Welder wrote:I'm curious why you guys want/use pumps instead of a sucker tank?
I have looked into the sucker setups but come to the conclusion that pumping is the best soloution for me at this time. Huge fuel guzzling "Pickup" trucks are rare here and certainly aren't cheap, old or newso we generally make do with something smaller and somehow manage to get by with working with what we have.
I can fit 200L worth of plastic Drums in the boot of My Merc complete with pump, hoses etc.
When I fill my plastic 25L drums up, I can come home and in a couple of minutes unload them, put in empty drums and be on my way to another 200L of Oil. I can either then store the oil in those containers, take them to friends to drop off and pick up the emptys from last time, or decant the oil into my settling tanks and re-use the drums again next week. I get the drums free from restaurants and being a far more durable construction that the "Cubee" type drums you have there, they last a long time.
Where I can easily get 200L capacity of these drums in the boot of my car, I would be lucky to fit a tank capable of Holding 100L in the same Space. From what I understand, Unless I had a vac pump with me, I would not even get 100L of oil in that tank if I pre vacced it and so would have to make more than double the trips I do now to collect the same amount of oil.
Vaccuum pumps are very exy here and I even have a connection in the air con industry that can get them at the right price for me. After consulting with him, I am not at all comfortable with using refrigeration compressors. I am told there are many Highly toxic elements in these things and if they are a concern to my friend who is not at all the worrying type, they are something I will choose to avoid as well.
I collect oil from many different sources. Many of the smaller ones I only get 50-80L from at a time and I like to keep it separate as the oil I pick up can be variable. I give a lot of the oil I get to friends. Some oil is good for Bio making, some I prefer to keep aside for WVO. Also when it rains here it is easy to get water in the oil barrels and also easy to miss when picking up, especially if you are collecting at night which is the best time for a few places I deal with. By having seperate drums, it is easy to put 1 aside and let the water settle out then pump off the top without having to put it in the settling tank to start with or contaminating a much larger volume of oil. In a Vac tank, all the oil would all be mixed together which would be a large disadvantage for my purposes.
We don't have the waste or the ease and cheapness of getting things that seems the norm in the US ( and Canada) and a lot of the stores there either wont sell to oz customers or charge total bullshit shipping rates that make the exercise un-viable which I believe in many cases is no accident. That being the case, the variety of easily available and cost effective fittings, pumps and even the junk we can procure here is much more limited so one has to work with what is commonly available.
Our road laws also appear much stricter and a person would be crucified if they even thought about taking some of the Sucker rigs I have seen in pictures on our public roads. Can't say I'm sorry about that after what I have seen though and the sheer naievitey of some people!!
If a person were to be involved in an accident, even if it weren't their fault and a tank even fell off the trailer and rolled onto the road, there would be strife. If it leaked oil, The fines you would be hit with as well as the court appearance don't bear thinking about.
To secure a large tank in a trailer or ute to a sufficient standard to cover ones arse would be a significant cost in itself. Legal issues aside, Any dodgy looking setup would attract the attention of the police immediately and you would have the annoyance of being pulled over even if you somehow weren't fined.
I could not see a practical, reliable sucker setup costing less that $2500.00 here ( and I think that is hopefuly cheap) where as my present Bilge pump setup cost me around $100 and has been very easy and practical to use as well as being reliable. I am working on perfecting my chev gear pump setup I was using before and once I find the right motor for the thing, I believe it will fulfill my every requirement and desire for a workable and enjoyable setup to use.
The Bilge pump I use now dosen't give me any problems with getting clogged with debris, is silent, small and compact, cheap and flows sufficiently although I would like something faster. I have just bought a couple of 240V Submersible pumps I will run from an inverter in the car. Hopefully these will fill the one thing I would like to see improved with my current pump, the flow rate.
I am also playing with the gear pump if I need to pump thick oil and to have a second or 3rd way of getting oil just because I like the hands on stuff and mental stimulation of problem solving and designing simple loc cost solutions with these things. :0)
I understand the features of a sucker setup but for my situation there isn't a lot a sucker set up would have over the pump system I use now or could upgrade to in the future. The sucker advantages are completely outweighed by the drawbacks and Pumping is by far the better option for ME.