In an oil-heated home, nothing’s more important than making sure you don’t run out.
Even if you use our automatic delivery option, it’s important to occasionally check your home heating oil tank gauge.
Most fuel oil tanks come with a traditional float-style gauge. Featuring an arm with a float attached to its end with a hinge and a plastic vial with a disk to indicate how full your tank is. As you use up your oil the float lowers and so does this disk.
To read the level of a float gauge, look for the tick marks on the plastic vial. These typically indicate Full, 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4. Because the home heating oil tank is rounded at the bottom, these gauges are not very accurate when the tank is low.
Gauges should only be used as an approximation of how full your tank is. Because of the moving parts inside, these can also be prone to wear over time.
As a good rule of thumb, always order heating oil at around 1/4 full. This gives you a few days for the oil to arrive before running out.