When do you change your socks?

[joshs1ofakindxj]

No, not those socks. Duda diesel filter socks. I use them to gravity filter my fuels, and after almost 2 years, the same 3 I have stacked in each other don't seem to be filtering any slower than day 1 after hundreds of gallons of oil. Do those things ever die?

 

[bigugh20]

Mine get through about 150-200 gallons on average before they are all but completely clogged up.
Edit: I just realized that you may not be talking about used motor oil, transmission fluid and such. If you are talking about something else, I have no idea.

 

[joshs1ofakindxj]

I'm talking about WMO-WVO. Wow I must have some clean stuff.

 

[randini]

It all depends... If the time to filter becomes long, time to change to a new filter. It depends where I get the oil. Some is really clean, sometimes, not so much.

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I run my waste oil blends backwards through my sock filter, so that I can back-flush it with gasoline afterwards. I had been using the same sock filter for 3 years. I recently changed it to see how the filter was surviving with back flushing. It was fine.

 

[Cruceno]

I changed my filter stack with every drum-full of WMO (55 gallons). Filter socks don't cost much, and its cheap insurance that you are ACTUALLY filtering down to the correct micron level. Plus, its a lot easier to change filter socks than it is to change the truck's filter on the side of the highway!

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

...its a lot easier to change filter socks than it is to change the truck's filter on the side of the highway!

I agree there, but I back-flush my fuel filters in situ, so I have not had to replace them in 3 years either. I am not well-funded, so I need to make my operation as cheap as possible. So far blending waste oils with waste gasoline, and recycling all of my filters means my fuel is free, after amortizing the cost of the waste oil processing system over 6.5 years.