Diesel Polishing | How To Kill DIESEL BUG On A Boat & Prevent It From RETURNING | Sailing Madness 

a great video,,,,,,,diesel bug comes from an airborne spore that travels in the air, the spores can enter a tank when it is being filled or even through the tank breather, and of course it can be delivered in fuel when filling your tank. It lives in fuel that is contaminated with water .it survives in the water phase and eats the carbon from the hydrocarbon, it exists in the joint between the water and the fuel referred to as the interface , what it excretes is acidic and can attack aluminium or mild steel tanks. adding a biocide between 3 to 7 days before polishing will kill the bugs. They will sink from the interface and form a sediment in the bottom of the tank which can be sucked up. There are many varieties of these bugs, one of the most common lives on pine trees or softwood fences.

To reduce the amount of condensate forming in the tank do not leave it less than 3/4 full for a longish time. Filling with uncontaminated fuel helps, often contaminated from a delivery of contaminated fuel from the oil company that took delivery of a tank of ballast water.

Cool video - process very well explained.

I have watched your videos of your trip to Scotland, really enjoyed them. This winter I also built a fuel polisher. I polished the diesel out of the tank and into containers (110 litres). I removed a lot of sediment (dead diesel bug), however I was not confident I got it all, so I installed a access hatch about 112mm in diameter and cleaned out the bottom of the tank with rags and sure enough I had not got rid of all the bug. My advice is for you to clean the tank and also make sure you remove the pick-up pipe from the tank and clean it. Mine was completely bunged up with sediment. I also installed a Racor water separator and new fuel lines. I finally polished all the fuel out of containers back into the tank using a 10 micron filter.

Great video I did wonder how this was done, I had my tanks done in June before trying to sail up from Milford to Conwy, glad I did as I had to motor from Fishguard after my spreader batten snapped before I'd even got past the bishops 😅 October was rough the swell was horrible

You should clean the tank , not just polish the fuel .

awesome video

Hi, I’m a big fan of your channel and have been following you since you started. I see you have solar panels on your Bimini and spray hood, would you be able to share how you did this and what gear you used?

Great video. Is the unit you used to polish the fuel available for purchase complete to do you have to make it up yourself?

Helpful video, thanks. Did you build or buy the fuel polisher - if bought, from where? Cheers

Thanks for posting. Always interesting to see the contents of people's tanks, and the stupid places boat designers place them. I am becoming more and more convinced that people pick up the bug from their supplier. Especially when filling with red from a small marina/fuel barge where the stock turnover is slow. After catching the bug from one such supplier I've changed to supermarket white. I know the fuel is fresh, but even so have taken to passing it through a Mr Funnel filter before putting in the tank - you will be surprised at the amount of gunk I remove. And whoever thought that putting the filling cap to the tank on a flat deck needs their head examined as unless you are very, very careful in the UK climate some water is going to enter the tank via that route even with a good O ring. Why do most cars have their filler cap on a near vertical surface and hiding behind a flap?

Hi Dave, Could you tell me where you bought your fuel polishing system ? I live in Belfast otherwise id have you do it.

Dave I’m missing Tim and Alan from the Routemaster days, rewatching all the old videos of yours, any chance of you inviting them for a days sailing??

I’m wondering if you usually add diesel bug treatment every time you fill up with fuel? Wouldn’t the water that had collected in your tank just be caught in your water separator when or if it ever made it out the tank and then you could just drain it off from the drain valve on the separator?

Omg that fuel looked terrible!

What fuel pump are you using? I plan to make my own polishing setup.

Do you use a fuel additive such as Marine 16?

I think you're polishing a turd there Dave.

How on earth can this type of diesel help the environment or climate change. Obviously filters and other contaminated equipment for boat and other transportation must create millions of air miles and delivery miles all over the world.