Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
OT: softening soilfied Canola Oil
Yape
Purchased a Water Tote for my rain water collection. Has about 1/4 to 3/8" of hard dried Canola oil on the bottom. I can not reach the bottom to scrape it off. Can't find anything online that really helps. Can someone recommend a method to remove it. Tried to use a portable On demand water heater but can't get it hot enough to work very well. Thank you in advance for your ideas.
Re: OT: softening soilfied Canola Oil
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
Leave it alone. I don't see what it can bother. It should liquify in the summer.
Re: OT: softening soilfied Canola Oil
Dale Stansbery
I'd try a pressure washer to try to blast it out. I'm assuming you're talking about a big plastic tank.
changing my response
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I thought you might be in the frozen north and the oil has just gelled. I reread and there may be another problem. If that oil has sat in the tank for a very long time it may have begun to polymerize. Or, it may not be oil at all.
Depending on your intention for using the water stored in this tank the best option may be to do nothing. If you must get it out you are going to need to know what it is. Then you are going to have to know how the method of getting it out is going to affect whatever use the tank has next.
Dissolve it out with solvent and the solvent will partition into the plastic and stink of solvent forever, for example. If it is polymerized oil you could saponify the material with sodium hydroxide. But at that scale I would not recommend someone not experienced in handling chemicals to try it.
Re: changing my response
Yape
This is an off grid cabin and the tank is for cleaning, bathing, and drinking after being filtered. Pressure washer lifts it off the bottom but the sheet of dried oil tears if I try to lift it out. The drain pipe is only 1.5". Thinking about waiting till it starts to warm up here in the PNW, then boil up a huge pot of water to dissolve the glop. Good ideas, thanks for the responses.