On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 06:14:16 GMT, Rich Hampel
wrote:


At Trawlersfest I had two lengthy discussions with paper towel filter
advocates. Their
theory is that the random oriented strands of the paper towel can trap any
size particle,
down to sub-micron, instead of acting like a sieve to pass through anything
below a given
size (they like to avoid mentioning that the "sieve" stops anything above
it's rated
size).
Next time you get into this type of discussion, ask them how the fibers
are held together so that they dont release particles under increasing
differential pressure. You need a resin to hold the fibers together.
Then ask them how much particulate bypasses the 'knife edge' seal that
'bites' into the end of the paper roll.
Then get a glass of water, crumple up some of their paper roll, put it
into the glass of water. Wait to see how long the paper takes to
disintegrate into a slurry. Tell me where on this planet that there
is NO water in fuel oil, either as free water or as an emulsion.
;-)

Apparently in my tank since after filtering quite a lot of fuel, the
paper elements come out in one hard solid piece. Even before I
installed the filters, I got tiny amounts of water in the bottom drain
of my Racor.

One other thing you're forgetting is that even if the paper element does
trap water (which of course it will if there is water in the fuel) the
water ends up staying on the bottom of the element because it's heavier
then the fuel, and since oil and water don't mix the water doesn't get
drawn up into the top part of the filter since it's already soaked in
oil. The fuel flows from bottom to top through the canister so any
"disintegrated" paper will be trapped by the water-free paper above it.
You have to significantly fill the canister with water before any water
impregnated paper "slurry" can possibly get out. If you have that much
of a water problem, you should be changing the elements frequently.

Steve