bucket heater?
 

I have read about people using a water heater element and an extension cord to make a bucket heater, is that all there is to it?. My oil is to thick to pump when I get it so I am looking for options. Just rapping up the loose ends on my processor, should be making bio by May.

Yes it is. Some people use 220 volt elements. The 200 volt element will not get as hot as the 120 volt element.

That’s what I use to heat the oil that is in the 55 gal. drums I have outside the restaurant. It’s a 4500 watt 220 hot water heater that I attached to the end of an extension cord (12 gauge). I threaded it into a 1" iron pipe coupling and attached the ground to the coupling. I just hang it in the drum for about 10 to 20 minutes depending on how cold it is and stir it once in a while. I also use a gas powered 2" trash pump to pump the oil into my drum in the truck.

I found someting today that might do the trick. let me upload the picture!

http://home.comcast.net/~wibin/fte/grillproelement.jpg

Apparently its used to start charcoal by super heating it. It works like a soldering iron.

Says it reaches tempatures of 1000 Deg F.
Which if thats to hot at 120v's (110) then you can always jump it down.

Just like the cooking elements on a stove, or those table top stove/cooker deals.

i figure this would do really good for heating oil if used properly.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the responses guys, wanted to make sure before I tried.

I'll wager it won't get anywhere near 1000 degrees when its submerged in liquid. Which is a good thing.....

no, but for 9 dollars, it will heat your oil.

Thats the beauty of it!!!

Just drop it in whatever drum you need, and let it do its work.

Basically the same thing I use , I just used the top element out of the hot water tank I was converting. Looks to me like it should work as long as it doesn't get to hot - that would be one heck of a grease fire.

Ya, I would have to test it, But i'm not into that phase of the plan yet.

It would be really simple to just drop the voltage lower so it does not get to hot.

The other solution would be to make a double boiler setup, and heat the oil with boiling water. That is overly compliacated however.