I've been interested in bio for some time. Being out of work, haven't had much opportunity to do anything about it though. Last week I was offered a job, so now I would like to begin concidering how I'm going to go about building my system. This may take some time though concidering I have a few bills to catch up on.

This past weekend I happened to be at a local home improvement store and there's one thing I happened to notice. A brand new electric hotwater tank with 6yr warrenty will run almost $400!!! Ouchie! BIG ouchie!

I know many of you are going to say, just go get an old one from a scrap yard. I kind of have a problem with this. There's a reason they're at a scrap/junk yard... They're old! And I would have no clue how sound the quality of the inside tank would be. And I just don't want deal with 50 or so gallons of wvo running all over my garage floor.

I did notice that the same store carries large propane tanks. But I'm kind of confused, and perhaps someone can set me straight on this. Propane is mesaured in pounds, not gallons, if I recall. If so what would the capacity of a 100 pound propane tank be in gallons?

Would be really great if that was actually 100 gallons. All I'd need to do is take off the valve, drill a few holes for connecting pumping system and weld on a few legs, and at 1/4th the price of an electric water heater!

Graydon: If you read this, I've seen alot of your systems and even the picture series of how you built one system. Your plumbing seems cleaner then other systems, do you have a schematic/parts list online someplace?

thanks

Jaxom

Jaxom,

Pull out the yellow pages and start calling all the hardware stores and plumbing supply stores and ask for a return, or scratch & dent, or demo water heater. Sometimes you can find one as much as 60% off. In Chicagoland, there must be hundreds of places to call.

scour Craigslist, or if your local paper has a "recycler" section keep looking there as well. You may get something for very little or even for free. It has happened.

I'll think about those options. Where ever you can save a dollar is great, eh? Still wish I knew how much volume in gallons a 100# propane tank would hold? Anyone have any ideas?

about 25 gallons I think

quote:

Originally posted by Jaxom:

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This past weekend I happened to be at a local home improvement store and there's one thing I happened to notice. A brand new electric hotwater tank with 6yr warrenty will run almost $400!!! Ouchie! BIG ouchie!

Hey Jaxom.

I found a dented 40 gallon electric hot water heater for $110 --- the place I got it from had a contract with insurance companies to get goods out of damaged stores from Hurricane Katrina; think Lowes and Home Depot stores that might have had the roof ripped off in the hurricane. The insurance company would like to salvage some of the goods.

There were water stains about 5 inches up the sides; and a very small dent about in the middle of the tank and I do mean small.

OLD hot water heaters can also be in good shape. I made a sucker tank out of one...it did have one small pin hole in it; which I glued. I wouldn't use this tank as a processor, but it makes a great sucker tank. And the hole is on the top side....

Keep Looking and Good Luck.

Hi Jaxom.

Here in the UK all compressed cylinders have to have certain stampings put onto them when they are made surely yours have the same ?

The gas cylinders you mention should have things such as tare weight, gross wht, pressure, capacity in litres or gallons etc

I am using a gas cylinder myself for the reactor vessel, PLEASE BECAREFUL when cutting one open as I have found that some of the gas may have been absorbed by the metal.

I opened the outlet and filled the cylinder with water to remove any gas fumes then let it stand for around a day then cut it open, I may have been over cautious but i`m still in one peice, (not allowing for surgeons ).

Hope this helps Best wishes

Paul