Diesel in water tank

MillyD123

Hi all. Unfortunately I find myself with the predicament of diesel in the water tank. It's been steam cleaned with detergent and soaked in Milton but a slight smell and residue remains, even after been thoroughly flushed out numerous times. Is it time to look at replacing the tank and pipes ? Any advice would be really welcome ! Thanks in advance

crabbypaddy

Bummer, sorry for your trouble. What detergent did they use.

Citrus based degreaser does a great job on diesel and kerosene. The catering ones are generally safe:
http://www.nisbets.ie/jantex-orange-based-citrus-cleaner-and-degreaser-5ltr/GG937/ProductDetail.raction
[font=arial, sans-serif]http://www.blueu.net/amfilerating/file/download/file_id/253/[/font]

I'd let it sit in the tank for a few days, driving around will help agitate it.

Non perfumed oxy based bleaches like the w5 oxy power in lidl are cheap and fantastic at removing odours and safe but they can leave solids.

If you are able to flush out solids properly and/or have an access port you can get a hand into to remove solids then after degreaser I would soak in in oxy bleach, predissolve the powder before adding to the tank.

MillyD123

Thanks crabbypaddy. I think it was regular wash up liquid which was used. I'll try your suggestion for the oxy bleach. Hopefully that will do the trick.

crabbypaddy

Dishwasher detergent would be better at degreasing than washing up liquid, again dissolve it before adding to the tank.

MillyD123

Thanks again Crabbypaddy. I really value your advice !

I'm going to start over with detergent and then bleach. I've been advised that the first attempt was unsuccessful because the tank wasn't removed too be cleaned. There were too many nooks and crannies that were missed and therefore there is still a film of diesel on the top of the tank. I need to make contact with each of these and scrub them. Hopefully, more luck second time around. If not, I'll look at replacing the tank.

crabbypaddy

MillyD123 wrote: »

Thanks again Crabbypaddy. I really value your advice !

I'm going to start over with detergent and then bleach. I've been advised that the first attempt was unsuccessful because the tank wasn't removed too be cleaned. There were too many nooks and crannies that were missed and therefore there is still a film of diesel on the top of the tank. I need to make contact with each of these and scrub them. Hopefully, more luck second time around. If not, I'll look at replacing the tank.

I assumed it was removed for steam cleaning. There would be all sorts of nooks and crannies alright plus the joints in the pipes might have diesel capilliaried into them.

A 90% fill with detergent then oxy bleach and driving around would probably slosh enough to clean the tank itself but the hoses, joint, pump etc might be a different story.

demoreino

This has happened us on 2 occasions. The first time was not too bad , our customer hadnt ran the diesel through the pipes so the problem was confined to the tank . I used a multi purpose cleaner from Autosmart and scrubbed down the tank by hand , emptied and refilled a few times added more of the cleaner and took the van out the road for a spin to splash the solution all over . Emptied , refilled with a warm , strong Milton mixture and flushed it out 4 or 5 times . Remember, when emptying use the plug hole in the tank , don't run it through the taps .
The second time it happened our customer tried to cure the problem themselves by continually flushing tank after tank of water through the taps . The water pump was burnt out , several pipes had to be replaced , the water boiler needed a lot of attention, at one point we considered replacing the boiler ( combi boiler ) .
All in all , it turned into a horrible , slow and expensive mess .
Kevin www.iwmotorhomes.ie

MillyD123

Hi Kevin

Thanks for your post. Unfortunately our situation is the latter you described. Complete contamination of the system. It's in the process of being completely replaced now. Cleaning it out wasn't as option as it was run through the system. Plus the tank is huge 120 litres with lots of areas that can't be reached by hand so even if iterate confined to the tank, I really doubt it could ever be completely restored as it was before. A tough lesson but at least it is being repaired. I'm itching to get back on the road 😀😀.

crabbypaddy

MillyD123 wrote: »

Hi Kevin

Thanks for your post. Unfortunately our situation is the latter you described. Complete contamination of the system. It's in the process of being completely replaced now. Cleaning it out wasn't as option as it was run through the system. Plus the tank is huge 120 litres with lots of areas that can't be reached by hand so even if iterate confined to the tank, I really doubt it could ever be completely restored as it was before. A tough lesson but at least it is being repaired. I'm itching to get back on the road 😀😀.

Bummer, I do homebrew and I can vouch for how difficult it is to clean out pipes and vessels, its easier to replace than clean pipes. I think the tank should have been salvagable though but whether the time and effort was worth it is another thing!