55 Gallon Drums.. Pickup & Cleaning, No Pumping Power
55 Gallon Drums
After getting a few responses from CraigsList on locating 55 Gallon drums (with lids). My father and I decided to take a drive on Saturday.
Sure enough, we found an elderly gentleman (Mr. Albright) who is loosing his sight from diabetes. He had about 50+ drums, selling for $8 a piece. He had steel, and plastic, we opted for plastic. He was a nice old man and we knew that just by talking with him, we made his day.
We were able to load all 7 drums in the back of my fathers truck, with only inches to spare for clearance. These drums were used for transportation of food products (Tea in the blue barrels, and carmel coloring in the white ones for my father).
Here are pictures of all the barrels,
Cleaning
Out of all 7 of the barrels, I had 3 that had tea residue (leaves, and stains on the inside of the barrel). How on earth am I going to clean these without cutting the tops off.
I have a solution from the local hardware store (home depot).
- Corner grout brush (found in cleaning) $8
- Wooden Handel ($5)
- 1 drywall screw.
On thing to note, it’s not easy to get the brush out, but it does come out. Notice the one shot where the brush is pointed down. This is just after I got the plastic to the point of opening.
There may be an easier way, but I wanted these done that day.
Here are some pictures.
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- All 7 drums.. ready to go.
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- Extracting the brush
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- Inserting the brush into the drum
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- Brush, Handle and Screw
Conduit
I also installed a 3 inch PVC pipe from my basement to my attic. This will give me a conduit access to run hot water lines (with insulation), networking cables (for wireless) and anything else needing to go from basement to the attic.
Pumping Power… To pump or not to pump.
While experimenting with the pumps we found that a 500GPH 12V DC bilge pump that we got at a local marine store didn’t have enough power (centrifugal I believe). The bilge pump only had enough for about 3-5 foot head. This is a problem.
Simple fix, look for alternative pumps. We found one at harbor freight.
$39.99 for a 1/2 HP AC pump with 5 amp draw. Has 10 feet suction (intake), and 115 feet head (output).
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=1479
After priming the pump (and reading instructions) I climbed onto the roof with the hose. It’s about a 20 foot difference between the water barrel, and the arch of my roof. It was as though I was connected to city water. I could put my finger of the hose, and squirt it even further into the air. I think I was able to get it over the tree.
Harbor freight had other pumps, but did not meet our requirements (external due to the size of the openings, lowcost)
Ac vs Dc? I wanted DC, but may just have to run it through an inverter. Which since I am only getting 1.5 amps as is, may need to seriously upgrade the PhotoVoltaic system, but that’s down the road a bit.
I may take the bilge pump back, and see if I can get get a more powerful one (or a refund).