Setting up vac pump

[MainelyMaple]

I'm sure it has been asked a hundred times before on here but how exactly do we plumb the pump to the releaser? And i'm sure there are many different ways to do it but my general understanding is pump, vac regulator, moisture trap, releaser. I've heard of people using check valves? is it neccesary? Also where should I install ball valves? thanks in advance

[Haynes Forest Products]

Vacuum pump, vacuum regulator (if needed) moisture trap, releaser, check valve. Check valves will keep the vacuum in the woods for a little while during dumps and slow the sap surges that come with pump shut downs. Small slow sap surges have less effect than sap slamming back into the tap holes. You want a ball valve at every mainline coming into the releaser manifold. You want to shut every line at start up and shut down to see if there are drops in vacuum. Lets say a branch breaks a mainline and you have low vacuum. You shut down the lines one at a time to see what is the problem line and go walk the woods. the rest of the system is up and running at full throttle until the section is fixed.

[sapman]

Do you ever find problems with ice in the check valves, and taking a long time to thaw?

[NH Maplemaker]

MainlyMaple,Put a check valve in your line right after vacuum pump and before the vacuum regulator! That way when the pump gets shut down for what ever reason, vacuum pump will not spin backwards and break the vanes in the pump!!JimL.

[Haynes Forest Products]

NH Maplemaker what about the surge from the releaser going out into the bush. I have never heard about the spinning backwards breaking the vanes?

[3rdgen.maple]

Mine pump spins backwards when I shut down. Not to worried about the vanes torn a million pumps apart and rebuilt them and the vanes wil go right back up in the armatuer. I had one customer that had a 3 phase motor running his vane pump and it was running backwards for years before I pointed it out to him.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Some vane pumps have the vanes at an angle so yes I can see that they are directional. But I cant see how spinning backwards breaks them. Now a little dirty secret is On my De Laval pump because of the motor set up I didnt want to have the engine offset. I pulled the drum and plates and reversed them and I had to pull the alignment pins to get the drum in the right position to do that. It did take alot of staring at the pump and motor to get it right.

[3rdgen.maple]

Im betting it sucked sap back into the pump and swelled the vanes. Then when it got turned back on they could not reseat themselves and broke off. Got to be careful with the carbon vanes and moisture especially oil.

[highroadsyrup]

Are the plastic check valves sold @ HD & Lowes good enough or should I use the brass check valves?

[Haynes Forest Products]

I see no reason you cant use a sump pump check valve the releasers I use have the same type of rubber flapper in them. Just dont use a spring loaded one and make sure you set it in the right position.

[highroadsyrup]

Sounds like we should be using swing checks instead of check valves.
Thanks Haynes.

[Haynes Forest Products]

You want sap to gravity feed when the pump is off. NOW if the check valve is between the pump and releaser then a spring check is fine and might be a good thing to stop sap from backflowing into the pump.

[Parker]

I think it is a good idea to have a check valve between a vane pump and the releaser,,when the vacuum pump shuts off the woods tubing is a large vac. resivoir..the vac in the woods lines will pull air thru the vane pump making it spin backwards sometimes pulling oil from the pump into your releaser and up into your woods lines happend to me in the past....

[highroadsyrup]

I think I will put a swing check between the pump & releaser as you both have suggested with the flow towards the releaser to stop the back flow. Still wondering about another swing check at the releaser from the woods -- that would help with surge/back flow when the releaser is dumping and still allow sap to flow when the pump is off.

Thanks again for all the help :)