What am I missing?

[g_man1972]

So I was planning on getting that pland drive kit, but after talking with them and finding out how much the install was going to be.... ha ha yea.. not going to happen. But something came up which has me scratching my head. To use WVO with their system according to the instructions and confirmed by them, you just let the oil sit for a month, filter it down to 70 microns using their filter wand, plop it into the tank and away you go. The Vegimax filters it down to 5 micons and dewaters it, its good for 3-5000 kms. So my question is why is everyone debating about centrafuges and different ways of filtering down to 10 micons?

If its possible to just install the vegimax ($225) on your WVO system, use the filtering wand ($109) and then replace a filter every, say every 4 months (3 for $66), so like 400 bucks for the first year, $66 for each other year, what is the disadvantage of doing this? Like I say, I must be missing something because you guys and gals are much more educated on this than I am, so as I said... what am I missing?

[loki]

So I was planning on getting that pland drive kit, but after talking with them and finding out how much the install was going to be.... ha ha yea.. not going to happen. But something came up which has me scratching my head. To use WVO with their system according to the instructions and confirmed by them, you just let the oil sit for a month, filter it down to 70 microns using their filter wand, plop it into the tank and away you go. The Vegimax filters it down to 5 micons and dewaters it, its good for 3-5000 kms. So my question is why is everyone debating about centrafuges and different ways of filtering down to 10 micons?

If its possible to just install the vegimax ($225) on your WVO system, use the filtering wand ($109) and then replace a filter every, say every 4 months (3 for $66), so like 400 bucks for the first year, $66 for each other year, what is the disadvantage of doing this? Like I say, I must be missing something because you guys and gals are much more educated on this than I am, so as I said... what am I missing?

you could use the onboard filter to filter it down the rest of the but that is like using dirty diesel and expecting your fuel filter to clean it for you, I look at the onboard as a safety measure, when it cloggs you stop running. Also centrifuges don't use filters so you never have to pay for new filters as your clog up. The cleaner it is going in the better imo

[jessef]

.. what am I missing?

Clean filtered down to 10-20 micron veggie oil before you dump it into your tank.

If I would be putting in 70+ micron filter oil, I would definitely have a racor filter with a water bowl.

[g_man1972]

I thought it sounded too good to be true considering how much effort and time people are putting into filtering their oil. It's pretty misleading isn't it? I even asked straight out if there was anything else that I would have to do before filling the tank after letting it settle and filtering through the 70 micron wand and they said nope. Figure they would put in a "but we recommend... " in there somewhere.

[Schwa]

Actually, based on my experiments letting the oil settle for a month or two gets it quite clean, the thing with the centrifuge is that it does the same thing quickly so you don't have to wait a month or more to use your oil.

[BCDelica]

Two important things to remember to keep your engine happy, besides particle size are; entrenched water and nice'n'hot WVO hitting the injectors. The system you mention would do that, at the expense of frequent filter changes on the vegmax. Having used oil regularly from just four different sources over the years can tell ya oil varies tremendously in particle size and water content. The Chinese restaurant I collect from for many months was loaded with a huge amount of fines down to 10 microns and lots water. Was a really pain with a processing system; filter grunge, collect sludge, and heating times to remove water - all for a sweet smelling exhaust.

First WVO system I saw in person was a motorhome using just the equipment you described, but there 10 (or 20) micron filter was like foot deep and washable. And that was followed by a, large and reasonably cheap, hydraulic water removing media type filter.

You'd be able to make it work if you upgraded from a vegmax like the guys said. Said system would be great for extended road trips though! No packing hundreds of pounds of cleaned WVO in jugs.

Cheers,
Kev

[g_man1972]

Okay thats helpful. So basically you would need a stock pile so that letting it settle for a month or two wouldn't be a problem. I don't think I would go that route, as that would be a heck of alot of oil to create a two month buffer.

Cool, thanks guys that clears it up.