Need help with Estrella Filter

What are you trying to filter? Is it flammable gooey or unusual? Do solids float?

I operated one many years ago in central PA. Company equipment was sold to dealers. I wonder if it is the same.

If it is open top and "vacuum driven" here are a few suggestions.

1. Know the draining properties of your solids. Some drain very easy and can be washed with hoses or sprayers. We did a crude lab test where we we put a gallon of slurry on a large funnel with a coffee filter and timed it. The slower it filtered, the less we put on the filter. It was trial and error to set up charts.

2. It was plumbed to plant vacuum with at barometric leg (55 gallon drum in the basement). When there were problems with the plant vacuum we switched to an air driven diaphragm pump. It worked great and was easy to maintain . At the time only Wildon made a diaphragm pump that could handle solids, pulled a good vacuum, could pump dry and was easy to fix. Now there are knockoffs that work well.

3. Some of the solids were temperature driven. Washing with cold water worked better.

4. The cloth used started as a speciality material. We ended up with a mat that was like thick cotton or burlap. We also has success using the filter cloth used on water belt filters. It could be scraped without much damage.

5. The process was labor intensive as the operator had to use scoops to load it to drums or bins. Most was further dried in a vacuum dryer. Scooping was the only problem with the texture of the filter material. Our attempts to use lifts (homemade) were not successful or safe.

If I messed the mark with the type of filter send more details. I hope this helps!