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insulating a 55 gallon drum ??

gunner_bear

New member
89
1
0
Location
grand haven mi
What is the best way of insulation a drum for heating WMO? i was thinking of getting it spray foamed, or usung fiberglass insulation with shrink wrap is also a option. I am using a band heater and a steel 55 gallon drum. Either way is it good to insulate over the heater band or leave it exposed? is there a issue of heating the insulation to much and starting a fire??:shock:
 

midcounty

Member
504
26
18
Location
Preston, MD
I haven't gotten that far yet, but I was thinking of a water heater insulating blanket. Mine on my water heater has plastic outside, so spilled drops of oil could be wiped off. I also figured it would be nice to be able to easily take it off incase I wanted to move it to another barrel. I also figured when it's hot weather a black barrel in the sun wouldn't need a heater or insulation. Just my idea for what it's worth.
 

army_nurse

Member
203
1
18
Location
Fort Gibson Oklahoma
how much oil do you plan on doing at a time? I have 12 400 gal insulated fiberglass military water tanks. would keep the oil warm and would be very easy to hook up to a WMO system. you are a ways from oklahoma but the price would be good.

Mark
 

area52

Active member
1,950
5
38
Location
San Bernardino CA
The web site pa bio diesel had a series of tutorials videos on there about centrifuges and band type drum heaters but I just tried to get on there and it reuqires a logon?

Anyway, he showed in his video how to insulate a metal drum with regular household insulation wrapped around it with a cutout for the band heater thermostat, then shrink wrapped it to keep the stuff on. Looked pretty easy to do and cheap

I would insulate over the band, the fiberglass can take the heat.
 

Avn-Tech

Active member
194
31
28
Location
California City, Ca
Group,

I have a drum with an electric water heater element installed for heating the oil, but never use it. I just pump it into the centrifical filter & run for sevear hours, then pump it into my storage tank until I need it.

So far I have not gone through the first tank of fuel in my Deuce, but several friends wioth Deuces have been running my oil (straight) without any problems. When I refuel my deuce, I plan on running 75% oil & 25% fuel.

I may need to heat the oil this winter when it gets cold to get it to flow through my filter setup. Time will tell. But i think the water heater element will work fine as long as it has oil surounding it to prevent it from overheating.

On my drum, I welded a bung about 5" up from the bottom of the drum. then screwed in a 2" or 3" pipe, comming out to a 90 deg. the water heater element is screwed into the bottom of the 90 deg, and the top leads to my filter through a reducer.

I have had some problems with my Dieselcraft filter (all self induced), and they have gone out of their way to see that my problems were fixed.

My oil storage tank has since been mounted on an M200A1 trailer, for ease of moving it around if necessary.

Laterrrrrr
Avn-Tech
 

Attachments

1stSarge

Member
428
5
18
Location
Mount Vernon, Ohio
Fiberglass will not burn at the temperatures were are talking bout here. The paper vapor barrier might.

For a fiberglass batt to do its job properly, it cannot be compressed. Keep that in mind if you are thinking about shrink wrapping it. An R-19 batt compressed down to one inch gives you about R-3.

That being said, were not doing a house here, and just about anything over the bare steel will dramatically improve performance. Great idea.
 
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