Equipment | Fuel filter (Magnetic)

Fuelmag

This is a curious device, not really a fuel filter at all, since it has no elements to get clogged and it retains nothing from the fuel.

The idea is that the little beasties (bacteria to our sophisticated readers) that sometimes get into your fuel tank and start eating your diesel (creating a nasty black ooze that blocks up your filters) are disrupted by being passed by a strong magnetic field. Now, don't laugh, I am not making this up! The effectiveness has been tested under rigorous conditions in a Welsh University of great repute in addition to Dutch (such a pragmatic lot) confirmation of its effectiveness and they both decided there really was something to this claim, even if no-one can explain exactly how it works.

I always thought that organics were immune to magnetic fields. That's why it's safe to go in one of those magnetic resonance imaging machines they use in hospitals, right? Apparently not, at least for the little critters that eat diesel. No accounting for taste. The latest idea I've heard is that it is not the bacteria themselves but the way they stick together that is disrupted by the magnetic field. Once separated, they pass more easily through the subsequent filters and are burnt along with the diesel.

In fact, it seems that several government organisations and individuals have adopted these fuelmag 'filters' with apparent success, reporting that they had to change fuel filters very frequently before whereas with the fuelmag they last much longer and their fuel flow remains unconstricted.

I met the Kiwi inventor at a boat show in Singapore and an arrangement was made for his distributor in Singapore, BIE, to very kindly sponsor a FM400 fuelmag for Jocara. It goes in line with the main fuel pre-filter. Very simple to fit, no moving parts or replaceables, and what is there to lose?

So here it is! Plumbed in line before the main fuel pre-filter (that feeds both our 6-cylinder auxilliary motor and generator), it's clamshell-shaped aluminium body sits unobtrusively on the bulkhead, quietly subjecting all our drawn (and recycled) fuel to its magnetic field. So far, I can report that I have found no black (or any other coloured) sludge from diesel-eating micro-organisms whatsoever. True, I didn't have any before, but the best prevention is often unnappreciated precisely because there are no problems. You never know what might have happened without it, especially when we consider the dubious sources of diesel we are obliged to use while cruising in developing countries. The price is reasonable, the installation simple, the space required minimal and the benefit could be huge, with no risk or maintenance once installed.