DIY Fuel Polishing...

[Alan de Enfield]

58 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Edited to add: I don't think Alan can legitimately relate his experience to typical inland boating.

 

Yes - although I have had that boat on the inland waterways for about 5 years, it is an extreme example.

 

I agree that if you are doing an 'annual' cleanout then you may only get 1 or 2 'milk cartons' to dispose of, however, if it is the 1st time it has ever been done then you could be getting 20 litres, or maybe as much as 50 litres. How many boaters keep a couple of empty Jerry cans , or 10 / 20 empty milk cartons aboard?

 

The companies I have seen doing the polishing do not appear to bring any containers with them and the process is that they simply continuously circulate the fuel.

[Tony Brooks]

13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

The companies I have seen doing the polishing do not appear to bring any containers with them and the process is that they simply continuously circulate the fuel.

 

And that was exactly what @Tony1 questioned. Seems it may well be verging on a scam to sell more filers.

 

I simply do not see the average narrowboat having 40 or 50 litres of muck in the bottom of their tank unless there is a leak. Some may,  but not the majority. I can't even see our cruisers having that much either.

[Scholar Gypsy]

On 20/06/2022 at 18:46, Tony1 said:

 

Do please forgive my ignorance on this, I may well be talking b****cks as usual, but if you are worried about there being water at the bottom of the fuel tank, couldn't you buy a fuel siphon tube (with a hand squeezed pump on it) for about £10?

That will reach down and suck up whatever is lurking down there, so you can have a look yourself and see what's what.

If there is any water under the fuel, its obviously been there for a while, so why not wait till you have a fairly calm day to avoid stirring things up, and then suck out what water and crud is in there, and then let the fuel run down a bit through normal use, and call in the fuel polishers when you are down to 30 litres or so?

No point paying a daft amount of money per litre to polish 150 litres, when you can polish a much smaller volume?

The main objective of the polishing is to get rid of the bacteria responsible, right? So it would seem easier to do that with only a 20% full tank, provided you firstly suck out most of the crap underneath with a siphon tube. 

 

 

This is indeed what I do - I use a hand pump with thin copper pipe to reach the bottom of the tank and take  a sample.

 

[robtheplod]

This is interesting... bad diesel bug 'infection'.....   not sure i believe hot diesel bug is worse for engines than concrete though???

 

 

[Hudds Lad]

When did Peter Kay start boating?