The Fill Up For Free Greasecar WVO Network Blog (fillup4free.com)

We've got over 1000 WVO users now!!!

2007-03-28T16:02:00.000-04:00

Well, the WVO Network is growing strong and fast. We're now ovr 1,000 strong! If you aren't already a member of the network, then get yourself over to http://www.fillup4free.com right away.

More and more members are emailing me to say that they've had great success getting free WVO / SVo / vegetable oil for their greasecar while on the road. It's so great to hear how well the members of our community support each other.

The Map is Ready!

2006-12-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

The Map of American Greasers and oil sources is Now Online at http://www.fillup4free.com

After a year of work, the WVO Network map has been released to the public. It is an interactive map based on Google Maps' API that allows users to see who is using waste vegetable oil as fuel and where they are located.

The map is especially useful for road-tripping greasers who want to connect with free or cheap sources of WVO on their trip
people who want to connect with other greasers in their local area to form a coop
people with lots of oil that need to get rid of some

The WVO network is growing quickly and new map markers are added daily. It is shaping up to be a major tool for strengthening and building our community. Registration is free, instant, and the service is spam-free.

Greasecar WVO waste vegetable oil kit headaches cont'd

2006-06-03T11:58:00.000-04:00

So I took a look into the greasecar waste vegetable oil tank the other day. The tank is the 15 gallon rectangular small vehicle (not the large truck) style. It has a top access panel that attaches with 10 bolts/screws to the main body of the tank. The part that you lift off holds the WVO level float, and the removable panel came with a CORK seal.

Now when I removed this access panel on the top of the tank to look in and inspect the heat exchanger and such, THE SEAL WAS GONE! That's right. GONE! I knew that cork was not a good material to use with vegetable oil, but the entire thing had desintegrated into thin air in only 6 months! The access panel has never had a really oil-tight seal--it has always leaked a little bit, but now I understand why...the access panel (aluminum) is resting against the aluminum of the tank body with no seal in between! What a crappy design! I mean really! you'd think that Greasecar, who boasts on their website that they are the leading wvo kit manufacturer, doesn't even include a seal that will withstand the chemical properties of WVO and the heat produced by their own heat exchanger!

So anyway, while in the tank, I tightened the compression fitting around the pex fuel line, which was VERY LOOSE. I very well may have been contaminating my coolant system with vegetable oil and vice-versa!

Greasecar sure has a nice reputation, but the more I learn about the details of their kit design, the more I realize that there are numerous things that (to say the least) should be improved.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO): Headache or "The Answer"

2006-05-26T14:57:00.000-04:00

I've been running two waste vegetable oil greasecars for a while now, and even though the WVO cleans the injectors and produces less toxic pollutants and greenhouse gases, THE SYSTEM TAKES MAINTENANCE.

Anyone who tries to sell you a WVO or SVO conversion kit that says that all you have to do is install it and then drive for free for the rest of your life is a liar.

Right now I have a dead vegetable oil level guage, two coolant lines that have worn because they've been rubbing against the frame, and they need to be pulled and re-routed, and i just lost my source of waste vegetable oil (the restaurant owner wants to use it for himself).

Now, I have found new source of oil that is really great stuff, but I still need to set up some way to get the water out of it since the cooks clean the fryer with water. (Water + WVO = dead Injection Pump = $1,000-$2,000 repair).

So sure, WVO is a great way to help move the world to a less-fossil fuel dependent state, and sure it helps reduce our contributions to global warming, but don't be blind: it takes maintenance and work. At times I can completely understand people who just want to roll up to a gas station and say "fill 'er up."

WVO / SVO electric inline heater comparison

2006-04-20T08:43:00.000-04:00

Now I've got the Neoteric Biofuels Veg-Therm Standard and Mega, and I am waiting for the Fattywagons Electrotherm 300w & injector pipe heaters, and also the little angel glow plug heater.

Next week I plan to start the controlled testing of each of them to see how fast they heat oil, how much current they draw, and how hot they get, using lab-grade testing equipment.

Then stage 2: on-road testing of these waste vegetable oil electric heaters to see how they compare in real-life greasecar situations.

Send your ideas to me about how you'd like to see them tested, and I'll consider them.

Review of Fattywagons 100w Electrotherm inline WVO Heater

2006-03-28T17:25:00.000-05:00

So, I have received and installed the FattyWagons 100watt "Electrotherm" inline electric straight / waste vegetable oil fuel heater in the Vanagon. You see, I wanted to save a little money by buying the $50 electrotherm rather than buying the more widely known $100 "Vegtherm" by neoteric biofuels/plantdrive.

Well, let me put it plainly. I just went and ordered the Vegtherm.

To start with, the Electrotherm came with no instructions, no accessory hardware, and no receipt: just a tube with the unit inside. No recommended mounting ideas or wiring diagrams. No relay. No toggle switch. Just the electrotherm with two wires sticking out of it. Simple, right?

After installing the Electrotherm and troubleshooting why it wouldn't heat up, I finally got it working. But, even though it gets warm, it doesn't add even one degree of heat to the fuel passing through it.

It's frustrating to go through all the work of ordering a product, waiting for it to be delivered, installing it, and troubleshooting it--only to find out that it doesn't really work well. Not to mention the fact that I didn't receive a confirmation email after ordering the item on the Fattywagons website, and I had to request confirmation three times before they even told me they'd received my order. It took over two weeks before I received the item! To their credit, after hearing about my problems with the unit, Fattywagons has been very good at trying to help me.

Ok, so the unit heats up. You can touch it an feel that it is warm...or even hot, but my temperature gauge probe (which is installed immediately after the electrotherm) doesn't register even one degree of temperature increase for the fuel passing through the electrotherm when it is on. Not even one degree.

I expected at least five degrees of additional heat, and hoped for 15, but it doesn't even put out one.

I double-insulated the electrotherm with foam pipe insulation, and I connected it directly to the battery to make sure it was getting enough juice...but still...not even one degree of additional heat.

Like I wrote earlier. Let me summarize by saying: I just went and bought the Vegtherm. When am I going to learn that sometimes you really do get what you pay for?

So, stay tuned for my review and installation of the soon-to-arrive Vegtherm by Neoteric/Plantdrive on Fillup4free.com

The First Fillup4free WVO Network Roadtrip!

2006-03-28T17:07:00.000-05:00

Next week, April 1-9, we'll be kicking off the first FillUp4Free WVO road trip in the Vanagon greasecar! We'll be stopping by to visit waste vegetable oil users along the east coast on our way to Asheville, NC from Rutland, VT. It's our first experiment to see how well this network will work.

Will we actually be able to get enough waste vegetable oil to go the distance?

Are there enough people out there willing to share oil with a travelling greasecar driver?

We're going to find out soon, and this is only the beginning. This fall we will be kicking off the main cross country WVO network - building trip.

Our goal: 48 states in 5 months, with at least a few WVO sources in each state. Then, we'll publish the network and make it available for all.

Stay tuned to fillup4free.com for more!

WVO Waste Vegetable Oil On-Board Filtration System?

2006-03-22T18:15:00.000-05:00

I've been dreaming of having an on-board waste vegetable oil filtration system for my greasecar that would allow me to fill up for free on the road. The more I learn about veggie technology, the more I realize that the on-board filtration system is really a far fetched idea.

This past weekend I met a woman from Montreal who travelled cross country last summer on vegetable oil. She dove in dumpsters in back alleys and scrounged for oil every time she needed to fill up. She told me how nasty it was to try to filter all of the oil on the trip, and what a mess it made! Let me not fail to mention that 4,000 or so miles into her trip her van died.

Dead.

No mo' WVO for her!

You see, she made the common mistake of not KNOWING about what water can do to your engine.

"Water?" you ask.

You see, water that is suspended in waste vegetable oil kills your engine's injection pump. WVO that sits in dumpsters in the alley can collect rain water, snow, sleet, etc...and get contaminated. So even if you filter the oil down to 1 micron, you still haven't gotten the water out. Sure, your injectors won't clog because the oil is "clean" e.g. not got bits of french fries in it still, but unless you de-water the oil, then your injection pump is gonna pay.

Or, rather, you're gonna pay for a new injection pump, and they aren't cheap. Think something in the range of $1,000 on the low end and $2,500 on the high end to get a new pump installed in your car.

Now think about how much money you can save with vegetable oil. Doesn't even come close to the cost of a new injection pump, does it?

Simply put, to perform even the simples de-watering method you have to let the oil settle undisturbed at warm room temperature for at least a few weeks. That's simply impossible on the road, and no current machine or invention is available that will do it for you and will fit in your car.

So, gone are my dreams of an on-board filtration system in my vw veggie van. Now I am gonna take a road less travelled: the road that fillup4free.com is paving for us greasers that want to travel cross country...the road that involves sharing de-watered, filtered waste vegetable oil with road-trippin greasers.

The Vermont Waste Vegetable Oil WVO Coop

2006-03-21T17:34:00.000-05:00

Met with Mark Jones and Monroe Trask yesterday in the first ever meeting of the Vermont WVO coop. Monroe has a Dodge cummins pickup that he's planning on converting to a greasecar this spring or summer when the weather warms up a bit. Mark is working on an old VW Rabbit that he's going to sell (check the greasecar.com classifieds this spring) and then he's going to buy a newer Jetta that he wants to convert.

Main topics on the table were what type of a filtration & dewatering setup do we want to build, and where do we want to keep it.

We all want to get together with Mark Penta in Bethel-Gilead (www.gileadgarage.com) to check out his greasecar conversion operation.

We're planning on having a potluck dinner soon. Greasers of Vermont, unite!

The National Greasecar WVO Network

2006-03-16T11:10:00.000-05:00

The network is growing. It is slow going though. I am contacting greasers all around the US, and it is becoming apparent that there is a wide gap between the number of people that have high-quality waste vegetable oil filtration systems set up and the number of people that just want to get free WVO. It's averaging out to be something like a 1:10 ratio. For every 10 people that want filtered vegetable oil there is one person who has enough filtered oil to share.

wow.

So, my plan of attack is under revision for the fillup4free.com national WVO network. Since it is harder to find quality filtered oil sources, I am going to go meet them one by one.

Yup. One By One.

That means that this spring, summer, fall, and winter I will be driving across the country meeting people that have WVO filtration systems set up and getting them to join the network. It'll be slow, fun, and in the end it will give one heck of a good and accurate list of filtered VO providers for us road-trippin' greasers.

If you are a greaser that would like to have access to the network when it is finished, just register at www.fillup4free.com. If you have filtered oil to share with others, PLEASE let me know! I'd love to stop by and meet you sometime! I'd be happy to interview you and feature you in an article too!

Do you know anyone else that would be a good addition to the network?...anyone else that might be interested? Please click here to let them know about us.

-Kristopher

Greasecar WVO Waste Vegetable Oil Cold Weather Solutions

2006-03-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

We've been having a long cold spell up here in New England, and it's been affecting the performance of our greasecars. Most notably, it takes longer to warm up the engine when it's 10 degrees outside. Longer engine warm up time means longer WVO warm up time. I commute about 15 miles one way each morning and the vegetable oil in the greasecar tank is only just about getting over 100 degrees by the time I arrive and shut the car off.

So, winter greasin' is an issue.

Yesterday I put the Jetta up on blocks and wrapped the veggie oil lines with rubber plumbing pipe insulation. Then I wrapped the WVO hoses under the hood with foam pipe insulation and double-insulated the last foot of line before the injection pump. Then I wrapped and covered the greasecar vegetable oil filter and heating coil in insulting duct-tape and put a big piece of cardboard in front of the radiator.

Initial test run resulted in WVO temp of 153 degrees after 15 minutes ofdriving followed by 5 minutes of idling. It appears that idling helps the VO to heat up faster than driving, but driving helps maintain the temp better.

The electrotherm heating unit that I ordered from fattywagons hasn't shipped yet, but I'm hoping to get it installed next week. I hypothesize that it will give an instant 30 degrees temperature boost to the WVO, as needed on cold days.

WVO Greasecar waste vegetable oil heating issues

2006-02-27T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's cold here in the northeast. Hasn't risen above 20 degrees in the last few days. My 2002 VW Jetta Greasecar has been having issues getting the waste vegetable fryer oil hot enough to drive on it. I can get the veggie oil temp up to about 90 degrees, but it just sits there.

So, I insulated the main oil lines to try to keep some of the heat from escaping, but that hasn't helped much. After some research on the frybrid and greasecar forums, I've decided to add a vegtherm electric inline heater to give the veggie oil a shot of heat just before it gets to the injection pump and the engine. It's pretty pricey at $150 though.

Hopefully it'll help. Check www.fillup4free.com for more news and pictures about greasecars and waste vegetable oil heating issues.

Stop Wasting Your Money! Drive for FREE on waste vegetable oil (WVO - Greasecar) from your local restaurant!

2006-02-16T22:21:00.000-05:00

How much did you spend on your last tank of gas?

If you are like most people in the US, then you probably are spending between $30 to $40 per tank of gas these days. Now most of us fill up at least once a week, and if you do the math, that can add up to over $1,000 per year on just gas!

What if there was a way that you could run on free fuel?

What if there was a way that you could reduce the effects of global warming at the same time by using an alternative fuel, like biodiesel--but better and way, way cheaper...(how much cheaper can you get than FREE!)...

Would you be interested?

Few people know that there is a readily available alternative fuel to gasoline that is available right now for FREE all over the country and is better than biodiesel.

Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't!

My name is Kristopher Setchfield, and I have started this blog to share this amazing information with the world. Since implementing it, I have driven thousands of miles FOR FREE. That's right! No tricks. No gimmicks. Just plain FREE!

Now I was originally very skeptical that this technology could actually work, so I read everything I could get my hands on. After years of research I finally took the plunge and converted my car to run on this free alternative fuel, and now--thousands of FREE miles later--I can unabashedly state that if you are paying for gasoline at the pump, then you are THROWING YOUR MONEY OUT THE WINDOW!

You don't have to pay $2.00 or more per gallon to drive a car!

With this incredible technology, you can literally drive on a waste product that other people are throwing away!

My friends tell me that this all sounds like "Back to the Future," and I admit that it is kind of similar, but let me ask you a question.

If you could fill up for free and help the environment at the same time, would you?

Here's the deal.

Back in the early 1900's a man by the name of Rudolph Diesel invented an engine that could run on any type of oil or grease. Petroleum oil, peanut oil, canola oil, you name it--his engine could run on it. Not only was his engine versatile, but many of his original prototypes are still in operation today, almost a hundred years later!

This engine was named the Diesel engine after its inventor, and shortly after its premier the petroleum oil industry developed a type of fuel specifically for the engine and named it Diesel fuel. An environmentally-friendly version that was made from plant based oils rather than petroleum also became available called BioDiesel.

The world then promptly forgot that the Diesel engine could run on vegetable oils, since Diesel fuel was so cheap and easy to get at the pump.

But today, with the soaring prices of Gasoline, Diesel, Biodiesel, Kerosene, and home heating fuel, this alternative fuel technology has been rediscovered!

It is my mission to share the details of this technology with anyone who will listen. It is possible to run any Diesel engine with straight vegetable oil (also known as SVO) if a conversion kit is installed to make it a "GreaseCar." Vegetable oil or fryer grease is often free and it is readily available since many businesses and farmers throw it away as a waste product!

Isn't that weird?

I mean, can you imagine people throwing away gasoline? Can you imagine anyone throwing away home heating oil or kerosene?

It's absolutely ludicrous!

Every year in the US, the fast food industry alone throws away over six billion gallons of waste vegetable oil (also known as WVO)!

If you had a Diesel engine, you could use some of that as FREE FUEL!

Just imagine not having to pay for fuel again...you and your greasecar could take those long trips that you have been putting off because gas costs too much these days...

You could take the money you'd save on gas and use it to buy those sweet tires or that awesome stereo you've been wanting...

AND, at the same time you would actually be recycling! You see, using waste vegetable oil or grease as an alternative fuel is actually recycling a waste product. Instead of the waste oil going into a landfill you could be using it in a greasecar to commute to work. Instead of all of that oil from the local fast food restaurant going down the drain, you could use it to drive to the beach in your greasecar!

Since I converted my cars to run on straight vegetable oil with a GreaseCar kit, I have driven literally thousands of miles without having to buy gas at a gas station. My friends are all amazed that it actually works, and they are all begging me to help them convert their cars!

There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to help them all personally, so I am building this website so that I can share what I know with as many people as will listen.

In the coming months I will be adding the following information to this blog:

Basic summary of vegetable oil alternative fuel technology
Overview of the requirements to implement it
History of the technology
Difference between BioDiesel and Straight vegetable oil (SVO) or Waste vegetable oil (WVO)
Detailed instructions on how to convert your car
Links to related print and internet resources
Step by step photos of my GreaseCars' conversions
Tips and tricks to help the do-it-yourselfer
Warnings and expert advice to keep you from making costly mistakes
Much more!

So, if you would like to know when this information is available or if you would like to hear about important developments in vegetable oil technology, please register!

Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to sharing this amazing secret with you!

P.S. Want to take a "test drive" of the vegetable oil conversion process? Check out my site: www.fillup4free.com

Sincerely,
Kristopher T. Setchfield
-Vegetable oil expert, Biofuel consultant, and founder of Fillup4free.com