The ISSUE of TISSUE

The ISSUE of TISSUE

December 12, 2009

Is there really an Issue about Tissue? Well, yes, I suppose there is. You see, when it comes to oil filtration, toilet paper manufacturers scratch their heads and say, “Say what?” “You want to do WHAT with our product?”

Toilet paper manufacturers make their products in multitude of different ways. Some use only new materials (such as trees) while others use recycled products which include trees, pulp, and other paper materials. The ones utilizing only new trees end up with longer fibers and therefore, softer products. When the paper is recycled, it is shredded up and the fibers are broken down into smaller and smaller particles which do not lend to a soft feel but is very good in that it compacts and rolls onto the unit tighter.

The Frantz Oil Filter likes tightly-wound paper without embossing, perfumes, whiteners, bleaches, or other fancy impurities. We have found that often, the cheapest, thinnest, janitorial quality toilet paper works the best in our filters. Of course, size is also important.

Many toilet paper manufacturers make their rolls 4-1/2” wide. The problem with that is that the roll doesn’t fit well into the Frantz canister which calls for a 4-1/4” wide paper. The diameter doesn’t often matter since we can always unwind some turns to “size” the roll to the inside diameter of the canister. Adding to the size of the roll is the inside diameter of the cardboard core. For many decades, paper manufacturers made toilet paper with 1-1/2” center cores. Lately, they have made them 1-5/8” or 1.7” core size. I believe it is a marketing strategy in that it makes the consumer believe they are actually buying more paper since it rolls into a larger outside diameter when the same 1200 sheets are rolled up. Who are they fooling? It only makes us have to unwind some of the paper turns to size it to our purpose – filtering oil. So, you see, size does matter!

Your Frantz Filters staff has worked hard to find just the right paper for use in the Frantz Filter. We have settled on the NiBroc brand, 1 ply bath tissue (stock #11014). It measures about 1-1/8” wide which fits perfectly inside the Frantz Filter canister. Yes, you will need to size the outside by removing some turns. The center core is 1.7” and therefore Frantz had developed a metal machined sleeve that fits over the center metal tube of the filter base and allows for a nice, snug fit when the paper roll is slipped over the sleeve. This sleeve is a reusable item that will be a permanent part of the filter but is removable at any time should you locate a paper with a 1.5” center core. This gives you more flexibility in selection of toilet paper but knowing you can always obtain paper from FrantzOil.com.

So why does toilet paper work so efficiently anyway? The answer lies in the density and thickness of the media itself. Consider the common coffee filter. It is cellulose, shaped, and often corrugated to fit an internal basket of the coffeemaker. Grounds are filtered from the coffee pot by this filter so only the liquid coffee is captured. How thin is this filter paper; about the thickness of a piece of copy paper? I think so. Now, compare that thickness to the thickness of a roll of toilet paper which is going to be at least 4” thick. Since the oil flows down through the width of the paper roll and not crosswise, it stands to reason that the filtering is going to be much better. When the roll of toilet paper is firmly wound on the core, it also creates a higher density to the filter media thus increasing the efficiency of the oil filtration operation. This is the entire theory of the Frantz Oil Filter design. So you see, All Tissue is NOT Created Equal. For continued maximum efficiency and quality of your filtration needs, contact your Frantz Oil Filter distributor – that’s ME!