OK, so I'm looking for a quick, cheap, simple method of pumping WVO out of collection barrels.

Note that I said PUMPING - not sucking. I've seen people's vaccum tank "super suckers", and that is NOT what I'm looking for. It requires too many parts that I don't have and couldn't get easily to put one together.

So, what kind of PUMPS are people using for collecting their WVO? I tried one of these

and I wasn't impressed. It was almost impossible to get it primed, and even once it was it didn't move the oil very fast - probably not more than a gallon a minute or so. On top of that, although it says it draws 800 Watts, it kept making my 800 Watt (continuous - 1600 Watts peak) power inverter kick out.

I'd like to find one that is self-priming that won't break the bank.

Ideas or suggestions anyone?

 

buy a cheapo hydraulic pump, and use a 12v electric motor to run it.

Thats what I did when I used to pump out bins.

Not too fast, but I'd drop it in, go sit in the truck till it was done.

The hydraulic pump also primed itself after 20-30 seconds of spinning.

I realize this whole approach sounds shoddy, but it worked for me, and lots of guys are constantly F%%king with pumping junk science projects to pump faster, its thick oil, it doesnt want to go fast.

A tank with an air vaccum pump would be ideal, but expensive.

 

Sounds good - got any more specifics? Where'd you get this hydraulic pump?

 

I use a fill-rite Diesel transfer pump like this. Works great in the summer. Slows down in the winter. I have 2 of them one for clean fuel and the outher to pump dirty WVO.

Bryan Will

Transfuel Brand Fuel Transfer Pump 12v 10GPM W/Nozzle

 

Tractor Supply Company - 2 in Water Pump with 118CC (4HP) Engine

This is what I use it works great!!! I have it bushed down to 1" hose for ease of use.

 

OOPS! double post...

 

Do a search at Frybrid for SBC pump. Many have modified small block chevy oil pump to use for pumping VO. Powerplants vary from cordless drills and 12v motors to one nut who used a 2.5HP 23,000rpm motor - yeah, that made quite a mess after hose failed due to overpressure! A friend just made one for me and I'm thinking about using an old 3hp lawnmower engine to power it. I figure it'll run at lower RPM's and be quieter than my Honda pump... The hydraulic pump is similar - like a power steering pump.

I primarily use a 1hp 4 cycle Honda 1" water pump for collection ($300, but its a HONDA!!). I have a 6hp 3" trash pump, but it is scary, scary fast. 275gals in 2 min. Any accident w/that will be a BIG ONE.

I have also used the HF/Northern 1" clear water pumps ($35ish) to move 1000's of gallons of oil (not usually for collection though). It WILL NOT self-prime, so I use a foot valve/check valve at the end of suction hose to maintain prime (problem SOLVED). It will run off my 1200watt continuous inverter - but only with truck running. It'll put the Fill-Rite to shame w/warm oil. Nothing 'cheap' really moves cold oil worth a darn!

As for the sucker tank, I don't understand? Water heater tank (free) works GREAT and you can use trucks vacuum system or even a cheap venturi vacuum like they sell at Harbor Freight (under $20 IIRC??) if ya have an air compressor. Or salvaged refrigerator or A/C compressor for (nearly free) vac pump. There is no faster or more efficient way to move oil than pressure/vacuum.

 

Oil theft in Kent/Renton has been a big problem for a friend of mine out there lately. They've been vandalizing our locking barrels and stealing the VO. He thinks its std. bio - but its prolly some POS who can't get his own sources.

 

I was looking at one at HF the other day. Its a 1-1/2" with a 2.5 HP engine and costs about $100 less than the one at tractor supply. I may end up going that route...

 

I saw the 1" with the Honda 4-stroke engine on ebay - looks pretty good, but they're a little spendy. I have a spare HF 1" electric, but since 1) they're non-self priming and 2) my 800W inverter wouldn't run the smaller pump pictured above and 3) I don't want to buy another inverter - I kinda' ruled that one out.

I have a 49cc 2-stroke motor from a small generator that went TU and I'm thinking about using that. It has a fuel tank and is mounted in a framework and everything. I also have an old PS pump (broken plastic reservior) and was going to take a look at it and see if I can remove the reservior on the suction side and replace it with some kind of fitting. If so, and I can mate it to the motor and mount it into the framework from the old generator that might make a pretty sweet setup.

Personally, I just don't like the vacuum tank setup. A small one won't allow you to collect whole barrels of oil at once. One large enough to allow you to pick up an entire 55 gallon drum of oil at once is going to be big, heavy and awkward to load, unload, store, and handle.

Personally I also don't like the idea of tapping into the truck's vacuum system for pumping down the sucker tank either. I've already had a hair-raising experience with non-vacuum assisted brakes when the pump failed. I'm not comfortable with adding any additional load to the pump. Also, to pump down the tank while driving you have to plumb the vacuum system back to the truck bed where the sucker tank is. Adding a bunch of plumbing to the system - which could potentially leak or otherwise fail - leaving me with seriously reduced braking, just doesn't appeal to me.

If you don't use the truck's vacuum system, then you have to rig something else. Plus I would want it to be portable too. By the time I rig an old refridgerator pump or something I might just as well have rigged up a pump to pump the oil directly.

I'd be happy with a setup that will pump 5 gallons a minute. Even half that would be acceptable - if it is simple and inexpensive enough....

 

That is very doable w/the 2" trash pump. I would still put a valve and PVC on the suction side. These do self-prime, but sometimes I'm not that patient.

The HF pump is impossible to beat (at home) for the $$$. You only have to prime it once - as long as ya keep oil in the suction hose - CV or ball valve, etc. I use them for moving oil around at home (and camp when I'm working at of town!) and even pushing thru fuel filters, etc!

I hear ya on the sucker tank, I stopped using my 40 gal WH tank 'cause I collect over 200gals pre trip these days. I'm looking for a 150-250 gal propane tank that I will attach an axle, etc to and make it a trailer. I have an A/C vacuum pump, but if I didn't I get one of these for $12.99!!
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
I have a friend who stripped one of these down, removing all the plastic and it makes for a really small package!

 

The gas pump I use works great.
With it bushed down to 1" I use the vinyl braided hose available at Lowes. In the suction hose end I have a 1" knurled/threaded fitting that I cap with a black iron threaded cap to keep oil from running out when done.
On the exhaust end I have a 1" knurled/threaded fitting a 90* elbow threaded to that and a 12" piece of 1" pipe with a cap. The 12" pipe holds the hose in the 55 gal transfer drum in the bed of my truck.

I usually just let it run at idle and it pumps at a nice rate but when the oil is cold I can run the throttle up on it and it will pump the heavy cold oil.

When I'm done pumping I let the pump suck all the oil out of the suction hose and when no more oil is coming out the return I shut the pump off and drain the oil in the exhaust hose backwards into the pump housing. Doing it this way, I primed the pump the first time I ever used it and have yet to have to prime it again.

 

Well, I may have found at least a short term solution. I was at one of my favorite industrial surplus places the other day and they had a nice looking little craftsman 3 HP horizontal shaft motor with a small pressure washer pump attached to it sitting there in the corner. Looked almost new.

Picked it up for $50, took it home and took the pump apart and cleaned and un-stuck the inlet & outlet check valves for all 3 of the pistons in the pump. Primed the inlet, fired it up and VIOLA' it pumps cold oil like a champ!

Not all that fast mind you, but then I'm using 5/8" garden hoses, and it still moves about a gallon a minute of cold oil. Not great, but better than the 12 volt HF marine pump I used last time. That one took over 2 hours to pump a 55 drum full of oil...

I think I'm going to try removing the separate one-way inlet and outlet valves for all 3 pistons in the pump and just put one check-valve on the inlet and another on the outlet and see how that works. I think that removing those restrictions should dramatically increase the flow rate...

EDIT: Scratch that. I just realized that since all 3 pistons feed from and discharge to common chambers, removing the check valves would mean that they just move the fluid around and around from one piston to another. Oh well, for $50 it was worth it - the motor alone is worth that much...

 

We have a small utility trailer with a couple of 55 gallon drums on it we use for collecting. We built a simple wooden "cage" out of 2x4's to secure the barrels After messing around with a 12v pump, believe it or not we went with a high volume hand crank rotary pump. It's mounted on the side of the wooden frame holding the barrels.

Harbor Freight, about $50.
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It moves up to 25 gpm, and guess what, it really does move that much with very little cranking effort. It uses standard sized plastic flex hose, so we got a long length of pool vac hose to reach the WVO storage barrels at our sites. It literally takes 3-4 minutes to completely drain a full barrel without breaking a sweat on the hand crank. We've got a short piece of hose for going into either of the barrels on the trailer.

And another nice feature: it's reversible, so when we arrive at our storage facility, we can drop the short hose in the trailer barrels, and run the long hose into our storage barrels in the building. About 6-8 minutes of cranking and we've unloaded both trailers barrels.

No batteries to worry about, pumps breaking down, etc. I would have NEVER thought we'd be using a hand crank pump, but it's da bomb!

TX

 

DFA sells 2 collection pumps now. They are self priming.