More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

[Gen-Erix Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gen-Erix]

I noticed this the other day on eBay
1,000 Watt tank/bucket heater for dewatering
heating liquid to 110F before shutting off
eBay: 1000 Watt Tank Bucket Heater for SVO WVO or Biodiesel (item 160040560282 end time Oct-16-06 19:08:09 PDT)

what do you guys think?



also
I noticed that some people were using home water heaters to heat/dewater their SVO.
if you could post your opinions about this that would be great too. thanks again!

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

I would wonder about the ability to submerge the element connector and power cord into vegetable oil.
110F would be a good temperature to liquify oil and for dewatering.
(110-32)*5/9 = 43°C

Domestic hot water heaters are readily available (used or new) and are fitted with an element and thermostat. Dewatering of the oil will not happen in the HWS as there is no-where for the water to go to. The oil could be heated prior to sending it to a drying tank which would have a large surface area. The oil could be sucked from this tank and pumped thru the HWS for heating.

There are plans online, for biodiesel processors using HWS.

[Gen-Erix Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gen-Erix]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

this is what the seller wrote about the cord being submerged/etc

**...In reference to use with biodiesel...I home-brew B100 from wvo here at home and have noticed how efficiently biodiesel can break down plastic, nylon, rubber and basic silicon formulations so am leery about submersing these units for long in biosiesel. I do not know of any issues with these units when used to break emulsions, and I have sold about 30 of these to date with zero complaints, so maybe I'm worrying over nothing, but please understand that these units ( as well as the others like it here for sale on eBay ) were all intended for use in water and not in vegetable oil or in biodiesel. From personal experience I can say this...I have had one unit sunk in a wvo tank for 8 months straight and it still works fine and I know that it will stand up in a biodiesel tank as well...but I do not know how long it would last if sunk in a bio tank for an extended amount of time as I have had no need to do so. As time goes on, and I learn more, I will add more practical info about these heaters but as of now I find them to be very dependable and almost a necessity for quality wvo/biodiesel processing.


and what if there was some sort of vent on the top of the water heater?
(to allow water in the form of steam to evaporate as the oil is heated)

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

You would need airflow to bring in dry air and allow the moist air to escape from the container. 3/4" copper pipe would not allow much airflow even with a fan pushing it. that is why I suggested pumping the oil thru the heater to an open evaporation container.

[Gen-Erix Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gen-Erix]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

i look forward to any input so everyone please post

[Milhouse Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Milhouse]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

I heat my oil in a 205L HDPE drum with the top cut off. I have wrapped it in roofing insulation and put a 2400 watt (i think) element in the side. It gets really hot, easily 65 degrees.

I also have a fan that blows dry air over the top of the drum.

[Gen-Erix Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gen-Erix]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

I heat my oil in a 205L HDPE drum with the top cut off. I have wrapped it in roofing insulation and put a 2400 watt (i think) element in the side. It gets really hot, easily 65 degrees.

I also have a fan that blows dry air over the top of the drum.

what do you use as a cover against the elements?

how long do you normally dewater for?

why do you blow dry air over the top?

[Milhouse Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Milhouse]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

what do you use as a cover against the elements?

how long do you normally dewater for?

why do you blow dry air over the top?

I dont really cover it against the elements as it sits inside my shed. I have forced ventilation in the shed anyway so this draws out the smell and fumes. I am still experimenting with the amount of time I heat it for but generally a minimum of several hours once it has reached 65.

I blow air across it in order to introduce dry air which will help with evaporation.

I am also trying the Glis in the oil trick which I read on this site. I have poured about 15% glis into each of my oil drums which I have collected (the 20L ones) then shook it up. I want to see if the glis collects the water and drags it to the bottom of the drum.

I will keep you posted on my success cause atm I am having major problems with cloudy BD and soap, which by all accounts is from a high water content in the raw oil.

[nature fuels Member Find all posts View Profile Close nature fuels]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

The heater on ebay would be 110volts, you would need to get transformer to change voltage. Has anyone tried in a large pot ( from Army disposals etc ) on a small gas heat? Or through some arangement with solar hot water panels?

I can get large 12/24 volt hot water service elements from the states if anyone needs up to 50 amps ( designed for load dump of excess Solar/turbine power ).

[pangit Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close pangit]

Re: More Questions (with pictures): 1000 watt bucket heater, 50 gallon water heater?

I've just tried one of the recommended methods of de-watering my WVO with great success. Previously I had heated it to 120C in my Appleseed and circulated it for a few hours to boil the water off. Worked OK but very energy intensive.

So instead I heated it to 60C and left it to settle overnight then drained the water (and other crap) off the bottom. Did a quantitative water test which showed the water content went from around 2.5% to less than 0.5%. More than happy.

The other benefit of doing it this way is that the insulation in the hot water tank meant that it hadn't lost much heat so didn't need a lot of energy to get it back up to 50C for reacting. I know that isn't relevant to SVO users but it is for biodieselers.