Thursday 12 August 2010

Improvements to my veg filtering station

The tap from the bottom of my veg filtering barrel is painfully slow unless the barrel is full so I decided to upgrade. I was using a 15mm beer keg tap (from homebrew shop) but although 15mm seems acceptable the design of the tap itself is quite restrictive.

The tap has now been replaced with a 22mm one, this connects to a full bore 22mm gas tap, which can then go direct into one of veg containers for taking to the car. This is far more free flowing and about 5 times the speed so much less faffing around waiting for bottles to fill.

I have also attached a long length of 19mm bore hose (designed fror KOI carp pond systems) and a cheap trigger mechanism on the end which will stretch all the way to where I park my car, but hook up nicely by the barrel when not in use. The entire setup cost about £22 in total.

Once I raise the barrel up a little higher the hope is that gravity will do the rest and allow me to fill up without the use of a pump. If it fails I will use a 12v pump and run it from the aux battery in the car, so in a roundabout way the veg oil powers itself.

Veg powers car > charges battery > powers pump > refills car with veg > powers car >collects veg from restaurant (powered by veg) > veg gets filtered (by gravity) > pumped to car > powers car > charges battery, oh the joys, its a wonder I get anything else done.