In rec.boats.cruising Skip Gundlach wrote:

:So, to the point. Who here has installed Algae-X and with what result?
: If positive, neutral or negative, how was that view reached?
:Empirical? Gut feel? Some data? Rigorous documentation?

If it worked, they'd cite a real test, done by an independent lab,
with a large sample size, and an explanation of the method used. They
don't. They cite a bunch of internal stuff, a report commisioned by
them that doesn't really show anything useful, and a bunch of
meaningless other stuff. The fact that they don't show off a good lab
report suggests the reason they don't is that they don't have one to
show off.

:So, again, if you've (or, your best buddy, on whose boat you're a
:regular and intimately familiar with the outcome) installed this, I'd
:like to hear about it.

:At the risk of sounding pedantic (well, I _do_, so, "at the risk of
ffending those who object"), please, no hype, or slams unless you've
:used it to failure. Also, please don't reply unless you're one of the
:folks in the preceding paragraph or asking clarifying questions.
:Nobody will learn anything from that and it will be one of those 90+
:message threads which has only 5 on point. I'm currently very short on
:time and can't afford to wade through the mudslinging...

On the other hand, since it seems like you've decided that you want
one it won't hurt anything but your wallet to buy one.

Hi, David, and welcome to the group.

I presume you're new here, or you'd know me fairly well, what with my
having posted actively here for over 10 years...

David Scheidt wrote:

On the other hand, since it seems like you've decided that you want
one it won't hurt anything but your wallet to buy one.

QED. I come here for information. There are many instances where my
information quest has led me to abandon something I thought was a good
idea. OTOH, I regard Algae-X with a high degree of skepticism which,
if it didn't come through in my post, illustrates yet again my
shortcomings as a writer.

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?)
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. Before those
there will be a small priming pump so in the even more unlikely event
of needing to bleed, it will be easier than with the manual pump on the
side of the engine.

So, back to the story, I'm looking for real-world, owner-installed,
data. Without it, I'll not spend the (admittedly trivial in the scheme
of things in our refit) bux to get it.

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.

Or, in the Island Packet mailing list which I also visit, despite
having not bought one, due to the high ratio of signal to noise, I got
this, also nearly immediately:

************
Skip,

We have had an Algae-X for 6 years now and have never had a problem
with fuel. The sound you hear is me knocking on wood.

We have left Likeke at different marinas for months at a time with a
full fuel tank and no additives in tropical weather with no problem. We
have bought fuel up and down the ICW, the Bahamas, throughout Central
America and Panama and rarely used our WM "Baja" filter. Even bought
some off a shrimp boat in the Vivorillos on our trip south with no
problem. We've been through 1,900 gallons with it on the boat.

We have also noticed a reduction in exhaust soot and only have to
lightly clean a small portion of our transom on occasion. The engine
seems to run very nicely as well.

I once talked to a fellow sailor who had been to the Mack Boring Temple
of the Diesel Gods and he asked about the Algae-X. They apparently
recommended using it, although they, too, had no idea how it really
works.

So, I guess it was worth the $125 we paid for it back when we didn't
know any better. It may be all smoke and mirrors, but at the end of the
day, it does seem to work. Either that or we've been unusually lucky
when it comes to clean fuel.


Randy Rickard
s/v Likeke IP380-48
Currently resting in Bocas del Toro, Panama after the Admiral redid
it's
teak (down to bare wood) waiting for it's crew to come back from the
US and
grandkids in mid-January to head to the San Blas and beyond.

*************

So, now that the group has had its projectile vomiting, who has used
these, and what has been the results?

Sheesh.

L8R

Skip, relieved to find that my expectations were upheld in such
immediate fashion, but depressed to find no valid information here

PS this was written just before Fred's - _thank you_, for *real-world
input*! I'm off to continue trying to find the fuel leak...

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

On 12 Nov 2006 15:30:03 -0800, "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?)
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. Before those
there will be a small priming pump so in the even more unlikely event
of needing to bleed, it will be easier than with the manual pump on the
side of the engine.

Sounds to me like you've got all of the important stuff covered
already.

snip
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.

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

************
Skip,

We have had an Algae-X for 6 years now and have never had a problem
with fuel. The sound you hear is me knocking on wood.

We have left Likeke at different marinas for months at a time with a
full fuel tank and no additives in tropical weather with no problem. We
have bought fuel up and down the ICW, the Bahamas, throughout Central
America and Panama and rarely used our WM "Baja" filter. Even bought
some off a shrimp boat in the Vivorillos on our trip south with no
problem. We've been through 1,900 gallons with it on the boat.

We have also noticed a reduction in exhaust soot and only have to
lightly clean a small portion of our transom on occasion. The engine
seems to run very nicely as well.

I once talked to a fellow sailor who had been to the Mack Boring Temple
of the Diesel Gods and he asked about the Algae-X. They apparently
recommended using it, although they, too, had no idea how it really
works.

So, I guess it was worth the $125 we paid for it back when we didn't
know any better. It may be all smoke and mirrors, but at the end of the
day, it does seem to work. Either that or we've been unusually lucky
when it comes to clean fuel.


There have always been Algae-X success stories out there. I assumed
you had already run across them since it has been actively debated for
a long time.

My attitude in your case is why not? You've already done the
important stuff in my opinion and the Algae-X magnetic system
certainly can't hurt anything other than instill a dubious sense of
over confidence.

"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