before i blow something else up, could someone educate me on the wiring for hot water heaters. we have been currently using the thermostats as well a safety mechanism, they are turned up all the way to hot but never really get above 150F. we only use this heater for pre treating the oil, but it takes roughly 1 hour to get to 150 but that is only roughly 50 gallons, would like to cut the thermostats out of the pic, and let the oil get to 220 for 30min or so then put it into reaction tank.

based on my limited knowledge, there are 2 hot wires going into the first thermocouple then into the element. 1 of the hot wires then goes down directly to the second element and the other hot wire goes to the second thermostat?
has any body tried just negating the lower thermostat? Allowing the heater, not unattended of course, to heat, let the steam off for 30min and then into the tank?

We recently aquired a bunch of fish places which have alot of water in them...guessing of course..when we heat on stove it takes 20min or so to boil off water or atleast it stops bubbling and starts rumbling. we also weighed one before and after the other day and lost 2 pounds of water in a typical stew pot. Currently going to follow the direction on one of the other forums about wet and dry weight.

Also, has anybody tried heating the bio after washing with water heater?will the meth left in the bio ignite? Just a little leary, we have had a few setbacks lately...BTW you can blow up a blender with methoxide...not good.

Anyways as always thanks in advance for any responses this has been a great hoby/money pit so far.

parker2jeeps,

Please tell us more about blowing up blenders. I've heard of them catching fire, but not blowing up.

I prefer to dewater in a drum. In my opinion there are too many modifications needed to boil water in water heaters.

quote:

--parker2jeeps---BTW you can blow up a blender with methoxide...not good.

I have always thought that putting a mixture of lye and methanol in a blender was absolutely insane-- Been waiting for reports of people being blinded or otherwise injured.

ReM

ooooh yeah, you can not only get blinded but severe chemical burns on arms and such appendages (sp?) we got shook up a little couple of pranksters anyways, but watch out for the flame you can't see .... methanol...only thing you will see is other things curling up like they are on fire....cause they are..

Anyway, any ideas on the taking out 1 or both thermocouples

some thoughts:
checked out the wiring diagram on a similiar water heater to the one we obtained and it appears the 2 elements are not heating simultaneously, more like one heats and then a relay kicks one of then the other one on?
Looks like they are wred more in parallel than in series...could i take 2 hot leads and run them in series..1 leg to element then to other element, same for other leg, neither leg shorting the other out?

We just spent 15 straight hours heating 250 gallons, 50 galons at a time...would rather.. get both elements screaming hot, let the steam boil out the vent untill no more steam hence water is gone? then turn on pump, hot oil into reactor and new opil in. 50 gallons 30-40 minutes pending on water content? 3-5 hrs inleu of 15 painstaking hours. We did however manage to stop watching the thermometer a couple of times.lol