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Same here - final rinse is with really hot water, then I turn the cylinder upside down and insert a regulator hose without a reg on it into the length of the cylinder and start with a good blast of air to move out the excess water followed by about 1 minute of a steady stream of air - seems to dry nicely with no flash rust. Once it's all dried out I flip the tank back over and install the valve right away so as little humid air gets in as possible.Originally Posted by Rainer
Aloha, Tim
Use hot water for all cleaning and rinsing. Heating the water helps the cleaning process and vastly increases the rinse efficancy. By the time you are done, the tank should be at about the same temp as your hot tap water, about 120-130F. In other words, you should need gloves to touch it. At these temps you are at least 100F below any temp that would cause problems with aluminum tanks and close to 800F for steels.
Now dump the water out as fast as you can, flip it upsude down onto a support and give it a blast of clean air for 30 seconds. You are not drying the tank so much as moving the 100% humid air out of it. Check with a light to make sure that all water is gone, give it another blast if need be. I have only needed 2 blasts at most and that only a few times.
Here are my cleaning tools:
The curved tube is a 90 bend from the electrical aisle and the "support" is a PVC pipe cupling.
Much appreciated rainer, kidspot and PeteJ. Where I am going wrong is using the hairdryer.
Is there any secret with "rinsing" with hot water or are you literally filling the tank with hot water and then emptying it? I have thought about giving the inside a light whipping to get any residue mobile in the hot water.
PeteJ those tools... is that a toothbrush on the left for use on the threads of your tank? in the middle is that a connection to your regulator hose which then slips inside the 90 degree curved tube?
Many thanks BLJ
Last edited by BLJ; 11-26-2009 at 07:02 PM. Reason: spelling mistake
You got it, the Tooth brush is for threads and the blow gun/nozzle gets the air into the tube and then into the tank.
What I do is rinse at least 2 times with hot water and then completly fill the tank with as hot water as I can get, let it sit for 3 or 4 minutes to get the tank metal as hot as it can get, then dump and blow.
The hair dryer trick will only work as long as the tank is hot and you displace the air inside as quick as you can. The tank wants to dry as it is hot but unless the humid air is displaced, it can not as the air just can't tale any more water.
I can feel for when the tank is dry as I blow air into it. The air comming out of the tank and hitting my hand is warm and moist for the first 15 to 20 seconds and then I feel it cool and dry out between 20 and 30 seconds.
When Phil and I made a whip to clean out some tanks, we took some SS braid wire from Home Depot, a 1/4", 3' long steel rod, some duct tape, and a 1" section of 3/4" thin walled PVC pipe.
Cut the SS braid wire into 2-3" strips, wrap with duct tape to the end of the rod, and slide the PVC pipe over the tape to lock it in. The ends should fray on their own.
It takes a long time on the whip to make any difference on a steel tank.
Tom
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