Hand pump for TKS from barrel?

[wombat]

I now have a 30 gallon barrel of TKS fluid.  Rather than trying to pour it or siphon it, I'd like to use a hand pump.

Does anyone know if there are any things I should look for in said pump?  Can I just go to my favorite dealer of cheap garbage (Harbor Freight, Amazon, etc) and pick basically anything? 

Modulated by my personal preferences on quality, of course. 

[exM20K]

Be careful to stay away from the non-corrosive, fuel pumps like This

I use a siphon pump like This

you will have to trim it down for the shorter barrel.

i transfer to 1 gallon jugs and thence to the plane.

-dan

[Schllc]

Last time I purchased I discovered the best value was the 2.5 gallon jugs. 
I didn’t want the barrel for the same reason I don’t buy oil by the barrel.  
how do I unload and move to my hangar?

if the savings was significant enough I would find a way, but the reality is it just wasn’t enough to make it worth the hassle. 

[exM20K]

The economics depend on a couple of factors:

• freight (shipping is non-trivial)
• hangar access (if they can get a lift-gate truck to your hangar, or someone nearby has a fork lift, then life is good)
• How much you (maybe plural "you" as neighbors are happy to get fluid discounted vs small containers) will use in a year

The last one is important, because old fluid can get acidic and do bad thing to wing/tail skins.  A pH tester is a must.

the last time I bought a barrel, the costs were:

2x 2.5 gallon jugs: $27 /gallon does not include shipping

1x 55 gallon drum: $14.6803+89 / gallon before shipping.   plus $89 shipping = 16.21/gallon

 

That was a year ago.

-dan

[wombat]

@exM20K Thanks; that's exactly the sort of pump I was worried I might buy if I wasn't careful and not find out until later.

Uline.com has a compatibility chart at https://www.uline.com/guide/DrumPumpFaucetGuide.htm and I found a pump that fits my needs, H3864 for $109.

@Schllc I just moved the barrel to my hangar yesterday.   Didn't even have the truck, just used the car.    Loading into the car was done by grabbing a 12' long 2X12 and rolling it up on that into the trunk.   Unloading was grabbing a couple of 1/4" thick 2'X8' plywood sheets that I had leftover in the hangar, adding a used tire and a jack as support under the middle, and then rolling the barrel back out.    This is easy for me, in part because I'm relatively young (< 50) and in reasonably good shape.  If I was older, I could load on the truck with an excavator or tractor and unload with an engine hoist.

Regarding the cost effectiveness of the barrel purchase...With the amount of flying I do in the winter here and the conditions here in the winter, I decided that the $8/gallon I saved after shipping was worth it.   I have been really skimping on using the TKS when I should and I wanted to just solve this for the winter.   I don't know for sure I'll get through all 30 gallons this winter, but I made it through 12.5 last winter and I was not turning it on or leaving it on as much as I should.

[exM20K]

10 minutes ago, wombat said:

.   I don't know for sure I'll get through all 30 gallons this winter, but I made it through 12.5 last winter and I was not turning it on or leaving it on as much as I should.

It is wise to rinse off the plane and hit the inside of the tail with Corrosion-X especially if you use it a lot.  I didn’t last year because the hose water in Florida is very hard and left my plane looking like it had Monkey Pox.  Bad move.  There was a 1x2” bit of corrosion on the underside of the inboard right tail. 

[Fritz1]

ouch, this is really ugly, I will rinse the bird asap and put corrosion X into the tail, I have not found any corrosion so far, but it appears the TKS fluid gets under the paint, orginal paint was coming off 6 years ago, I had the bird painted and paint is coming off with primer again in some areas, I typically use 15 gal per year so having the 55 gal drum sit around and possibly go bad does not appeal to me

[exM20K]

1 hour ago, Fritz1 said:

ouch, this is really ugly, I will rinse the bird asap and put corrosion X into the tail, I have not found any corrosion so far, but it appears the TKS fluid gets under the paint, orginal paint was coming off 6 years ago, I had the bird painted and paint is coming off with primer again in some areas, I typically use 15 gal per year so having the 55 gal drum sit around and possibly go bad does not appeal to me

It’s no big deal to fix, but staying ahead of it is important.

-dan

[wombat]

I have a lot of spots right next to the TKS panels with very minor corrosion.   Nothing nearly as bad as your picture, @exM20K

[Schllc]

6 hours ago, wombat said:

@exM20K Thanks; that's exactly the sort of pump I was worried I might buy if I wasn't careful and not find out until later.

Uline.com has a compatibility chart at https://www.uline.com/guide/DrumPumpFaucetGuide.htm and I found a pump that fits my needs, H3864 for $109.

@Schllc I just moved the barrel to my hangar yesterday.   Didn't even have the truck, just used the car.    Loading into the car was done by grabbing a 12' long 2X12 and rolling it up on that into the trunk.   Unloading was grabbing a couple of 1/4" thick 2'X8' plywood sheets that I had leftover in the hangar, adding a used tire and a jack as support under the middle, and then rolling the barrel back out.    This is easy for me, in part because I'm relatively young (< 50) and in reasonably good shape.  If I was older, I could load on the truck with an excavator or tractor and unload with an engine hoist.

Regarding the cost effectiveness of the barrel purchase...With the amount of flying I do in the winter here and the conditions here in the winter, I decided that the $8/gallon I saved after shipping was worth it.   I have been really skimping on using the TKS when I should and I wanted to just solve this for the winter.   I don't know for sure I'll get through all 30 gallons this winter, but I made it through 12.5 last winter and I was not turning it on or leaving it on as much as I should.

Pretty clever. $8 per gallon is significant, but given I had only used about 15-20 gallons a year so it wasn’t worth the hassle.  I have boots now so don’t have to mess with the stuff at all.