Polishing your fuel is a big waste of money. Sure, you fuel is clean but only for the moment. The next time you fuel, that could be the time you pick up the algae. There are only two kinds of diesel owners, those who have picked up algae and those who are going to.
Diesel exports and imports were my business in the 1970's for about ten years until I changed to new gasoline powered cars. In that time, there was almost zero control of the fuel quality here in the U.S. and I had to install Racor filters in all the diesels I sold. They were one micron and even if they didn't pick up any algae, they would clog after a few thousand from all the other contaminants.
Diesel fuel is much better now but algae has not been eliminated. Just carry extra filters and know how to install them. If you want, wait until your tank is low, tilt the coach to the side where anything will go to the side where the fuel cap is and stick a LED and a mirror so you can see the sides and bottom of the tank.
Underground tanks are better to fuel as the temperature remains pretty constant. Above ground tanks have enough temp change that air with moisture will be introduced and the condensation will run down the inside of the tank. The interface between the moisture and diesel is the sweet spot for algae to grow, especially in warm weather.
And stop worrying.
Pierce
Thanks, Pierce. This is great information.
I've read some folks use additives for algae. Is it worth it or even advisable? Are there additives you use and recommend?
Worrying, not so much. :) Bit I am a project manager by trade, so I cant help thinking 4 steps down the road and identifying and anticipating risks. Definitely wanting to pull together a good list of spare parts and tools to carry.
I've learned tons from you post already.
Joe
My view on diesel additives (mostly from the engineers at Caterpillar and Cummins):
If burning the fuel in the tank within 2 months summer/ 3 months winter add nothing.
If storing fuel longer than that, add a BIOCIDE (Biobar JF is a common one) AND fill the fuel tank full to minimize condensation.
The only other time you may need an additive is if you store in below freezing temperatures and filled up with summer-grade diesel. Then add an ANTI-GEL. Walmart carries the PS brand.
Fuel polishing IS call for if you have a tank of really contaminated fuel (like your new fuel filters clogged up in less than 100 miles). A very common practice on boats as well and for the same reason-- they sit more than they move.
Fuel tank polishing?? Not sure what that is.. Anyone??
Often done in marine servicing of fuel. It is simply the process of running fuel thru filters separate from inboard systems. Then returning to inboard tanks. Can include cleaning of fuel tanks. Resulting fuel is considered "polished". Having had all bad removed.
Don't worry about algae until you see it in the fuel filters then address it. I picked up a generous dose in Jacksonville Fl at a TA.. Yes I can pinpoint where with a reasonable Amount of accuracy because I pay close attention to condition of filters and probably more regularly than the typical owner. I run a small fleet of diesel trucks and know the hazards of dirty fuel. When you see algae and it's not completely overwhelming you can then start treating with anti algae. I use and have gotten rid of algae with fppf Killem. I have a freightliner that was so contaminated we had to pull the tanks and wash out.. still treating it and now down to very small amounts and staining the fuel.. mean while drive the coach and have fun with it and don't become overwhelmed with what if problems. You see a lot of problems on here but there are thousands of us and many miles are traveled with zero issues. Have fun that's the only value in a toy... And welcome.
Good perspective on the polishing, thanks guys. I guess I'll have to find something else on the coach to spend my money on...shouldn't be hard :D
Does the accumulation of algae only happen at certain temperatures? Do i need to worry about this with my coach stored for the winter in Canada?? It is currently -4 F here in Alberta....lol
Peter
Temperature is not a significant factor, though warmer temps promote faster algae growth.
Most significant way low temperature can be a negative is if the tank is not full of fuel. Cold temperatures cause condensation so the humidity in any air in the tank will condense.
Algae only lives at the diesel/water interface.
Brings up another point if not already mentioned, keep your fuel tank full when parking for extended periods.. When I get to my home town after a trip I fill mine to the brim before letting the buildings door down. Cuts down on condensation on the fuel tank walls.
I'd never heard of this 'polishing' til lately either. Maybe some marketer drummed up another term?
I have come to the conclusion that adding a stabilizer to the fuel, every tank, is very cheap. Most importantly I don't have to guesstimate if the generator has treated fuel, or have to treat the current tank then run the generator. Diesel is not so bad, gasoline is total crap for storage.
Yes, a much more commonly known term/procedure in the marine industry. Certainly not new.
I tried polishing fuel once, couldn't get the wax to stay on!
Some of the reasons I replaced my primary fuel filte with a Davco 382 installled in an easily accessible space.
The filter element is viewable, you can see exactly what you've been filtering out of fuel.
The restiction, or level of clogging is instantly viewable. Gives you plenty of notice before a change is required.
The filter elements are large, high quality and inexpensive. Big honking o-rings come with each element.
Before you change filters it's easy to drain fuel out of the housing using drain valve.
This drained fuel is already filtered....you simply pour it back into the top of the filter housing through the large access port after filter element is replaced.
Filter comes with a check valve on inlet peventing backflow to tank during service.
If you should have an air leak on intake side the bubbles are readily apparent in clear filter housing.
It's a premium piece of kit at a reasonable price.
Chuck,
I can see why you chose it. Looks quality and $300 is cheap if you ever get a big load of algae at the pump. But, as you say, you have to install it where you will at least glance at it when checking the oil, etc. Not a bad idea to take a look after fueling or at a rest stop as water/algae will be at the bottom of the tank and may find their way to the filter in a short time.
The only thing I don't see is a set of internal probes for water. Some Racors have that but then you would need to wire it to the front plus have the amplifier it take to make it work.
I remember the first Olds diesels. There was a lot of wax in the fuel because of poor refinery work and not many stations had fuel filters at the pump. GM never put in a fuel tank drain so each trip to the shop meant a new fuel tank.
DAVCO 382950FTLS07 FILTER SYSTEM OEM, FUEL WATER SEPARATOR 382, DVC/382950FTL... (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/DAVCO-382950FTLS07-FILTER-SYSTEM-OEM-FUEL-WATER-SEPARATOR-382-DVC-382950FTLS07/183664628573?epid=10029940889&hash=item2ac343d35d:g:4ogAAOSwfBlcVHOA)
Pierce
For those who don't have $300 in the budget, the Chinese have an alternative for under $70 with the probes but without an amplifier. I would want to see a few reviews to make sure the O rings were adequate and no one had any air introduced into the system.
New 1000 Series Diesel Fuel Filter Water Separator Equivalent For 1000FH... (https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-1000-Series-Diesel-Fuel-Filter-Water-Separator-Equivalent-For-1000FH-180GPH/392883548711?epid=853745457&hash=item5b79af3227:g:7dQAAOSwuzRXfvaB)
Pierce
Davco #102871 water probe # just need a new connector
Mike
If you have an algae that grows quickly at -4F, patent it.
FWIW, for most of us, if you keep your eyes open you will notice the fuel polishing trucks at gasoline stations. All that alcohol in gasoline? 10% of 3,000 gallons is how much alcohol? Imagine it all coming out of solution at once along with the water it is carrying. Imagine you're the next guy to full up your car. Removing the water and mixing in octane boosting additives is a steady business.
But that is an additional $70 plus an amplifier as the probes don't do anything by themselves. Racor RK30880E REPL KIT WIF SENSOR AMPLIFIER (https://www.racorstore.com/racor-rk30880e-repl-kit-wif-sensor-amplifier.html)
No algae in cold weather. The best environment for algae growth is warm weather, a partial tank and high humidity. Add biocide to your tank. Bio Kleen Diesel Fuel Biocide - Power Service (https://powerservice.com/psp_product/bio-kleen-diesel-fuel-biocide/)
While biocide kills the algae, it won't remove it or the water from the tank so a good primary filter is still needed.
Pierce
You actually have a pretty good fuel polishing system built right in your coach, except the filters are smaller. Your fuel is used for cooling and is returned to the tank many times before it is actually used for the engine. Keep spare filters and know how to change and bleed the system after changing them.
Scott
In a 20 yr old coach you will likely have lots of junk in the bottom of the tank. Dead algae, algae poop, sludge, goo, whatever. Fuel polishing as Keith Risch does it is about cleaning the tank, the fuel is the medium to stir it all up suck it all out and run it through the filters. When he is done your tank is clean as well as the fuel in it.
It costs about what 2 sets of quality fuel filters cost. Of course you can just wait until your coach chokes on sludge and change your filters on the side of the road. And probably again the next day if you have a second set of filters.
Not everyone gets much junk out of the tank. Ours pretty much filled Keith's filters with whatever was in there, nasty stuff. For us, worth every penny.
Roger,
I check our tank all the time in our 28 year old coach with 110,000K and their is nothing but shiny aluminum in the bottom. I lean the coach over too.
Not much of an effort to drop one side and use a mirror and LED light to check it. Best if the tank is down a ways. You can also check the sides and baffle for black algae sticking to to sides.
A pump with a hose lowered into the tank would pull out any algae or dirt. I expect the primary filter catches about everything that gets into the tank. In all the diesel vehicles I've sold, I only had to open the drain on my 406D down in Mexico many years ago to flush out sand and gravel from a bad station.
Pierce
YUP, an easy check just before you fill up.
I was quite impressed that our 20 year old coach fuel tank was spotless on the inside. Looked like the day they built it new. 53k when I changed lines. If you pull your sender out you have a clear view of the tank bottom with a flashlight
Scott
Amazon.com: Racor Polisher Diesel 10m 12v/24v P510mam: Automotive (https://www.amazon.com/Racor-Polisher-Diesel-10m-P510mam/dp/B00J909BF2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ESOFS6BZNXMK&dchild=1&keywords=fuel+polisher+system&qid=1611795990&sprefix=Fuel+polish%2Caps%2C217&sr=8-1)
Scott
My Hatteras is 50 years old. Never polished the fuel. Burn several 750 gal tankfuls a season and filters never clog. My rv is 26 years old. Same story. No clogged filters and several tankfuls a year burnt. If there is a bunch of garbage at the bottom of the tank, it hasn't caused any issues yet so I don't consider fuel polishing anything I would ever need to do.
A bit of snake oil! Never "polished " fuel in over 40 years of dealing with diesel equipment, some of it sitting mos at a time in Fla. Your diesel circulates way more fuel through the filters than it uses. Hence filtered many times.
Our previous coach had a fuel leak, so I had to pull the tank for repair. 1998 Monaco, over 100,000 miles, no evidence that the tank had ever been out. I expected to see a lot of junk in the bottom. There was one chunk of goo about 1/4 inch across, and nothing else! I was surprised how clean the inside of the tank was. I had planned to filter the fuel when it went back in, and to discard several gallons from the bottom of the tank - neither was necessary.
I would think that small solids would be picked up and pumped through the filters while the engine, generator and Aqua Hot are operating - they all have return lines. So the usual bits of debris from fill-ups and etc. is filtered out. The issue would be if there is so much debris in the tank that it repeatedly overcomes the filters, at least that is what I think..
Years ago, we were in Washington and running out of fuel. We repeatedly found stations closed for good, closed on Sunday, no diesel. We had one more shot before I parked the coach and went looking for fuel in the towd.
We got fuel, from an ancient Mobil pump, that sounded like it would come apart, the gears trying to keep up with a modern price. The station's diesel tank was sitting on wood pallets. Less than 100 miles, we were at the side of the road changing fuel filters. A second filter change, and we were good again.
Do what makes you feel good. I change the fuel filters yearly, carry spares, and do my best to always fill up as close to my parking spot if I think I might park for a while. After always doing those things, I had my fuel polished in NAC, and I was amazed by the junk stirred up, and caught in the process. The first and second filters were full of I guess bottom sediment.
Way back when in the sailboat business, we had clients that fueled once or twice a year, and fuel polishing often corrected their clogged filter issues. Delivering a 73' ketch in the Bahamas, we stirred up the tanks and had to swap back and forth from A to B, as the filters blinded over with algae. Different problems, different boats, different times.
I had to take out my tank after an algae bloom in WA. Engine ran fine, Aqua hot kept clogging filters and nozzles) Local fuel polisher came out to polish, and his process could help but best to tank out tank.
We did so in RV park with their permission, he cut two 6" access holes in top of tank. Oh my the crap on the bottom was amazing! Lots of green/black dead algae for the most part. He cleaned and pressure washed the tank, and closed the access holes with purpose built, removable aluminum plugs. we put the tank back in, he polished my fuel he had pumped into his drum and it went back in my tank.
Ran perfect ever sense.
Companies with large data centers have thousands of gallons of diesel on hand to run generators during power outages. Most of them use either polishing systems built into the fuel farm or have a polishing service visit 2 X a year.
As the saying goes, " it's not a problem till it's a problem, and then it's a problem"
As the fuel tanks in our FTs have at least 2 baffles in them with small openings at the bottom to allow fuel to move. How do they get to the center section of the tank to clean it? Had my tank out a few mo ago, no problems. Don't think I'll be cutting holes in my tank. As always DWMYFG.
Think we are almost talking about 2 seperate things,agree that polishing the fuel is what the filters do,if the guy polishing the fuel
can clean the inside of the tank then that may be worth it if you have a problem.
While I suspect polishing will not get absolutely everything out of every nook and cranny because of the baffles the very high volume removed and pumped back in will likely stir up most of the gunk.
Think of the difference between turning on the garden hose so it just flows to turning it on wide open. The latter will certainly stir up more stuff.
Baffles did not go all the way to the top as I remember.
Mine did
I just had my fuel polished 2 weeks ago. He sucked out the fuel out from passenger side filler neck and the return line went into the opposite filler neck on driver side. The filter system pumped the fuel thru the filter system at 20 gallons a minute. Let it continuously run for about a hour circulating. Then pumped all the fuel into a outside portable tank. Then pumped fuel back into one side of the the tank and sucked it off the bottom on the other side ( washing everything to one side). Not sure of the force but the pump was putting out 20 gallons a minute so what ever was on the bottom was getting washed to the far size. All the while the coach was tilted to one side by means of deflating the airbags. Cost me 200 dollars, got some debris out and algae. The amount of pressure/vacuum the pump pulls gives and indication of how dirty things are as you can't see all the trash in the disposable filter with your eyes. A great peace of mind plus I have no doubt I will save money on future filter purchases .
This is a timely topic. Just spent $4400 on new tires today and the coach died as I rolled into the driveway (hooray!). I noticed it stumbling a little bit on the way home and I originally thought it was a transmission issue. Specifically from a second to first gear down shift there was a shudder. It got worse though as I got near home and I eventually started to be down on power. I notice the plastic sight glass on the racor is a bit darker than I remember. I'm going to get some water finding paste and dip the tank to see how much water is in there if any. How many filters do you guys go through before you decide to polish the fuel? I recently replaced my secondary filter but my primary (the one that has the purge system, etc) has been on there for a while. I definitely believe it's a fuel problem as the fuel isn't flowing into that sight glass with the same "gusto" that it was. Can anyone recommend a fuel polisher in the Bradenton (tampa) fl area?
Sadly thanks to covid this fuel has been in the tank for almost a year which I am now reading is a big no no.
Well described, LakeLife. That is just how mine was done. I think most of what was in my tank came from before we owned the coach. We have been careful to fill the tank when it sits for a while and add biocide with every fill. Maybe some have been very lucky and after more than 20 years have spotless tanks. I think the real world is different. We cleaned our tank after a forced roadside change of clogged filters, not much fun. I carry two complete sets of filters, I know how to change them.
This is one of those things you can choose to do or choose not to do. Your choice. But someone passing a negative judgement on anyone who chooses something other than their choice is unacceptable.
Link to our experience, includes a couple of pics: Now This is Algae! (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=33293.msg301574#msg301574)
Wow I don't have any chunks in there that look like that. :o
Look at the first part of this! It can be smart to cut open filters
https://youtu.be/PVjleTPfNSg
Clogged fuel filter
Mark
Fuel polishing is not new and it's not a gimmick. Anybody would have sailboat knows what fuel polishing is or if you don't have first-hand experience you soon will. And a fuel tank in a sailboat it doesn't get used very often and the boat's sitting in water with humidity constantly around it. We were on a teyana 37 out of clear lake near Houston just got out of the slip and was heading into the bay for a pre purchase Cruise when the engine died. we quickly changed the racor 500 filters Garner started again when it died again. At that point we changed filters again turn the boat around and headed back to the slip and it died right as we were getting into the slip. The owner had someone come in and filter both fuel tanks which were under the Port and starboard settees. They got quite a bit of junk out. We decided to walk away from the boat for other reasons. Now on the coaches if you drive your coach a reasonable amount of every year my guess is that you won't have any problems with alge unless you pick some up from a fueling station. Which is why I always go to big truck stops like loves where they have a constant turnover for their tanks. smaller places maybe not so much and you're more likely to get bad fuel. It's not worth it putting in a system to polish the fuel in our coach in my opinion. But it is worth it to have extra fuel filters on hand just in case and if you did develop an algae problem it shouldn't be that hard anywhere near Marina's to find somebody to polish your fuel for you for a couple hundred dollars.
Maybe in thread already, apologize for repeat if so. Keith Risch on Nacogdoches has been doing this polishing with a good system, worth it to me
Keith Risch in MOT does fuel polishing on the side. I was amazed at the " stuff" he got out of my tanks. If you have ever had issues with clogged filters it is worth doing, at your convenience. Much better than being on the side of the road changing filters.
It has been already said but after 12 years full timing I can tell you from experience you need to carry at least 2 sets of fuel filters, generator too, tools and know how to change them. Imagine getting stuck in the middle of no where and the road service guy does not have the right filters for your coach. Have the correct filters , then you can pay to have someone put them on if you are not able to do it yourself.
Enjoy the journey............................. ^.^d
Keith cleaned our tanks two years ago, they were not bad but still had gunk in them. Try to keep your fuel tanks topped up and full at night in the cooler months to prevent water condensing in the tanks, get fuel from a high volume truck stop (using your discount fuel card) so the fuel will be clean
Use an additive to prevent algae and disburse water
Well the one local guy wanted $400 and the other wanted $600 so I am DIYing fuel polishing.
The thing is I tipped the coach, let it rest for a few days and pumped out the bottom corner of the low side of the tank. I didn't get ANY water out of it. I also checked it out with a camera and a mirror and I don't see any gunk. I almost think I already got it all out.
Drove around for about 10 miles and cleaned the prefilter. Drove around and cleaned it again. So far the primary filter hasn't clogged. It seems the gunk isn't very large. I put in a biocide and a chemical to break up the biomass too.
We'll see how this goes when I really need the coach though. I have to keep doing test drives to try to eat up this fuel (and remaining biomass) and then get the tank full of fresh fuel and biocide.