Algae-X (no "opinions" or hearsay, please, just real-world, first-person)user experience sought

>>At the St. Pete Strictly Sail last week, I saw a presentation on "fuel
>>polishing" which was really a pitch for Algae-X.

Algae-X has nothing to do with fuel polishing.

> I think the only honest answer is that the jury is still out on
> Algae-X.

That's one way to put it. Another way is to say that nobody
has ever been able to show that having your fuel run between
two magnets has any positive benefits at all.

> .... Without certified results I
> find it hard to believe that either the navy or USCG would sign up.

I think that unless there's a MIL-SPEC on it, then claims
that it's used by any Federal agency are kind of dim.

Let me put it this way... not too many years ago, I did
engineering work by contract on several Navy and MSC ships.
They did not have anything installed anywhere in any
engineering system that was not type approved by NAVSEA (the
gods of marine engineering). No Gulf Coast filters using
toilet paper, no spinning magnets, no little crystal pyramids.

> That said, I can tell you from experience what does work. My tanks
> and fuel were in really lousy condition 2 years ago when I started.
> We now have parallel Racors and vacuum guages on each engine. The
> Racors can be switched in and out with ball valves on the input and
> output of each filter, allowing filter elements to be hot swapped
> underway. I also installed a fuel polishing system that allows the
> fuel to be continuously circulated through the Racors when I'm at the
> dock. I use Biobor fuel conditioner in the recommended quantities,
> carry a good supply of spare Racor filter elements, check the vacuum
> guages every few hours when underway, and drain a fuel sample from the
> bottom of the Racor bowl at every filter change. Since doing all of
> that we've had zero problems.

Bingo!

But hey, if you spend an extra 50$ on some new-age feel-good
doohickey for your fuel system, you could probably save on
some of those 7$ filter elements ;)

DSK

On Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:10:22 -0500, DSK <dsk@dontbotherme.com> wrote:

>But hey, if you spend an extra 50$ on some new-age feel-good
>doohickey for your fuel system, you could probably save on
>some of those 7$ filter elements ;)

Clean filter elements and a built in fuel polishing system are cheap
insurance against an unsheduled shut down in my opinion. Skip has a
sailboat so at least he has redundant propulsion. Judging from the
stories I hear from people almost everyone, sail or power, has
experienced a shutdown at one time or another from dirty fuel. One of
my neighbors with a 40 something motor sailor told me that he and his
wife stopped going to the Bahamas because they lost power everytime
they crossed the gulf stream.

That's the problem with dirty fuel; it almost always hits you in
marginal conditions when you are least prepared to deal with it.

> "Skip Gundlach" wrote:
>>What I didn't elaborate upon, as it wasn't relevant to the discussion
>>at hand, is that I'll have both a fuel polishing (in the usual sense of
>>the word, but who assigned that label, anyway? Is it bright, now?)

Actually, yes. "Bright" is a technical descriptor for fuel
oils. The opposite of laden with sediment.


>>system, with a pump running through rather large filters, 30 and
>>10microns in series, with a vacuum gauge to monitor their condition,
>>feeding a dual (parallel) Racor setup so in the unlikely event of
>>fouling once I've finished, I can switch on the fly.

Sounds like a good enough set up, but why not use 2 micron?
Unless you like changing filter elements when you don't have
to, there is no reason for using "big then little" elements.
And to polish the fuel, you should use 2 micron. Fuel
injector pumps are very sensitive critters.

>
>>Yet, of course, the first three posts in the topic following mine do
>>exactly what I'd pleaded not to do - pontificate, hyperbolate, lecture
>>and otherwise tell me all the reasons it won't work without having done
>>so themselves.
>>

So I guess you don't want my opinion of whether rubbing
incense on a voodoo doll can cure cancer, either?

In my post, I was countering some of the common false claims
that non-MIL-SPEC equipment is in fact MIL-SPEC'ed.


Wayne.B wrote:
> Sorry Skip, but I'm always willing to share what has worked for me,
> call it what you will.
>

Good IMHO.

DSK

Just what is it with boat fuel? I've driven over 2 million
miles, over 30 years using 4 trucks and have never been shut
down by dirty filters.
I've had them freeze in Winter.

SBV

>Just what is it with boat fuel? I've driven over 2 million
>miles, over 30 years using 4 trucks and have never been shut
>down by dirty filters.
>I've had them freeze in Winter.

Good question. I think with boats the problem is large tanks sitting
idle for longer periods of time. Condensation forms, and the
interface between the water and fuel is where the little diesel bugs
seem to thrive. Boats that are frequently used don't seem to have
problems, same with trucks I suspect. Since virtually all diesel
engines recirculate unburned fuel, just running the engines regularly
filters the entire tank.

Skip Gundlach wrote:
> Meanwhile, I've also put the same question to several sailnet mailing
> lists and have gotten a much smaller sample, mostly of users.

Of course. What better place to get info on whether one
should join a cult, than from the most devoted cult members?

DSK