Your Opinion? - Fuel Polishing or Multi-Stage Racor

[koliver]

Unfortunately we can't afford , even , a smallest Alfa Laval..
I think centrifugal is the best solution




https://www.alfalaval.com/globalass...c-filters-for-fuel-and-lubricating-oil-ti.pdf


Because look at what we found in the tanks when we cleaned them after purchased our trawler



​

Beurk !!

​

The thing about sludge as shown is that it is not going to go up the pickup tube, no matter how violently you can shake up your boat. That stuff is removable only by scraping it off the bottom of the tank.
In my own tanks, 41 years in, that is what I found. Mine was darker, but some of that could be an artifact of the photography. Mine was the consistency of peanut butter, or more like bondo, before the hardener is mixed in. No fuel polishing system presently available will affect it. You would need a pressure washer nozzle held within 6", in an empty tank, shooting a strong solvent. Leaving it alone, it seems inert, so will act more like a layer of insulation. It contains no water, likely nothing harmful.
I didn't think about saving any when I cleaned some of that from my tanks, but I was satisfied by the clarity of the fuel siphoned out of the tank, from as close as touching with the end of the siphon, that there was no mixing of that sludge with the fuel.

 

[OldDan1943]

Unfortunately we can't afford , even , a "smallest Alfa Laval..
I think centrifugal is the best solution"

Based upon my experience in the Navy, I agree with your opinion.
The problem is, lack of space to put in a separated centrifuge. The Racor fuel filters claim to have a centrifuge effect. Unless one has room for a centrifuge, I am an advocate for a fuel polisher.

 

[long-cours.62]

off course it can't

The thing about sludge as shown is that it is not going to go up the pickup tube, no matter how violently you can shake up he end of the siphon, that there was no mixing of that sludge with the fuel.

be removed by filter
This photo was posted only for illustrated what you can find in the bottom of your tanks when you buy a second hand boat...

 

[twistedtree]

I still think that if you have crap accumulated in your tank, then you should clean the tank. An on board fuel polisher will not solve that problem.


For everything else you are dealing with crap in suspension in the fuel, and dual Racors are highly effective at addressing that.

 

[O C Diver]

In my experience, the stuff you should be most concerned about is the water (if any) and the loose solids in the bottom of the tanks. On my boats and on friends boats we have had incidents where bad weather has lifted loose contaminants off the bottom and some portion were found in the separator later. The separator did its job but only filtered a percentage of the fuel in the tank. Part of the goal should be to remove an much of the contaminants as practical when they get stirred up. To that end, I run my fuel polisher on bad weather days to remove as much as possible. If a separate polishing system isn't practical, returning 20+ gallons an hour with the engine and possibly an additional fuel pump, would be a step in the right direction.

Ted

 

[Hippocampus]

Same on my NT the draw is from the bottom. Still got crud on the bottom of the starboard tank. However, Ready is right if both fill and draw at time of polishing is very high flow sufficient turbulence is created as to mimic rough seas. That’s why to correct my issue even though I have onboard polishing in the engine room paid the yard to have them use their very high flow device.
Agree it’s unlikely that the usual polishing systems in small recreational trawlers is going to dislodge crud. Either scrub via inspection ports or hope what I did is sufficient. Yard did examine the tanks after and tell me the bottom and low side walls were clean. But suspect I didn’t have that much crud. Unfortunately if there’s a significant amount mechanically dislodging it with a pressure wand or scrub on each side of any baffle would be required.

 

[JDCAVE]

OCDiver, KOliver and Twisted Tree all make good points…

The PO replace the two original tanks with 4 aluminum ones with inspection ports. He also installed an ESI fuel polishing system.

I transferred all of the fuel from one of the tanks, emptying it completely and opened one of the ports. The tank had been in place for 7 years or so. There was almost no asphaltenes in the tank.

After reflection on this, I want to emphasize once again, I think you need agitation of the fuel in the tank to “lift” whatever is on the bottom of the tank, into the fuel so it can be filtered. And to be most effective, the tank should be no more than 1/4 full. I think the filtering process is best done tank by tank when you are travelling in a modest sea state. If you do that, you don’t really need BandB’s high end system. But If you do it at the dock, it will be a waste of time and the cost of the system.

I now have my ESI system on the inverter side of the AC panel, so I can move fuel about and filter it when running.

Jim

 

[Lostsailor13]

All you need to do is add a Gulf Coast F1 fuel filter before your Racor,they work unbelievable,they catch and hold a ton of contamination,and have a great water separator built in as well,this is my experience,when I bought the boat it had 350 gallons of old fuel and the tanks had a lot of settled crud in them,in choppy weather a Racor 500 would be junk in 2 hrs,i installed Gulf Coast F1 and kept taking the boat out in heavy seas and got my tanks in ship shape order rather quickly,that is the trick the sediment on the bottom needs to be sloshed around and lifted and the gulf coast catches and holds it,also I have a Detroit that returns a lot of fuel back to the tanks,actually works so good am going to add one of their oil bypass filters before I start long range cruising,and to top it all off customer service is one of best I’ve seen,go on their website and read some of the statistics