Why Sloped Floors Are Important In your Stationary Fuel Tank

When it comes to stationary fuel tanks, we insist on sloped floors. This might sound a little odd, however there is science behind this and to the cleanliness of your fuel supply.

A ‘sloped floor’ means that the water contaminant pools to the lowest point in the tank making the testing and retrieval process simple. All Fuelchief tanks have a ‘water testing dip tube’ where a dip stick can be inserted with ‘water finding paste’ to check for water. A small suction pump can then be connected to this same tube to enable the water to be removed. Simple and easy = clean fuel every time.

There are many stationary fuel tanks on the market, and over 50% of these will have a leveled floor. However, after much research and application we know for a fact that flat floors in tanks create dirty fuel, and this is why:

Air pocket: Any fuel tank with an air pocket will produce condensation when the temperature falls far enough and is therefore likely to attract tiny microbes.

Heat Exposure: After a day out in the sun, the remaining diesel is warm from the heat of the day and as the temperature outside cools, cold air is drawn into the fuel tank via the tank breather.

Cold Climates: The cold air causes condensation on the inside of the tank, forming dense water that eventually sinks to the bottom of the fuel tank. In that water are the microbes as they live off the oxygen in the water and then eat the diesel.

Water: Water, being heavier than diesel accumulates at the lowest point inside the tank and if the base of the tank is ‘flat’ or if there is no low point for the water to accumulate, the water will spread across the entire floor area making the retrieval process very difficult.

The introduction of highly efficient engines such as the common-rail diesel engine, they all must have higher quality fuel. When bacteria, sludge or water is sucked into the fuel lines it causes filter and injector blockages.

Clogged filter vs Clean filter

As a result of the blockages the filter, injectors, fuel tank and lines may require replacement or cleaning, and if the damage affects the operation of the injector pump then watch out because this can often be a painfully expensive repair.

This has lead to Fuelchief innovating and creating our tanks differently, and we have been doing so for over two years now.

The Fuelchief range of stationary tanks used to have flat floors too until the vision from our founders insisted that all products must be innovative, safe and easy to use and this meant that ‘clean fuel’ needed to be at the top of our list. We are pleased to say that the complete range of Fuelchief stationary diesel tanks are now successfully designed with sloped floors therefore providing clean fuel for your machinery and vehicles.

If you would like to discuss any piece of information in this article feel free to contact us at info@fuelchieftanks.com