New upgrade to my fill station

[Clay]

Jason Crawford told me about this so he gets full credit but I wanted to share.
I bought a 1" NPT brass check valve, an adjustable pressure switch and a 30 minute timer and installed to my filler pump and wired the pump through the switch. Coming off my pump is a close nipple, the check valve, another nipple, a T with a bushing in the top for the pressure switch to screw onto and then out to my filler hose. I adjusted the pressure down so that the normal flow pressure of the cold oil "almost" triggers the switch. Then when I'm filling, as I begin to let off the pump handle the pressure goes up a hair and shuts off power to the pump. Pull the handle again and pump comes on. The timer is so I can leave pump on and just set the timer on 30 minutes. Then if I forget to turn the pump off, I wont have to worry about a failed hose causing the pump to come back on and pump my tote dry in the floor.
Pics to come...

[UW Mitch]

Sounds cool! Are you pumping very cold weather oil? Sounds like that'd be brutal on a pump. I keep my cleaned oil in a 55 gallon drum on a dolly and I just use an aquarium heater (little stick like thing with a thermostat on it) to warm the oil before I pump it when it's really cold out.

~Mitch

[Clay]

Sounds cool! Are you pumping very cold weather oil? Sounds like that'd be brutal on a pump. I keep my cleaned oil in a 55 gallon drum on a dolly and I just use an aquarium heater (little stick like thing with a thermostat on it) to warm the oil before I pump it when it's really cold out.

~Mitch

It never falls below 40 in my shop on the coldest of days. The majority of our winter is mild usually with temps in the 50s somedays. My pump is from hell I think. Its evil loud and wont die no matter how I abuse it. It's the original pump I bought on day one getting into wvo back in 2005. I'm pretty sure it would pump gravel.

[Bitterroot Diesel]

I like the fish tank heater idea.

[Memphis10]

Strap a HWH element to a piece of re bar, wire it up to a plug and you can heat a 55 gal barrel to about 80-90* in less than a hour. Just be sure to strap the element about 8" from the bottom end of the re bar to keep it from burning a hole in the drum. Cheap and works great, but u need to keep an eye on it.

[Clay]

top view

You can see the brass check valve on the left

Another front shot

[Bitterroot Diesel]

Sounds cool! Are you pumping very cold weather oil? Sounds like that'd be brutal on a pump. I keep my cleaned oil in a 55 gallon drum on a dolly and I just use an aquarium heater (little stick like thing with a thermostat on it) to warm the oil before I pump it when it's really cold out.

~Mitch

How long does it take to heat and at what temperature?

[UW Mitch]

I set the aquarium thermometer to 79*, the hottest it will go, and just drop it in my drum overnight. The two nice things are that it won't set a fire like a heater element could and that the little stick doesn't pull very much power. The downside is it takes all night and it just gets the oil up to probably in the 50s or 60s by the morning (I only do this when it's below freezing outside, because my garage is not terribly much warmer). It makes frozen/thick oil much more pumpable.

~Mitch

[IMAGREASER]

top view

You can see the brass check valve on the left

Another front shot

Clay: Are you comfortable with the galvanized and brass fittings?

[Clay]

Clay: Are you comfortable with the galvanized and brass fittings?

Actually when I took it apart the galvanized fitting was clean inside and its been in service there 4 years or so. There is no heat or oxygen present so I think thats why it didnt have any poly inside. I can take the brass piece off someday and inspect it.
What I'm not comfortable with is all that length/weight hanging on the pump. I dont know if something could break or not but I may eliminate the galvanized reducer and that would eliminate a nipple and use a 1"-3/4" bushing to shorten things up.

[waytallwhitey]

I have threaded bungs welded into the sides at the bottoms of my 55 gallon drums, water heater elements threaded into them makes my life so easy