I'm thinking of making an upflow system for settling my WVO to reduce the amount of filtering I do, and this is the basic design I've come up with so far which I would like some input on:
With my consumption rate the oil would be settling for about 6 weeks on average.
I'm not intending to filter the fat out before the upflow tank, as I would just periodically drain it out the bottom once it's settled. I can't see the point of using the Woolies bags, as that is what I currently use (in conjunction with a 5u bag filter) without the upflow tank.
The main reason I want to use 2 tanks welded together instead of side by side like some others have done is to save space in my shed.
For the pump I need something with a slow flow rate so not to disturb the oil in the upflow tank, but strong enough to push against the oil when it's full to the top.
I know some people use a submersible bilge pumps, but I want to have an inline one as per the diagram. Would a drill powered pump (like
this) running slowly do the job? Or maybe a centrifugal pump with a restriction on the inlet to keep the flow rate down? Or how about a 12V caravan/boat type pump?