after a few days to eliminate the smell of diesel in my shop. I then let it sit there in the mason jar waiting for some separation to occur. The water I am talking about is the water people see in fuel filter bowls not what is absorbed into fuel oil that won't separate. People often assume water will magically fill their tanks if left half full and I have never seen that happen unless the deck fill was leaking.

How could our 275 gallon oil tank have zero water (not what is physically absorbed in the #2 fuel oil but water on the bottom of the fuel) in it after 34 years of service with a 1.5" vent, on the very humid Maine coast? This when it is almost always less than full with massive temp swings. How can that be if what people assume happens, actually happens? If I had a dollar for every customer who has told me their tank will "fill with water" if not topped off I'd be retired, yet our boats tanks have been drained, and that oil burned in our homes boiler, and we still have zero physical water in the oil tank or our boats tank.

It is not uncommon for me to heat my garage from say 25F to 72F in a matter of hours. One would have to guess this kind of temp cycling, with the 1.5" diameter vent pipe, exposed to the humid Maine coast for 34 years, would have eventually lead to water at the bottom of the tank? I have dipped the tank four times since we've lived here, don't really want to have to replace the tank, and there is no physical water on the bottom. Our boat, with the tank emptied all winter, also has not had any physical water in the tank.