Releasers and high vacuum?

[danno]

Is it my imagination, or do releasers freeze up quicker with high vacuum. I'm running 26" of vacuum at the releaser and am surprised how quickly the sap inlet line is icing up. Last evening it froze up solid at around 35-36 degrees once the sun went down.

Is this typical? Do you guys keep heat lights on the releaser?

I have the sap inlet reduced to 1" pipe. Would it be better to keep them at the original 1 1/2", and reduce few feet up the mainline? I had another thread about a vac leak in the releaser. Would a leak in the releaser cause it to freeze up? Not sure if it would, as there is always some air entering the releaser from the main line.

[Maplewalnut]

A leak every so small will definitely lead to above 32 degree freezing. It is called the Venturi effect and you have created a perfect example of it. In fact I just found a leak in my releaser because I noticed ice sooner than normal a few days ago. You may also see some 'fogging' within the top of the releaser. That is the air mixing with vacuum. I fixed my leak and still had sap flowing last night for a little while at 30 degrees.

[802maple]

Ditto to what Mike said. If you have a leak anywhere in your system it will cause early freeze ups. That is one way as to how to tell how good you are doing. When our system is tight I have seen it run down to 24 degrees, before it finally stopped.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Get a foodgrade spray bottle and fill with sap and tonight get in the car with the wife driving. At about 5 miles per hr stick your head out the window and spray sap in your face then at 25 MPH and then get up to 90 and repeat the test. Let us know what happens and if there is a freeze up change between 5 and 90:evil:

I have had freezing in the ports on the manifold but that is after the bush is all froze up and its the last of the sap spitting into the releaser. Never caused any problems YET

[danno]

OK - tonight will be a good test then. I narrowed the leak to the sap inlet line and tried to fix it. I think it's better but still leaks. We'll see where we freeze up tonight.