Mr Funnel?

[RonRock]

I read it here. What is a Mr Funnel? Where can I get one? Do I have to have one?

 

[Bird]

I read it here. What is a Mr Funnel? Where can I get one? Do I have to have one?

I guess the best idea would be for you to just read some of the stuff on the Mr. Funnel website. Do you have to have one? Nope, if you don't get any trash or water in your diesel fuel, then it would probably be a waste of money. However, if you do get some water in your fuel, you sure want to get it out before it goes into your tractor and the Mr. Funnel actually does work. One of my brothers gave me one when he was a Matco Tool distributor and sold them on the Matco truck. He had a number of customers who used them and no complaints.

 

[RonRock]

Thanks. I got the impression that it was a Power Service product. Went to their site and of course could'nt find anything there. I'll follow the link. Ron

 

[Red55]

I bought my Mr. Funnel at a West Marine store. Do you have to have one? (isn't that what the boss always ask?) Of course you do!
-Ed

 

[Skyco]

I bought one a month or two back at Harbor Freight. I was a little sceptical at first but it does indeed work very well.

 

[marrt]

I have a Mr. Funnel and don't like it. It does a good job of filtering trash and water. However, the design leaves about a half cup of fuel in the funnel that will not drain. The directions suggest you "just pour this back into the original container." Are you kidding? I use fire proof containers for all my gas and diesel. They are safer and there's never any spills since the lids are spring loaded. But there's no way to pour anything back into the container unless you get out another funnel and grow a third arm to hold the spring loaded lid open. Even using a plastic container would require extra and unnecessary steps. I always end up pouring the gas or diesel on some weeds. This isn't good for the environment and it's wasteful given today's fuel prices. I know they are a TBN supporter, but I wouldn't buy a Mr. Funnel again until they hire a mechanical engineer and design this thing correctly. It's a good idea that is "so close" to being a good product.

 

[Bird]

It does a good job of filtering trash and water. However, the design leaves about a half cup of fuel in the funnel that will not drain.

I agree that it does leave a little bit in the funnel; didn't like that myself. However, what are your alternatives? I'm not an engineer so I don't know how to "fix" it, but I'll bet they've had some engineers on staff who also don't have a way to fix it so it leaves nothing in the funnel (except of course you want it to leave any water or debris). And is there a better way to separate good fuel from water and debris? There may be, but I don't know of one myself.

So, if you have the right kind of container, you can dump it back in the original container as they suggest, but of course in addition to it being a problem for your kind of container, if there's any water and/or debris, I wouldn't want to dump that back into the container. You can dump it on weeds or grass you want to kill, as you mentioned, but that's not really environmentally friendly. So what I did was dump it into a separate container and saved it until I used it on brush or trash to start a fire.

Does anyone have any better ideas, either for manufacturing a fuel/water separater that leaves nothing in the bottom of it, or for using/disposing of the half cup or so left in the Mr. Funnel?

 

[marrt]

The whole problem is due to the fact that the bottom of the filter screen sits about 5/8 of an inch above the bottom of the funnel itself. Having some history in product design, I can almost guarantee you its manufactured this way for cost reasons (i.e., not by engineering design). In the directions, they explain that any water will settle to this area. So what? The filter is stopping the water, not the fact that the filter is raised above the water layer? Most fuel filters in tractors or cars are in constant contact with the water they've filtered. So, this separation is not an advantage as their marketing is trying to imply (However, because I work in Marketing, I can appreciate their attempt to position a problem with the design as a "feature". Nice try.) They need to retool the funnel so that the filter area is level with the bottom of the funnel itself. Yes...this would require the creation of a new tool for the plastic. However, they should bite the bullet and do it right IMHO.

 

[Bird]

OK, that sounds logical. Of course, I don't know for sure whether you're right or wrong, but it sounds logical to me. So, have you written, sent an e-mail, or otherwise contacted the company to suggest the change? In many cases, products are modified at the suggestion of customers/users. And if enough customers want the change, it usually happens. I'd really like to hear their response to what you just posted. If your thoughts on the topic are good enough, you might help both the company and future customers with your suggestion.

 

[grnspot110]

I havn't used or even seen the Mr Funnel in person, but I don't know what the big deal is. We had a fuel funnel that was old 40 years ago that had a screen fine enough to filter the water out. Surley somebody still makes them cheaper than these filter funnels!~~grnspot110