The Columbia Fuels Automatic Delivery program is designed to help most people so they never have to worry about whether they have enough heating fuel. While we do not recommend people dip their tanks for a number of reasons, If you do need to perform a dip to find out how much fuel you have, the following will help you to gain a fairly accurate measurement.
Using a large wrench open the fill cap on the top of the oil tank
Using a metal tape measure, slowly extend the tape down in to the fuel until you feel the tape reach the bottom(make sure you go straight down not at an angle)
slowly bring the end of the tape back up out of the oil tank sliding the tape between your fingers until you feel the tape wet with fuel
remember the number of inches indicated on the tape measure at the point where the tape was wet with fuel
Using a rag or paper towel, dry the wet portion of the tape as the tape measure slides back in its case
Using the wrench securely fast the fill cap back on the tank. It is important to tighten securely.
using the following charts, establish which tank is closest to your size and look up the inches you measured to indicate the number of litres in fuel you have remaining
Charts for each tank
(Requires Acrobat PDF Reader)
1136 Litres (250 Gallon) Most Common
500 Litres (110 Gallon) Mobile Home
568 Litres (125 Gallon)
1136 Litres (250 Gallon)
1363 Litres (300 Gallon)
1591 Litres (350 Gallon)
2273 Litres (500 Gallon)