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----- Original Message -----
From: "Zeke Anderson" <http://www.samurai.com/lists/trawler-world-old/1998/10/0635.html
http://www.samurai.com/lists/trawler-world-old/1998/10/0898.html
There was another post (a year or two ago) from a TWListee who had a similar
service performed but I can't seem to find it. If memory serves, the boat in
question had big inspection plates which were removed so that the tank walls
and baffles could be "hosed off". It was still necessary to use a brush to
get some of the crud loose.
I don't remember hearing of a service that uses a centrifugal unit for
polishing but there would be advantages:
1. You don't have to pay for a bunch of filter elements
2. RCI and similar centrifugal separators can be sized (fairly economically)
to pass fuel very fast which is good for that "firehose" process and also
cuts down on the time you're paying for.
Be aware, however, that claims like "We get it all" are almost certainly
exaggerated. The websites that I've seen for RCI and a couple of other
similar centrifugal separators indicate that they remove 95% of the water
and solids down to 5 microns. That's probably good enough since it's
significantly better than the primary and secondary filters on your engine.
OTOH: It's not quite as effective as a Dahl, Racor, or GCF filter.
There is another type of centrifugal unit out there that works a lot like a
cream separator in a dairy (Alpha Laval is one of these) but they are
intended for large commercial installations. I believe that they are less
efficient than the RCI type as well.
Actually, I just threw in that last paragraph to satisfy Garrett's love of
minutia.
Esoterically yours,
Alex
