How to Siphon Articles and Blog

Gas Siphon - a good storm preparation tool?

1/30/2015

As GasTapper gas siphon completes its first year delivering its full product line, it’s been interesting to learn how and when people by our product. Where we thought that we would have a winter slow down as folks put their boats, motorcycles and lawnmowers away, we’ve noticed that winter storms cause sales to go up dramatically. Winter storm Linus increased our web traffic by 300% and sales by 600%. It’s clear that a gas siphon is viewed as a storm aid and disaster preparation tool.

We had a number of conversations with customers last week that were prepping for the storm or were reminded that they need to be prepared in the future. 75% of all our sales during the storm were from the east coast. The conversations were typically around snow blowers, generators and the potential to have reduced access to gas due to power outages. If you remember hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest problems were gas stations unable to pump fuel due to the power outage.

Now with winter storm Juno on the way, we are hustling to build enough product to keep up with demand. Thanks for the great reviews, sales and confidence in our product.
GasTapper team
Dave, Chris, Todd & Murry.

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How do you replace motor oil in lawnmowers and other power equipment?

1/22/2015

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Have you ever changed the oil in your lawnmower, generator, snowblower or tractor? Why not? It's a real pain, that's why. You can use your GasTapper multi-purpose pump.
GasTapper is a universal siphon. You can use the manual siphon to not only remove old gas from your power equipment, you can also remove the old and used oil. It's best to warm the oil up to operating temperature and then insert the input line from your siphon and either squeeze the bulb or turn on the power. Keep in mine that this will be taxing on GasTappers with paper fuel filters.
We are now offering a cleanable element nylon screened filter in our store. Add this to your GasTapper for best multi-fluid performance.
This will also allow you to use the GasTapper Siphon to remove water and anti-freeze. You should always flush your siphon after running motor oil or anti-freeze through it. For motor oil use kerosene for long term (60 days or more) otherwise gas works well. For anti-freeze use water on the manual version and Kerosene on the 12 volt powered version. We will eventually advertise this ability and call it Siphon Pro.
Chris A

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How do I start a siphon and how does a siphon work?

1/17/2015

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Manual Car SIphon Model Gravity

A siphon takes advantage of gravity and the fact that liquids seek their own level. What does that mean?

If a source tank containing gas, water or any liquid is above a destination tank, you can get the liquid from one tank to the other using gravity. Siphoning is really not a lot different then having a hose directly connected to the bottom of the higher tank and then opening a spigot at the other end of the hose lower than the tank. Picture a tank on a table with a hose attached hanging down to the ground. The tank will clearly empty like it has a hole in it.

Siphoning uses this gravity flow principle and takes it to another level because siphoning allows you to go up with liquid before you go down. There is one caveat, the hose end must be lower than the liquid level. The reason you can have liquid go up first in this situation is that the weight of the liquid in the hose creates a vacuum that draws the fluid out of the tank, basically following the liquid that comes out of the hose. I hope that’s clear? Regardless, it works.

A key point in siphoning and the reason it often leaves a bad taste in your mouth (pun intended) is that you have to draw the liquid up and over the raised part of the hose and get it to travel below the level of the liquid in the source tank, once you do that, it will flow by itself. Most people do this with their lungs. They suck on the end of the hose to create a vacuum causing the fluid to flow into the hose. The part of this that sucks is that the liquid often comes racing over the hump and into your mouth before you can get it out of your mouth into the destination tank.

What are the alternatives? And electric pump that pulls the fluid and pushes the fluid as we offer here on the website, or a manual pump. The problem with a manual hand siphon is that its great at starting the siphon effect but then becomes a blockage in the line once you stop applying human power. You don’t have the free flow of an open hose.

GasTapper hand siphon solves that problem by putting in a siphon bypass hose segment in parallel to the hand pump. This allow you to start the siphon with the hand pump and then open up the bypass line to allow for great flow. No gas in your mouth. This also allows us to use a hand pump that can actually lift fuel and liquids above the source tank, unlike a conventional siphons. The Gastapper Gravity product will allow you to move gas and other liquids above the source simply by squeezing it repeatedly in a pumping action (with the bypass closed). Simple, clean and inexpensive. Thanks for reading the blog!

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What do I do with old gas or gas that's gone bad? Gas goes bad?

1/11/2015

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Now that you know you can siphon and transfer gas easily from your power equipment as well as new and older cars (please see the rest of the GasTapper website) what should your policy be for eliminating your old gas / fuel? Many customers that use GasTapper have a strategy for cycling gas in and out of their power equipment so that the gas does not go stale and damage the equipment. When you pull the gasoline out of your tractor, lawnmower, generator, snow blower, idle car, etc., what do you do with it?

The best policy I found, short of using it for weed killer (all kinds of issues here) is to add it to good gas and burn it. Depending on how old the gas is (your nose will tell you as the older it is, the more it smells like turpentine) you should limit the dilution of your old gas to new gas to a maximum of 5%. This rule primarily applies to cars, you can go a bit higher when dealing with general power equipment. They are less sensitive to the old fuel (usually no fuel njectors or computers). I’ve regularly added 10% to power equipment items with no issues at all. Just use the fuel you’ve mixed quickly. Don’t let it sit around where it might continue the aging process.

What about gas from two strokes or gas mixed with oil? I have good luck mixing that fuel into a non-two stroke motor at 5%. I would not recommend doing this with any newer car.

Gas goes bad?

Yes, now with the new blends, it happens faster than ever. Gas that is left standing will go bad in as little as 3 months. The rule used to be up to 5 months, but that is changing with the new blends. This is one of the primary uses of the GasTapper product line. Old fuel leaves residue in fuel systems and burns with less energy than new fuel. We recommend cleansing your power equipment every 3 months with new fuel. The best way to do this is to either run the fuel out (not always possible) or pull it out and burn it in something that you are currently using. Replace that fuel with new fuel.

Should you use a product that extends the life of gas? Absolutely. There are several products on the market out there. We’ve had great luck with the Sta-bil product. This gives you a more comfortable window of 6 months or more depending on the temperature during storage. The warmer it is, the faster gas goes bad.

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One in Every Trunk...or a better title...Partner in GasTapper Runs Out of Gas (almost)

1/9/2015

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So I'm on my way to Vegas to work a trade show and I'm driving from Arizona to Las Vegas. There’s this wonderful stretch of highway after Kingman where the scenery is spectacular and you let your mind wonder and enjoy a good audio book. My mind wondered so far, I never bothered to look at the gas gauge. Now I have to tell you that even though I preach “one in every trunk” meaning GasTapper, I don’t always follow that rule. We made the manual siphon model so that it would be affordable enough to do just that.

Now on with the story. I found myself somewhere between “Nothing Arizona” and “Wikiup Arizona” when I realized I might not have enough fuel to make it to the next gas station. I checked with my smart phone and it indicated that the next station was greater than my remaining range. I pulled over in a scenic view area and got to talking with another fella about where the next station is. I also got to talking about GasTapper. Since I was traveling to a show, I had several in the trunk. The man was interested and the deal was struck. I gave him a GasTapper Gravity and he allowed me to pull a couple of gallons out of his car.

Now I’m not selling aggressively here, I’m just pointing out that the old adage about the shoemaker with shoes that need repair applies to me as well. GasTapper is not just for Preppers and disasters, it really is like a pair of jumper cables. When I got home, I put one in all of my three Daughter’s trunks as well as my Spouse’s car.

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Gas Siphon - a good storm preparation tool?

How do you replace motor oil in lawnmowers and other power equipment?

How do I start a siphon and how does a siphon work?

What do I do with old gas or gas that's gone bad? Gas goes bad?

One in Every Trunk...or a better title...Partner in GasTapper Runs Out of Gas (almost)

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