For Ketchum’s Garage, Red Dragon Slashes Heating Costs

If you’ve ever had your oil changed at Ketchum’s Garage in Old Hilliard, chances are you’ve fed the Red Dragon. Don’t worry: the Red Dragon is no threat to torch the homes of Hilliard residents! Rather, it’s the nickname for the waste oil furnace used by Jon Ketchum and his staff at the garage.

Ketchum’s Garage has been operating on Main Street in Hilliard since 1986 and Ketchum estimates the Red Dragon has been in use for the last 20 years. Specifically, the Red Dragon is a CB-1800 500 series waste oil furnace bought locally from Gingerich’s Clean Burn in Plain City. While Ketchum supplements his shop’s heating with natural gas, the waste oil furnace certainly helps his costs and consumption.

One of the reasons Ketchum opts to use his waste oil in this way is his belief in an axiom of transporting oil: if you transport oil, some of it is going to spill.

“We could make a little money by selling our used oil, but whenever you transport oil, you’re always going to be dropping some of it somewhere,” Ketchum says. Clean Burn technology meets or exceeds EPA requirements for waste oil combustion and Clean Burn products are deemed appropriate burners of waste oil by the EPA.

The Red Dragon goes through plenty of oil in the cold months, particularly because the concrete surface of the garage’s floor can be more than ten degrees lower than the air temperature, but employee John Wolford says he’s never seen the Red Dragon run out before. The beloved Red Dragon is Ketchum’s second waste oil furnace, as there was one operating in the garage when he took it over.

In order to make sure it runs smoothly, only oil obtained from oil changes performed at the shop is used to feed the Red Dragon. Ketchum has to be sure to keep his recycled oil as clean as possible and takes care to filter out any impurities before reusing it: “I can’t just take someone’s oil off the street because who know how clean they keep it.”

If you are looking to dispose of any motor oil or flammable liquids, please consult Go Green Hilliard’s resident recycling page.