Shop Owners Shares Lanair Waste Oil Heater Setup with YouTube Viewers

When YouTube user Everything Elliott was looking for an economical way to heat his shop, he purchased a Lanair XT300 waste oil heater and then did what he does best: created a video to document the installation process.

“I have a 1,200 square foot shop but it’s not insulated,” Elliott explains in the video, titled Cheaper Than Natural Gas, Propane, and Wood! Unboxing and Setting Up Lanair Waste Oil Heater. “I live in the Northeast. It gets very cold here. I wanted something that could keep up with heating the shop.”

Elliott looked into adding spray foam insulation, but the quote was way out of his budget.

“They wanted about $40,000, which is out of the realm of possibility,” he says. “I wanted a nice, big heater that was free to run and heat this place without having insulation, so I came up with the Lanair XT300.”

Helpful Advice for Aspiring DIYers

Elliott was no stranger to Lanair waste oil heaters. He’d been using one previously, but that unit was 30 years old and in need of replacement. 

Elliott’s video guides viewers through the entire installation process, from unloading and unboxing the waste oil heater through mounting it in the corner of his shop. He breaks down everything from setting up the chimney attachment and placing the 55-gallon drums of oil to priming the pump, dispensing helpful advice along the way. 

“I get my oil from a lot of different places — town and highway garages, maintenance shops, you pretty much just go around and ask, and they’ll give you 55-gallon drums for free,” Elliott advises. “If you go to Napa, Advanced, AutoZone, a lot of times they’ll give you oil out of their tank as well, because they have to pay to get rid of it.” 

He prefers highway departments and maintenance shops because they’re held to a higher standard and aren’t likely to be mixing coolant in with the oil. 

“But, you take what you can get!” he adds. 

Easy Step-by-Step Installation

Throughout the video, Elliott stresses how easy the installation process is, even for first-timers.

“When I bought this kit, it came with everything you need,” he says. “It’s really easy — there’s not much to hook up. It’s all pretty self-explanatory…I’m very happy with it!”

The video proves to be a handy guide for DIYers hoping to install a waste oil heater of their own. Elliott’s everyman approach is winning, even when things don’t go exactly as planned — which happens a couple of times in the 32-minute clip. From a leaky copper pipe to a troublesome thermostat, he encounters a few issues along the way…but they’re all easily resolved, even when he has to “mad scientist” a solution. A phone call to Lanair customer service leaves him impressed and proves to be a key selling feature. 

“If you’re interested in used motor oil burners or waste oil burners, check out Lanair,” he says. “There are a few other companies out there, but I don’t know if you get the support. This has a 10-year warranty with lifetime support. You can’t beat that!”