Too much mainline for my pump?

[Redmaple]

I'm running about 4500' of 1'' mainline to a masport senior pump. I can't pull more than 4 hg's after 20 minutes. Does the pump need time to charge such a big system or should I shorten up the amount of mainline running to the pump? I was told that I could run up to 3,000 taps no problem. The pump is powered by a gas 11.5 hp briggs. Please help and thanks, Justin.:cry:

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Sounds like leaks to me. 4500 feet is not that much. How many taps? I use 35 cfm vane pumps with as much as 15000 feet of line and 3 releasers and suck the sap from 2400 taps back to a central location. Maintain 24 inches.

[SSFLLC]

You need to locate the problem. The pump I beleive is plenty big enough I think. You did not say how many taps are on this pump. How far is the pump from the releaser and do you have a valve there you can shut off. Then check what you have for vac. If you have good vac open the valve to releaser and close all main lines coming in from the woods if you have vac open one main at a time walking that whole line everything main and branch lines looking for leaks. Then move on to the next doing the same thing. Where in southern NH are you. Keith

[Redmaple]

900 taps in all. I'm about 500 in when I tried the pump. I will have to walk the line in the a.m. and check for leaks. There is tons of vac in my line to the releaser. But my hg meter on the releaser only reads 4? There was lots of ice in the lines today also.

[SSFLLC]

How do you know theres alot of vac in the line? If your guage is at the pump it could be a frozen vac line or pluged with something else. Do you have a moisture trap at the releaser? if not you may want to get one. You can test to see if it is pluged. By opening both ends and trying to blow through it. Keith

[Redmaple]

I don't have a releaser yet. I hope it's just ice. Even the warm days have been freezing at my place until late afternoon. When I unhook the vac line from the releaser it feels very strong when I put my hand over it.

[spud]

I'm running about 4500' of 1'' mainline to a masport senior pump. I can't pull more than 4 hg's after 20 minutes. Does the pump need time to charge such a big system or should I shorten up the amount of mainline running to the pump? I was told that I could run up to 3,000 taps no problem. The pump is powered by a gas 11.5 hp briggs. Please help and thanks, Justin.:cry:

I think you should have a booster tank every 1000 feet and then you would have max vacuum at 4500 feet. Do you have a dry line also or only the one inch mainline? If all you have is the one inch line running sap and vacuum with 3000 taps you can expect very poor production. I have a 2000 foot wet/dry system using 1 1/2 inch for both. At the pump I have 29 and at 2000 feet I have 28 inches of Vacuum. I have a booster tank at 1000 feet from the releaser and then another booster tank at the 2000 foot. From there I have 6 one inch mainlines leaving the booster to pick up 2000 taps. For every inch of vacuum over 24 you will get one more gallon of sap per tap. If my pump was running 24 instead of 28 I would get 20,000 less gallons of sap for the season on my 5000 tap operation. That would be 465 gallons of syrup i would lose.

Spud

[Redmaple]

You need to locate the problem. The pump I beleive is plenty big enough I think. You did not say how many taps are on this pump. How far is the pump from the releaser and do you have a valve there you can shut off. Then check what you have for vac. If you have good vac open the valve to releaser and close all main lines coming in from the woods if you have vac open one main at a time walking that whole line everything main and branch lines looking for leaks. Then move on to the next doing the same thing. Where in southern NH are you. Keith

Good idea, I'm going to install shut-off valves for each line into the releaser so I can narrow down my search. I'm in Peterborough. Thanks for the help this was getting to me today. There are 900 taps going to this pump in all but I have another 1500ish to set up this summer for next year. The pump is about 100' from the releaser and I'm using 1'' for vac.

[Redmaple]

When you put it like that, I will get booster tanks for sure. Going into next season I should be tapped out around 2500 trees. I would like to see this pump run the show for a few seasons.:D

[spud]

When you put it like that, I will get booster tanks for sure. Going into next season I should be tapped out around 2500 trees. I would like to see this pump run the show for a few seasons.:D

If all you have is 100 feet from pump to releaser than you should use 1 1/2 inch pipe minimum to connect the two. You should always have valves on all lines going into the releaser. You should always have valves on all lines going into your booster tanks also. If you use just the one inch then you are cutting your CFMs in half by the time you get to the releaser. So by the time you reach the end of your 4500 foot mainline your CFMs will be very low. Your 2500 taps is no little operation so if you size all your pipe right you could be looking at half a gallon syrup per tap ( 1250 gallons syrup ). Cornell has a study on CFM lose that you might find interesting. I wish you the best.

Spud

Spud

[Redmaple]

Going to get 1.5'' line for the pump to releaser this morning and valves. Thanks Spud and Keith for the priceless info;). I will be back on tonight and let you know how it went, Justin.

[IshamBrookFarm]

Hey, stupid question on my part, but do you have the pump running the right direction? I found out the hardway that a gas motor spinds opposite direction from a electric motor.
Trent

[guitarsage1]

Hey, stupid question on my part, but do you have the pump running the right direction? I found out the hardway that a gas motor spinds opposite direction from a electric motor.
Trentfunny redmaple and I found the same thing.

[Dill]

Or did you install the check valve in the right direction?

[Redmaple]

I went down a belt size today and my hg's hit 20''. The whole time it was a loose belt, go figure.

[Brent]

When you put it like that, I will get booster tanks for sure. Going into next season I should be tapped out around 2500 trees. I would like to see this pump run the show for a few seasons.:D

I think booster tanks are over-rated.
And they're mis-named too. They don't boost anything.
If you've got 2500 trees and the thousands of feet of lines you've already got a huge cushion just in the tubing.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Brent, you hit it right on the head!