and run for extended periods of time? I want to place a bid but don't know anything about them. It is supposed to have a recent tune up done before a shop upgrade. The supply pump and plumbing is pictured with it. Comparable new run $3-6K. Not to focus on this unit, would a heater like this be a worthwhile investment as I have plenty of work lined up for the winter. I dread keeping my contraption going versus a nice ducted stream of hot air practically on demand.
The ones we have at our shop have a wall mounted thermostat and can be set at any temp and cycle on-off to maintain the temp.. during the winter we leave it on 24-7.. 1 bad thing about them is.. you better get a manual.. they will carbon up and.. you have to cut the waste oil w/ diesel fuel..
they can be left on 24-7days a week!! just check out the heat exchanger on any used waste oil heater (may be why it was changed) most manufacturs will buy the old heater if its rebuildable, & you are buying a new heater from them.
After looking into it more, I am going to do a do a kit conversion on a gun style Beckett oil fired furnace burner and install it into the side of my wood stove box. The conversion kit is coming from ckburners. I will still be able to run it by a thermostat which is one of my main goals. I will update the project as it progresses. Thanks for the info so far.