Drainback

[hambone]

This season I decided to pump out a 275 gallon tank from the bottom of a hill to my hauling tank. I bought 300 feet of 1 and a quarter inch pipe, hooked to my Honda pump and in about 5 minutes it would empty the tank. SWEET, right? Then I unhooked pipe from pump, made sure other end was not in sap in hauling tank and thought I would drainback sap in pipe so it would not freeze solid. Well to my surprise I ended up with 15 gallons back at the bottom of the hill from the pipe. Is there a way to avoid this? I wouldn't think the pump would like to be run dry while I push all the sap up the hill. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm so glad I'm participating in the CRAZIEST maple season I've ever seen.

[RollinsOrchards]

My calculations indicate that 300 feet of pipe that size will hold 19 gallons, while a similar length of 3/4 inch pipe will only hold 6.8 gallons. I doubt that your pump has enough head pressure to deal with that small a pipe though, depending on the amount of rise you have.

I am not sure what style pump you have, but my sap pump is a gear pump. In a case like yours I could hold back a few gallons and splash in half a gallon at a time after the tank was empty. That would alternate surges of air and sap through the line, possibly reducing your drainback to fewer gallons.

if you had an oil free air compressor (very unlikely) you could chase the sap with a burst of compressed air and perhaps reduce your drainback to a single pailful that you could lug out of the woods.

Perhaps someone who knows your pump can tell us if running dry will hurt it or not. What type of pump is it?

[lpakiz]

If you have 15-19 gallons of clean water nearby, you could chase the sap with that, then let it run on the ground. What is your total head? I ran a wire and pump-out line to the road. The line goes straight up (12 feet) from the pump, then slopes to the road.

[hambone]

My pump is a six year old Honda gx 120 two inch multi purpose pump with 96 foot head. The rise is probably 30 feet over the 300 foot distance, a slight incline.

[team40]

have you thot about putting the pump at the top and pulling instead of pushing the sap just an idea dont know if it will work or not becaus or the lift but maybe you could pre fill the line
to the tank with sap so it like primes the system

derek

[500592]

That's an idea but what is the suction head because if it was good enough it probably would work.

[hambone]

I'll check.

[team40]

i see on online and it says it max head is 98 feet
here is the web site i dont know if it is the same pump

http://www.pwmall.com/p-139484-pp0100362-2-general-purpose-water-pump-gx120-honda-158-gpm.aspx
derek

[500592]

The suction lift is 26 ft so it might work but you may have to move it down the hill. Little but it would still get most of the sap out