After pumping the entire contents of the dewatering barrel into barrel #2, I put a second clear plastic tube on the barrel pump in barrel #2 and feed the other end into barrel #3 that has a dual bag filter that filters to 5 micron at the inner sock and  to 1 micron when it leaves the outer sock and enters barrel 3.  Once the oil is filtered into barrel 3, it is ready to pump into a storage tank or into a fuel tank.

The method described above works well for summer filtering in moderate climates.  I have discovered that in the winter, the oil cools too quickly between barrels 2 and 3 to filter successfully.  More information to come later on winter filtering. 

The pictures below are of my filtration system.

The red hand pumps in the pictures below push about 18 gallons per minute and work well when coupled with some clear plastic tubing from Lowes.  The grey high volume hand pump worked well until I put a Goldenrod 10 micron polishing filter on the push side of the pump.  After pushing about 6 gallons through the filter and into my tank, the back pressure sheared the plastic vanes off inside the pump!  Back to Harbor Freight for an exchange.  The replacement will be relegated to pushing a much thinner B100 biodiesel through the 10 micron polishing filter!

Above, you'll see all three barrels and a second blue barrel that I plan to use for B100 from a local biofuel supplier.  The second picture shows how I set up the polishing filter that broke the vanes in my high volume barrel pump.

I will have more updated pictures soon.  Currently, I have three red barrel pumps; one for each barrel with their own hoses.  I hope to have my 275 gallon tote mounted on a wooden scaffold and pump the filtered WVO into it for storage.  It will be high enough to roll a 55 gallon drum on a drum dolley under the spigot to fill.

Winter Filtering Update

It's February right now and the temperature outside is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  I have learned that having an unheated garage in the winter is not conducive to WVO fuel filtering!  Here's what happens to your garage in the winter when you have trouble filtering and the restaurant keeps on cooking chicken wings!

The picture above is actually a couple of weeks old.  There are more cubies in there as I type this report! 

When the day time temperature started dipping below 55 degrees, I started having trouble getting the oil in the drums to get hot enough to open filter using gravity.  I was able to get the oil from my dewatering steel drum through the 10 micron sock and into drum #2.  However, the oil cooled quickly and I was unable to get the oil through the 5/1 sock filter in drum 3 without waiting a couple of hours for the sock to drain out.

My first attempt at fixing this was to build a second drum oil heater with another 1500w 240v heater element and the same pvc fittings shown above.  I placed this in plastic barrel #2, plugged it in and monitored it carefully to make sure it would not melt the plastic barrel!  I was able to get the oil warm after a couple of hours but never hot enough to filter through the double sock.  It was clear that I would need to insulate the drums and/or get more powerful heating elements.

I purchased rolls of bubble insulation at Lowe's and cut it to fit both my dewatering barrel and plastic barrel #2.

The insulation helped hold in the heat but as the temperatures got colder, it was clear that I would need a more powerful heater element.  I am now searching for either a 1500w 120v element or at least a 2500w 240v element to get more heat.  This will take more careful testing to monitor how the more powerful element works with the pvc fittings.  Now that I know I need more heat, I think I would choose metal fittings for future oil heaters.

More information to come as I test more powerful heating elements to get the oil hot for filtering.  I am also going to experiment with using a small aquarium heater in the double 5/1 micron sock to keep the oil flowing well.

UPDATE:

After attending Girl Mark's January Biodiesel Workshop in Atlanta, I am going to experiment with using an Appleseed Biodiesel reactor built from a used hot water heater to dewater and filter my oil.  Not only will this help with regulating and maintaining temperature of the oil but it will also be safer than open drum filtering in the garage.

This is an ongoing research project so I will post new information as I build a new winter-proof dewatering/filtration station in my garage!