22-07-2004, 12:12 PM
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OIl tank - OT, but it's a garden feature
(sarah) wrote in message k...
Janet Galpin wrote:
I have a rusty steel oil storage tank which I want to replace because I
have a horror of it springing a leak and flooding the garden with oil.
I'm not sure whether to replace it with another steel tank or a plastic
one. Any thoughts about the merits or drawbacks of either type?
Talk to the company that services the tank (the engineer who services
the boiler should check the tank valve, clean the filter, etc during the
visit). See what they suggest. We did, and they suggested plastic. Very,
very strongly. Long-lasting, don't require maintenance, less internal
rust leading to contamination of the oil supply if the filter fails.
Somebody mentioned sudden failure of plastic tanks. I'll bow to
anybody's experience, but surely when plastic fails outdoors it's
because of the effect of UV light on the material: wouldn't this start
in the visible areas at the top and on the sunny side? If so, you
should see it coming long before it reaches danger-point. They must
surely be made of a UV-resistant material, too. The plastic oil tank I
had installed nineteen years ago is still doing the present owner
proud, even after they'd changed its position, which would have tended
to worsen any weakness.
Mike.
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