Heating Oil Runouts: What to Do and How to Avoid Them

Posted: October 24, 2018

Concerned phone call

Running out of home heating oil is no fun – especially in the dead of a Rhode Island winter. A runout can happen for a number of reasons – a quick turn of weather, malfunctioning equipment, poor tank monitoring, and theft, to name a few.

The good news

Many people fear that running out of home heating oil will damage their furnace or boiler, but that isn’t necessarily true – your equipment has an emergency switch that will automatically switch off the burner when there is no oil to burn.

The bad news

Besides having a potentially dangerously cold house, a heating oil runout can clog filters and fuel lines with the dirt and residue that collects at the bottom of your oil tank. That means you will need a service call, a possible system reset, and a new filter. Frozen pipes are also a major problem, with potential for thousands of dollars in flood damage.

Troubleshooting a heating oil runout

If you’ve run out of heating oil, do a little detective work – it could help you prevent the problem in the future. Ask yourself the following questions to determine why:

What to do if you run out of heating oil

Preventing a heating oil runout

Prevention is always best. You can avoid running out of home heating oil by:

If you run out of heating oil, don’t panic – contact Vaughn Oil. Our experts can restart your burner, take care of any problems that arise and refill your tank to keep your family safe and warm at home.