I will be setting up my first WVO collection drum at a restaurant. There are two restaurants in a strip plaza. They now share a storage room where they each have one of those plastic recycle tanks that they put their oil into. My idea was to offer 2 steel drums with removable lids. I would attach the two drums via a 1" hose from the side of each drum at about the 12" level from the bottom. I would have the drums side by side. The first drum I would have the lid just sitting on it. Inside I plan to have a screen to keep out waste food, this drum is where the restaurant owner would dump his oil. The second drum I would have the lid bolted on. With this set up I could go and pump out the second drum and it should be fairly free of crap. Most of the crap and water should settle out in the first drum.

Anyone have other ideas on how to set up WVO collection drums. I appriciate any feedback on my idea.

Thanks
Todd

That seems clever; but eventually you are still going to hit the level where you start sucking up the crap. Eventually you have to clean it out and do something with it. I suppose, if time dictates, you could at least know that it was THIS collection trip where you were going to have to deal with the crap.

I just take everything every time and then give it time to settle at home. I think it looks better too, for the restaurant owner, to see that the drum is completely empty. Then it obvious you are doing your "job" even if he can't remember how full the barrel was last time.

Todd- keep it simple, with a hose connecting 2 drums you're just asking for a spill. What we have started doing is only sucking liquid and leaving the debris and then periodically we'll go around the next day and suck up all the debris and take it right to the sewer department (or farm for the digester)

Some sources we get hardly any crap. Also on the filter idea it sounds good in theory but its just another thing to deal with. Just talk to your sources and explain that food debris should go in the dumpster or composted. We had one source (Chinese eatery) that was really bad at first and we tried a 500 micron drum filter but it would clog up. I spoke with the staff who assured me only oil was going in and we were ready to dump them but my partner happened to see the owner one day and took him out and showed him what was in the drum- turns out they were dumping grill scrapings in there too and he put a stop to that- now its one of our best sources.

I'm an engineer and I can get carried away some times with ideas, they just seem to grow. Thanks for the K.I.S. idea.

quote:

I'm an engineer and I can get carried away some times with ideas

Oh-Man! I can relate to that! My yard is overflowing with bits and pieces for not-even-started-yet and half-finished projects. When you can build or do just about ANYTHING, how do you limit yourself to just what you SHOULD do?!?