Good Housekeeping of your Product, News • 28 March 2014
Who is responsible for your fuel quality?
You may have your own bulk storage tank; perhaps it was even installed by your friendly fuel supplier. You blissfully fill your magnificent marvels of automotive engineering: after all they are consuming your precious fuel BUT who is responsible for the quality of this precious fluid?
You are! We know that your protests to this will be:
BUT - “I buy my fuel from Fuel Company A’ and they are responsible for my fuel” OR – “the tank belongs to ‘Fuel Company B’ I’ve got nothing to do with the fuel quality” AND PERHAPS – “Fuel Company C is responsible for our tank and we are not concerned about their installations” OR EVEN “we just use the fuel, if anything goes wrong with it, the oil company must pay”.
The problem is that fuel quality generally comes down to house-keeping. Because of this oil companies are turning away from accepting responsibility as YOUR fuel quality boils down to YOUR house- keeping.
How fuel quality relates to your fuel house-keeping?
Let’s relate fuel quality to your favourite brew in a brown or green bottle.
If you leave a bottle of your best brew lying around for a year or more, there will be of debris floating in the bottle and it’s not likely you will drink it. This has not happened because of anything that Charles Glass (or any of his family) has done, it’s simply what happens. The same goes for your fuel. Fuel deteriorates with age and if it’s stored for more than 12 months without any filtering attention, it should preferably not be used as deterioration of hydrocarbon fuels is just what happens with time.
You would not dream of asking the brewery to replace that beverage you have let go ‘vrot’ because you have let it stand for too long. So how can we expect the fuel company to clean up or replace the ‘vrot’ fuel you don’t use quickly enough?
You would not dream of asking the brewery to replace that beverage you have let go ‘vrot’ because you have let it stand for too long. So how can we expect the fuel company to clean up or replace the ‘vrot’ fuel Now consider a 750ml brew bottle that is returnable for refund when empty. This bottle belongs to Mr Glass and that’s why he will give you 90 cents when you give it back to him. Natural degrading process of diesel fuel after one year, imagine leaving a bottle of brew left open on the garden table after your last braai; allowing it to be rained on, have the odd fly to do lazy breast strokes in it and for it to lose all of its pleasure giving characteristics; and then for you to expect Mr Glass to take responsibility for replacing it with fresh brew or even popping around to the house to clean out the bad bits, all because the bottle belongs to him.
The comparison with your fuel storage is no different. If you leave the caps off the tank and rain water gets in, or you don’t keep it locked and a midnight “exchange” of fuel for water takes place, or you don’t protect your tank with a breather filter assembly to stop dust, moisture and bacteria from entering the tank, then honestly ask yourself, is it reasonable to expect the fuel companies, even if they own the tank, to consider cleaning up your fuel?
Fuel Quality – the buck stops with you!
You brought the fuel and paid for it. When delivered it was in perfect condition.(There is of course always the chance that you might get a bad delivery of fuel, but this is honestly very unlikely and 99% of the time after a delivery, you are good to go without a second thought.)
Let’s consider the “hardware” – the tanks, pipework and pumps (or the brew bottle!). The owner of this hardware carries the responsibility – that’s for the maintenance, repairs and also testing that it’s all still working. Remember things wear out: so the tank and pipework buried in your yard will need to be checked If it’s broken it should be repaired by the owner. Vacu-sonic or pressure testing is the answer here.
The solution to staying on top of your fuel quality housekeeping!
However, if you stay on top of your housekeeping, your “software” (YOUR fuel) will give you the signals whether or not the “hardware” needs attention. You’ll start finding increasing amounts of water in your fuel or you’ll start losing fuel when taking your dip readings.
If you suspect that your hardware does require attention Vacu-sonic or pressure testing is the answer.
In conclusion, the message has been sent by the fuel suppliers – YOU need to look after the quality of
YOUR OWN fuel after it has been delivered to YOU.
