Roth oil furnaces

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. Seen by a doctor or nurse

   Made May 12, 2016 · , sent to the company May 20, 2016 · , published by CPSC Jun 6, 2016

   The product, in the report: 275 gallon storage tank for storage of heating oil. It is constructed with an inner tank made of plastic and an outer tank of galvanized steel. It is equipped with a visual indicator to alert the owner if oil is present in the space between the tanks. These marketing claims are false.

   For about 6 months in 2014, my wife and I smelled oil fumes in our house but we were unable to find the source. Service calls to clean and check the oil-burner furnace system failed to find any leak. The oil tank was a Roth Double-Wall Tank (DWT) that was installed in 2006 and still under its 10-year warranty. It is equipped with a “visual leak indicator” and it showed no leak. From July to December, my wife experienced a range of illness that caused her to seek medical treatments about 30 times. Her symptoms included frequent head and stomach pain, nausea, eye irritation, poor appetite and significant weight loss. The cause of these symptoms was unknown and all the treatments were ineffective.

   On 12/8/2014, I finally discovered oil fumes were coming out of a corner at the top of the DWT. When it was reported to Roth, they alleged that the leak was caused by improper installation and denied the tank was defective. As an experimental physicist experienced in fluid handling systems, I investigated the cause of the leak and came to the conclusion that the design of the DWT is fundamentally flawed. Its inner plastic tank is prone to rupture and the leak indicator does nothing when it happens. This poses considerable health and safety hazards to every household where a Roth tank installed. The product should be recalled regardless of warranty period.

   A summary of my experience with the DWT is given below and more details are given in the attached report.

   ************************ Roth markets the DWT for heating oil storage in residential homes and claims superiority over common steel tanks in both safety and durability. The extra protection is afforded by the two “completely sealed” tanks and a “highly visible optical leak alarm” that alerts the homeowner if oil leaks out of the inner tank into the wall space between the two tanks. However, both of these safety claims are essentially false.

   The DWT uses an inner tank made of plastic to prevent corrosion. However, Roth is well aware that the oil weight causes the plastic tank to deform, which results in vertical movement of the pipe adapter at the top of the tank. Standard regulations require the external pipes be rigidly secured. Thus the movement of the adapter results in enormous stress on the plastic tank, making it susceptible to rupture. Oil subsequently leaks into the space between the tanks.

   The outer tank is made of steel and it is supposed to contain the oil when the inner tank fails. However, the “rolled seams” of the steel tank are actually not sealed and they allow oil fumes to escape. This is a severe health and environmental hazard in residential homes, especially in the winter when all windows are closed. The “leak indicator” is supposed to alert the owners to replace the tank promptly, but it actually does nothing until a substantial amount of oil has accumulated to float a buoy. In reality, the buoy does not float even when oil begins to drip out of the seams of the steel tank. So the leak indicator only gives the homeowner a false sense of security. Until an oil drip was observed, the dysfunctional alarm misleads people to look for leaks everywhere else but the tank itself. It took me six months to discover the DWT was the culprit of the oil fumes in the house. Service technicians were unable to find the cause.

   The Roth DWT carries a product warranty that is supposed to last ten years or more. When leakages were reported within the warranty period, the company alleged that they were caused by installers not following the instruction in the 2012 manual, even though the tanks were installed before 2012 when the supplied manuals gave no clue of the tank deformation problem. Specifically, the 2012 instruction included an unconventional pipe arrangement that was not followed even in the training video posted on Roth’s own site. The arrangement was claimed to relieve the stress caused by the intrinsic movement of the pipe adapter, but a simple mechanical analysis shows the claim to be false.

   Massachusetts regulations require oil tanks to be “securely supported by rigid noncombustible supports to prevent settling, sliding, or lifting.” Since the DWT’s inner plastic inner tank is known to have an intrinsic “settling” and “lifting” cycle in response to the filling and emptying of oil, as long as the external pipes are secured, the stress on the pipe adapter can cause internal rupture with no visible sign. Toxic fumes may exist in homes for many months before one realizes the tank has failed. The potentially serious ramifications should require a product recall regardless of warranty period.

   The attached report describes the details of owners experience in dealing with the failures of Roth DWTs within the warranty period. It documents how Roth did not acknowledge the defects in their tanks or stand behind its warranty. In addition, by applying basic physics and common knowledge, the design flaws in the DWT are identified and analyzed. Simple remedies are also suggested.

   Model

   Double Wall Tank

   Serial number

   08106053-20863

   Bought from

   Surner Heating

   Bought

   Jul 21, 2006

   Where

   Amherst, Massachusetts: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Age 62, Female

   The reporter’s relation to them

   My Spouse

   As this report names them

   Brand Roth, made or sold by Roth Global Plastics, Inc.

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Injury, Seen by Medical Professional

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources