Is drying the same as settling? Is settling just letting gravity doing some work. Is there a difference?
Bax

yes, settling will take out water, but it takes a much, much longer time than active drying does.

The time difference is something like:
2 hours for active drying (if your fuel is very well washed in the first place and it's not too cold out) versus up to a week of 'passive' settling of water. In hot weather passive drying works fine, more like a day to get dry fuel, but in cold weather, active drying such as that illustrated in the biodieselcommunity.org site (ie pump that circulates the fuel around with exposure to air taking away moisture from the water) works much more reliably and isnt affected by cold.

I think I'm on track now. I made a 3L batch this weekend and noticed the how the temp affected the color, settling. Low temp of 38F and high 68F. I'm going to start active drying with a small water sprinkler (very low psi). Just a side note I have 3 pages of notes on making my fist batches just in case I end up making SOAP.
thanks BAX