Harbor Freight Air Powered Pump - 93755

[Jack_Toepfer]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93755

Anyone ever use this for oil transfer?

It says not to use corrosive materials, but it also says you can use it with oil. Its on sale for $40 right now.

Another question -

The pump screws onto the barrel, which is good, but it also sucks from the bottom of the barrel. If I'm fairly certain there is no water in my oil, would sucking from the bottom still be a bad idea? There is a screen at the pickup, but the holes are 1/8", and wouldn't stop anything in the oil anyway.

It would be temporary until I get my "fueling station" setup in my shop.

[FastCote]

I have that pump:



It works great. The only issues I have are related to the plastic barrels I use.

1.) there was no bung in this barrel, so I had to put a 2" PVC fitting in and it leaks air. The drum has to be air tight for the pump to work. Its not a huge deal, the compressor just cycles more often than it should.

2.) The plastic barrels I have are slightly shorter then standard metal drums, so I have to cut about 2 inches off the bottom of the pickup tube. This answers your water question. Just cut off the pickup tube at whatever "standpipe level" you want to pickup from.

[Clay]

Why not spend a couple extra bucks and get this pump...it works very well.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Clay - I'm assuming this is the pump you use, or have used, but it clearly (lol) says clear water pump. If you're saying that this pump works well for WVO, I'd have no problem using it... but it looks like it would be the same performance, right?

FastCote - I have the "other" plastic barrels and it should work perfectly.

Thanks for the input.

[Clay]

Clay - I'm assuming this is the pump you use, or have used, but it clearly (lol) says clear water pump. If you're saying that this pump works well for WVO, I'd have no problem using it... but it looks like it would be the same performance, right?

FastCote - I have the "other" plastic barrels and it should work perfectly.

Thanks for the input.

Most of these pumps are made to pump something other than WVO but most will work with WVO and this one works. I recently bought one so i can't speak about longevity but it does work well so far and i know others who claim to have had one in servive for 2+ years pumping nasty grease.
I would prefer this over the air operated pump...then you eliminate the need for the compressor.
Just my opinion.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Your opinion is gold on this site... so I'll bite.

I bought the air pump, I may return it, or I may keep it as a backup.

[Clay]

I bought the air pump

Does that air pump pressurize the entire barrel?

If so thats a very scary thought. 55 gallons of nastyness traveling at 100 mph when the barrel goes BOOM...whew, what a mess.

[FastCote]

I actually have both of those pumps, the air operated barrel pump and the 1" clear water pump. The advantage of the barrel pump is that there is no minimum flow requirement. I feed a centrifuge that will only handle ~15 gallons per hour. I think the clear water pump is rated for around 350. In order not to burn up the pump, I have to make a bypass path back to the barrel. For my application at least, it is a drawback to have to recirculate the oil that the centrifuge can't use back into the barrel. It makes for a much "rougher" transport of the oil.

[Jack_Toepfer]

I'm not filtering with it, just filling my truck tank... so the faster the better.

I'll buy the other pump this weekend hopefully, and then I'll let you guys know how it goes. Once I'm done with my first 60gallons of veggie... I'll pump 1/2 the barrel with the air pump, and pump the 2nd half with the clear water pump.

[FastCote]

Oh, one other advantage of the barrel pump is that you can draw from the top. None of my barrels have an outlet on the bottom, and that clear water pump is a bitch to get primed. It doesn't suck air worth a darn.

[Clay]

Oh, one other advantage of the barrel pump is that you can draw from the top. None of my barrels have an outlet on the bottom, and that clear water pump is a bitch to get primed. It doesn't suck air worth a darn.

You are right about that. I used a 3/4" paddle bit, drilled a hole in the bottom of my barrel and threaded in a 3/4" barbed fitting to put my hose on. The plastic barrels are nice and thick and took the threads very well. Never has leaked.

[triplemoutdoors]

Oh, one other advantage of the barrel pump is that you can draw from the top. None of my barrels have an outlet on the bottom, and that clear water pump is a bitch to get primed. It doesn't suck air worth a darn.

I have trouble getting my pump primed also.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Here is the thread I was looking for -

FastCote - Or anyone else with this pump -

Firstly, I've been using this thing every other week to fill my truck and its great.

It is finally getting really cold up here (20s) and I'm about to fill the truck. Have you guys pumped cold oil through this? I really don't want a barrel's worth of oil on the floor in my barn... if it ain't gonna pump the cold stuff, I'll grab something else. It worked fine when the oil was about 30*... but I'm not sure I want to test it just yet.

[Fordnut74]

Just to back up what Clay said about that 1" water pump. I have been using one of those harbor freight pumps for probably over 3 years now as a filler pump. Hot cold, thick, thin. Doesn't matter. I paid $20 for it at the time hoping for 6 months. The only catch to it is it has to be gravity fed. It does not have any priming ability to speak of. In fact I have it wired up thorugh a Square D adj sprnkler system pressure switch so that when I squeeze the trigger on my filler nozzle, the pressure drops kicking on the pump, fill the tank, release the nozzle, pump shuts off and pump shuts off.

[FastCote]

Here is the thread I was looking for -

FastCote - Or anyone else with this pump -

Firstly, I've been using this thing every other week to fill my truck and its great.

It is finally getting really cold up here (20s) and I'm about to fill the truck. Have you guys pumped cold oil through this? I really don't want a barrel's worth of oil on the floor in my barn... if it ain't gonna pump the cold stuff, I'll grab something else. It worked fine when the oil was about 30*... but I'm not sure I want to test it just yet.

Jack,

I am pretty disappointed with cold oil performance on the air pump. In fact, I may abandon it completely. Some of my problems are due to the funky plastic barrels I am using. They have no bung in them so I had to drill a hole and use PVC fittings. In addition, they are compression ring lids and the seals blow out if you put too much air pressure on them. With the colder weather, I am having to jack up the pressure and that blows the seals.

I am basically using the pump now as a great big "Straw" for the Harbor Freight pump. I apply air just to get it to flow enough to prime the HF pump.