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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Stainless vs. Aluminum
Posted By: Harv
Date: Monday, 6 March 2006, at 2:42 p.m.
Well after all the research and questions I have been asking lately regarding the ethanol, it seems to boil down to this decision. Stainless tanks or aluminum tanks. Basically the only types of tanks recommended by the ethanol mfgs. are Stainless or "approved " fiberglass. Now since we know what ethanol does to our fiberglass, I was wondering what this "approvedd" fiberglass is. I spoke with Chuck Fort from BoatUS, who has been doing extensive work regarding the ethanol situation. He doesn't recommend Stainless for tanks over 20gals, but I remember someone had stainless tanks made under Patrick's recommendation. Now I have also been told that aluminum is resistant to ethanol except if water is present. We all know that the marine environment will always allow water into our tanks just from passing from the atmosphere through the tank vents. Therefore, some sort of liner material would have to be used in aluminum tanks otherwise they are no better than the tanks we have now.
According to Chuck, "There are resins made specifically to withstand ethanol. You’d have to find a fiberglass place that would be willing to use it. Reichhold technical support has told me that Dion 6631 and Atlac 490 are ethanol resistant, up to 120 degrees – it’s what they use in underground storage tanks. They also recommended post curing. You would have to find a distributor – the only one I know of is in California, but I’m sure there are others. A distributor called Fiberglass Hawaii in Santa Cruz carries the Dion 6631 in gallons for $40/gal. Their number is 831-476-7464." Now I have no idea what these processes encompass or whether this can be applied to our existing tanks, but I will be making more calls to try to find some answers.
When asking the distributer of fuel tank liners, he suggested going with grade 5 or grade 10 stainless, without a liner, and he said I'd have a tank for life. Basically what I want to know is some thoughts about a 225gal stainless tank and pricing.
Harv
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