glass releaser problem

[steamvalleyFarms]

Another question about vacuum. I have this glass releaser (picture attached). Anyways I had some help from theron, and we were playing around with my deleval 73 and this glass releaser, However the releaser would only work for one cycle when we would try it. It would have vacuum, the releaser would fill, it would dump like it was supposed to, But after dumping, the releaser would not regain it's vacuum. Is there some part I need to possibly lubricate or replace? We tried it 3 or 4 times and every time it did this it would work good for the first cycle, but would not regain vacuum after it dumped the first time. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[markct]

you need less vac level or need to add weight to the float as that is what pulls it back down to break it away from the hold of the vac.

[Grade "A"]

The one I had I add stainless steel washers to it for more weight. I ran 23" of vac at the time.

[lpakiz]

I had 22 inches of vacuum too and I added a couple of 5/8 NC Stainless nuts to the rod above the clip. I suppose 5/8 NF would work too

[jasonl6]

Add more weight as the others said. I had the same problem when i first hooked mine up. Added 8-10 ss washers and no problems since. 22" vacuum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9u1jTJr2fU

[maple tim]

Question about the glass receiver jars. I have one but there is nothing on the bottom of jar what kind of valve should i put on the bottom.

[jasonl6]

home depo has a flapper valve that connects to 1 1/2" pvc. I used a fitting w/ a screw in nipple to connect to the bottom of my releaser. Also used one of these on the other end. I think they are around 10-15$

Jason

[maple tim]

Ok here is another question can i take and glue a 90 degree elbow on the bottom? The glass nipple is busted of on the bottom but there is still glass hanging down to glue to it.

[steamvalleyFarms]

Thanks for the help....We'll gve it a try.

[farmall h]

First of your stainless weight that is on the rod needs to be positioned at the top. You will notice two slots in the rod to accept ss clips. One clip on top of weight-one clip on bottom of weight. When the float rises it hits the weight which in turn pushes the rod up to stop vacuum and release at the same time. Run your vac pump around 15"-18" and get it working. Oh, also you need a back flow valve or flap valve or one like you have for the inlet to be installed on the outlet. Do not you check valves...they do not seal tight enough. Once you get the unit transfering water at 14-18" vac increase to 20+. If the unit does not pull the rod down when the float settles to the bottom then you need to add weight to the top of the ball. If that still doesn't work at higher vacuum then try putting weight on top of the clip that is on the bottom of the rod. That generally works. I was able to do 24" vac on mine last year. Sold it to a trader here. :)

[tstew]

question on the bender I have a couple and they cycle fine. when the glass is under vacuum both of them leak around the top, the jar itself doesn't leak, its leaking where the top of the rod slides up into the cover. was wondering if they are supposed to draw a small amount of air here or is the cover just worn out enough that the rod doesn't seal tight against the sides. its not a major leak i just don't have any experience with them or have seen one operate up close to know. thanks for the help.

[jasonl6]

mine leaked a little also. I used vasaline on the rubber gasket and it stoped the leak.

Jason

[farmall h]

You can vaseline that baby up all you want and you will still here the vacuum leak! There are two reasons why you hear a vacuum leak. 1) The cover gasket is not seated properly...obvious leak. 2) The cone shaped rubber grommet on top of the rod is not seating properly on the cover. I had a leak on all three units that I had and never could figure out why even after these parts were replaced. I can remember when we used both the smaller version and the larger one in our milkroom that leak was always present. You need to remember that these units were not meant for higher vacuum than 15"...all they did was transfer milk from a dumping station to the bulk tank. I suppose there may be a way to design an inlet bolt with some sort of a poppet valve connected to it but that is beyond my limited "visegrip-big hammer" engineering skills. Maybe Dennis H could shed some more light on this subject, he has two smaller units. Dennis do yours make the continues leak as they are in operation?

[lpakiz]

I have a couple of the smaller Benders and they do not leak.....

[Dennis H.]

Yeah they leak air.

From my take on them that is how they are designed. It needs that small vac leak to allow the weight to over come the vacuum that is present. If it was a leak free setup there would be no way to add enough weigth onto the rod to over come the holding force of the vac. Even for such a small surface area as the top of that rod with 20" of vac that is a lot of suction to over come for the rod to drop back down.

The leaking is air getting by the rod and the top cap. It is a very close fit but no way near an air tight fit. The rubber cone gasket at the top of the rod is more there to seal of the vac coming into the Bender than to keep air from leaking into when it is running.

[tstew]

thanks for the feedback. The leak is where the top of the rod goes up into the hole in the cover. Its not leaking at the rubber gromit that seals the glass. I just wasn't sure if they are supposed to draw a small amount of air here while the releaser is under vac to prevent it from pulling the rod up before the float pushes it up. thanks for the help

[farmall h]

Dennis H, thanks for your input ...it had been awhile. You explained it better than I. You would think that there would be some way we could machine a different vac inlet to make them accept high vacuum. The leak does occur while the jar is filling. Maybe it needs a sparate inlet port and exhaust port. Are you still running your jars or have you graduated to a "store bought" unit? Oh, I remember you bought the Deleval unit...are you going to be running that?

[Mark Gamble]

I use a glass releaser as a back up in case my zero tank overflows. I sealed the leak from the outside with silicone and it caused the releaser to fail sending sap overflowing into my pump (bad deal). I took the silicone off and the releaser functioned normally again.