Re: no oil alarm on vro disconect
So when the alarm goes off and says no oil or low oil and I'm 20 or 30 miles offshore and the vro isn't working what am I supposed to do? By taking the vro off and mixing myself I have one less thing to worry about.
I'm not arguing with your logic at all. On the other hand, from my own personal experience pre-mixing for a lifetime, I know that I've made mistakes in pre-mixing in my built in tanks. Some I've caught and corrected, some I've been unsure of so added oil anyway (double oil probably), some I have no doubt I just didn't realize and probably ran a low ration oil from time to time. I doubt I ever forgot to add oil to a completely empty tank, but it's the partial tanks and normal distractions during filling/calculating, etc. that probably happened.
So pre-mixing is not infallible, and from everything I've read and been told by real experts, the up-to-date VRO/OMC mixing system is as reliable as any and likely more reliable, overall/statistically than fallible me.
Aaaaanyway, it's good either way and I don't mean to imply that what you're doing is unreasonable. Peace of mind is all that matters when you're out in the middle of nowhere and whatever gives you that - whether that be trusting your own reliability or that of your machine - is what you should follow. The balance tips to the machine when it comes to my personal reliability. It's just that there's a lot of urban legend about the unreliability of the VRO/OMS system that doesn't seem to exist with other brands for some reason.
As for your comment on what to do if the system should fail, it's very easy to deal with ....
What I plan to do, should I ever get a "no oil"alarm when I'm out in the middle of nowhere (which is 90% of my boating) is to just take the spare oil I always have on the boat and mix into the existing gas I have. Like you probably do, I always have a gallon or more on board so it's there when I'm at the gas station to fill up. Should I actually have no spare oil on the boat (not likely), I'll take my handy turkey baster (which I use to periodically test the condition of the oil at the bottom of the oil tank) and suck the oil out of the oil tank and transfer it into the gas tanks. I've totally emptied the ~2 gallon tank a couple of times and it only takes a couple of minutes per quart. Should I not have my turkey baster, I'll disconnect the oil line and use the primer bulb to do the same.
We all make our own decisions. For me, I've decided I'm less reliable than the properly maintained system with it's reliability and excellent alarms. Every well-respected local mechanic (independent and dealer) I talked to about this thought I was just crazy to go with pre-mix over a good condition VRO/OMS, so I stuck with it and so I'm liking it!
