Delaval 73 and Glass releaser

[Shaun]

This year I made about 15 quarts of syrup in a finishing pan which has started me dreaming of a larger operation. I just acquired a delaval 73 vac pump and glass jar releaser with pump and terminal strip for controls. This seems to have all the parts required to be used, besides some gaskets on the jar that are a little dry. I plan on using this for an operation of about 300 taps. My question is are these units as reliable as a hobby releaser that is made specificially for maple production? As we all know money is always important, but I hate to spend the time to set it up and not be happy with the operation or damage the pump.

Just trying to gather parts and peices that money will allow.

[Dennis H.]

Do you have pics of the releaser? Is it the large round one the size of a basketball or the small one that is more like a cylinder?

The milk releaser will work but they take a little tweeking to get them to run right. They are designed to work with 15" of vac and once you put higher vac to them they like to hang up when dumping. Now once you get them working they work ok.
The other thing I found with them is that they are a constant vac leak, it is just how they work. I found that with 2 of them on my small system I can't use my surge bb2 it just can't keep up with the 2 Benders.
Another thing I found with them and it only happened this year to me. Is that they can ice up when there is high humidity and temps get close to freezing. This is because of the small vac leak that allows them to work.
I have been using them now for 2 years and have to say that it is a cheap way to get started with vac but would have to also say that someday I will be replacing them.

As for the 73 if you have a nice tight system I can't see why it won't work.

[Shaun]

It is shaped more like a big watermelon, and it has a pump onthe bottom side. From what I have read when the milk (sap) reaches the probes inside the jar it would turn on the pump. It also has about a 15 gallon galvanized tank( similar to a garage air compressor tank) that I assume would work as a moisture trap for the vac pump.

[Dennis H.]

Ah you are talking about an electric releaser. Now with that you will not have any problems like I mentioned.


I have one of those also just not in use right now. The motor is a 220V and getting power to where I would use it is the trick. But it is noce to have options.

The nice thing about the electric releasers is that you will not loose any vac when it is full and the pump sucks the sap out. Also with the pump your storage tank can be higher than the releaser.