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After trying many water based, eco friendly options and having the most god awful messes you can imagine I gave up. Good ole kerosene (or old fashioned varsol/mineral spirits) are hard to beat. I get kerosene at Home Depot for about $4/gallon in a 5 gal can and use 20 gals. I would think it would be a lot cheaper up North where you guys use so much for winter heating. My washer has a lid on it, so I can close it when not in use, so without that may be a little different. I got a great little pump as advised from Deve, and wrapped multiple layers of an a/c filter around the inlet to keep from recycling the junk. I wired the pump to a switch mounted on the side of the tank. Use some conduit and wired a flood light also on the same switch, because I can never see good enough when trying to clean parts. After a big job, let the junk settle for a week, pump the clean stuff off the top, then when you get to the gunk at the bottom, pull the drain plug, clean out, refill and back in business. After settling, the clean stuff at the top of the tank looks almost like new. I plan to recycle for a long time. The original fill did cost almost as much as the tank ! You may be on to something, so keep us updated if it works out.