How Do I Order Heating Oil?

What You Need to Know

Fall is here, and winter is fast approaching. As the seasons change, so will your home heating needs. As the temperatures drop, you’ll start turning up the heat in your home. You’ll also need to start ordering heating oil more regularly.

In addition to keeping your home comfortably warm, there are a number of reasons why you should keep your heating oil tank full. In an emptier tank, debris can clog your oil filters. Clogged oil filters reduce the efficiency of your heating system and can even cause it to fail altogether. Both of those scenarios will cost you more money in energy and/or repair costs.

An emptier tank is also more susceptible to condensation. The water formed by condensation forms an ideal environment for bacteria to build up and create heating oil sludge in your tank. If that sludge gets into your filters, it will decrease your system’s efficiency or cause it to fail. Condensation can also cause rust, and that rust can cause your heating system to fail.

A fuller tank is also less susceptible to gelling (frozen heating oil), because the more heating oil there is in your tank the longer it takes to freeze. Heating oil starts to freeze at around 16 degrees Fahrenheit.

For all these reasons and more, a fuller tank is best. How full is full enough? Try to keep your tank at least half full (though fuller is better).

To keep your tank full, you need to order heating oil. Let’s go through how to do that.

Ordering Heating Oil

Valley Oil puts ordering heating oil at the tip of your fingers. If you’re a new customer, simply sign up on our new customer portal. Signing up is as easy as filling out one form and only takes minutes. You’ll fill out your name and address as well as indicate where on your property your heating oil tank is located and what size tank you have. Once you’ve filled out the form, one of our customer service representatives will contact you within one business day. And we’ll email you a temporary password.

Once you have an account with us, simply login to your account to order heating oil. Not sure how much fuel to order? Simply check your tank gauge. The approximate amount of fuel in the tank will be displayed in fractions. You’ll also need to know your tank size. Once you know both of those pieces of information (the amount of fuel in your tank and your tank size), enter the information on our website to determine the number of gallons you’ll need to order to fill your tank. (Remember, a full tank is best.) Then go to our “order fuel” page and enter the number of gallons you need.

Note: To allow for fuel expansion and safe deliveries, an oil tank holds slightly less fuel than its official full capacity. For example, with a 275-gallon tank, the actual usable capacity ranges from 250-256 gallons. Please keep this in mind when placing your order.

Automatic Delivery

You don’t need to do any of the above if you sign up for automatic delivery. With free automatic delivery, Valley Oil will schedule your deliveries based on weather conditions and your average fuel use—we usually get your heating oil to you when your tank is about one-quarter full. Automatic delivery helps us avoid emergency refills and maintains an efficient schedule for all our customers. It also means you never have to worry about calling for more fuel or the potentially expensive consequences of a run-out—like emergency deliveries and burst pipes.

Heating Oil from Valley Oil

Valley Oil offers our customers top-quality heating oil at the best price available in the Hudson Valley. Value is high on our list. So we’re committed to offering a heating oil product that won’t overwhelm your budget. We also add value for our customers by offering a budget plan, price protection, and reliable automatic delivery which eliminates the need to order heating oil yourself.

Valley Oil is here to help our customers pay less and smile more. Contact us today to sign up for automatic delivery or to learn more about our heating oil services.