Kerosene Question

[Mike Hill]

I heat the garage/shop when necessary with a kerosene space heater. Good old Home Depot charges $35.00 for a 5 gallon can of the fuel. Is the fuel used in kerosene heaters the same as automobile diesel fuel? If not has anyone substituted Auto Diesel for Kerosene in their heater.

A lot of ice here and more coming, so I am using more fuel than normal.
Mike

[Jim Becker]

No, Kerosene is not the same as Diesel fuel or home heating oil...it's more refined. But you should look around at the filling stations in your area. You may find one or more that also serve kero. If not, check the fuel oil companies. They may stock kero.

[Stanley McMahan]

Greetings Mike,

I don't know if it is the same or not but I burn automotive kerosene in my heater. If anything, it might be a little hotter but if it is, not by much.

Disclaimer: I have a pole barn so the ventilation is excellent. BRRRRRRRRRR!

Stan

[Jim Becker]

A close relative to kerosene is...Jet fuel.

[Larry Fox]

I use K1 from my local filling station. Last time I filled up I think it was ~$2.65 a gallon. Stuff I get is sometimes colored which is so that the truckers DON'T use it. If they get inspected and the inspector sees the colored stuff in the tank the fine is apparently quite steep )all this from the station manager).

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Mike,

Diesel has more wax in it so may plug up your heater and stinks more when burnt. You will need a blue can marked Kerosene for your own safety and to be compliant with the law when you purchase Kero at a station. It should be less than half of what HD is charging for it.

[Bryan Somers]

You can burn diesel in them but keresone does burn cleaner, meaning it wont smoke and stink the place up. You should be able to find kerosene at alot of stations but not everyone carries it.

[Don Stanley]

You should be able to find a local business that has a Kerosene pump. I live in central Washington, and recenlty paid $3.79/gallon at a service station. Farm/Feed supply stores often carry it also.

A little off-topic, but you might be interested to know there is an additive you can add to the Kero to reduce the stink odor. The Kero-Clean fuel treatment I purchased from Lowe's cost less than $3 for 8 fl. oz. This will treat up to 80 gallons of fuel. I found that it does help!

[Steven Wilson]

A farm supply store or fuel store should have it. Some heaters will allow you to burn multiple fuels (jet fuel, diesel, kerosene, etc) which give you some choice. I get my fuel at Fleet Farm for around $2.60/g

[Alex Shanku]

Since this is the warmest winter that I can remember, Lowes is selling all of their heaters for at least %50 off. I just purchased a Reddy Heat 55k btu forced air kerosene heater for under $100.

I went to the local gas station and bought 5gal of kerosene for $3.15 a gal.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The grades of fuel from #2 fuel to auto to Kero really all depend on two things to differentiate them:
Cleanliness and wax

The better (costlier) the grade of fuel oil the less wax it'll have and it'll also have had biological and other particiculate contaminants filtered out.

Wax interestingly burns very hot. This is because it's a larger molecule and has more energy to offer up.
The heavier the fuel molecule the more energy you are likely to get out of it to some point on declining returns where the energy required to make it burn becomes a power drain.

So then whether you use #2 fuel oil or auto deisel or Kero is more than anything else a function of whether you want or can tolerate the sootiness you'll get from the dirtier more waxy fuels and of course whether your fuel feed system can tolerate the heavier gooey fuel. It's possible to gunk up a delicate system with heavy waxy fuels

["Gary Brewer"]

Mike: I get it at a local gas station. Under $3 the last time and I'm in New York state. You're in Texas! Don't they make it in your back yard?
Gary