Posted: February 16, 2026
Life can get hectic, particularly when you’re dealing with the hundreds of winter stressors. Between shoveling out after a major snowfall, coordinating holiday-season travel and keeping your house at a comfortable temperature, remembering to schedule a heating oil delivery can slip your mind.
Mirabito Energy Products has been delivering home heating oil throughout the Northeast since the 1940’s, and the cold weather always brings increased consumption in this region. Fuel run-outs come with additional costs that homeowners don’t always account for. In this article, we’ll outline them for you.
First, a little good news. Heating oil run-outs are disruptive and often expensive to remedy, but they rarely result in major damage to boilers or furnaces.
However, a last-minute emergency fuel delivery comes with added costs. Run-outs can happen after hours, on weekends and on holidays — and getting your heating equipment back online in freezing conditions can’t wait most of the time. You may end up paying after-hours fees and other charges as a result.
When a heating oil tank runs low, sediment buildup can cause serious issues. Dirt, rust and debris naturally settle at the bottom of the tank, but as oil levels drop, this sediment can be pulled into fuel lines and filters. The result can be clogs that restrict oil flow, reduce efficiency and strain your heating system. In severe cases, blockages can shut the system down entirely, leaving your home without heat during cold weather and increasing the risk of frozen pipes and costly damage. Keeping your tank properly filled helps prevent these problems.
If your heating oil system runs out of fuel, restarting it usually isn’t as simple as refilling the tank. Air can enter the fuel lines, and sediment may be stirred up, which means the burner often needs to be primed and restarted before your system will run properly again. In many cases, this requires a service visit from your heating oil provider to safely bleed the lines and restore operation. Because this work is separate from a normal delivery, it can add unexpected service costs on top of your fuel refill.
If you’re regularly letting your tank run low, you could be speeding up its eventual retirement — and making a pricy emergency tank replacement more likely.
An empty or nearly empty tank will develop more condensation buildup on the inner walls. This will lead to bacteria growth, sludge accumulation and internal corrosion. These factors eventually cause leaks and tank failures. Keeping your tank reliably filled will reduce condensation and slow corrosion.
A heating oil run-out can leave your home cold at the worst possible moment. With Mirabito’s complimentary automatic delivery, you can avoid having to worry about checking your tank or scheduling deliveries.
When you become a Mirabito customer and enroll in automatic delivery, our advanced monitoring system analyzes your usage history and local weather patterns to schedule refills right when you need them. The result? Reliable comfort, less stress and more peace of mind all winter long.
Mirabito proudly serves homeowners across Central New York, Utica and the Capital Region; the Adirondacks, Catskills and Hudson Valley; mid- to northern Pennsylvania; West and Central Connecticut; and parts of Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Ready for worry-free heating? Join Mirabito today by contacting us online, and you can experience automatic delivery done right.
