Questions about RO's Regular water ones vs sap ones??

[wagnerppw]

I have a Reo Pure (Great Lakes International) Model 622540 and it has two KLEER FLOW Model 622540 TFC membrane elements. They are 2 1/2" x 40". Does it matter what membrane I use to replace the ones I have? What is the difference between sap membranes and regular water membranes? Does anyone know where I can find a manual for the RO I have? Any idea what this RO is worth? Thank you for any responses.

[maple flats]

I can't speak on which membrane number to use, because I have one made for maple. The water vs. maple use I think is just the size or flow rate issue. An RO made for a single family use might have a 10 to maybe 50 gal per DAY flow while a typical maple RO will have 100-125-200-250-375-500 and up gal per HOUR flow. This is not to say a water RO can't do the same function, it would just be on a small scale. On the other hand some water RO's are huge, doing thousands of gal an hour, but they are for whole water systems and not a single household.
I'm sure others can chime in on what membrane number you can use. I have not heard of 2.5" membranes, for maple most are 4" or 8", I'll bet they exist.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I have a Reo Pure (Great Lakes International) Model 622540 and it has two KLEER FLOW Model 622540 TFC membrane elements. They are 2 1/2" x 40". Does it matter what membrane I use to replace the ones I have? What is the difference between sap membranes and regular water membranes? Does anyone know where I can find a manual for the RO I have? Any idea what this RO is worth? Thank you for any responses.

2 1/2" x 40" is a standard membrane size - it would cost a few hundred for a pair of membranes and housings in this size. Lots of people are using tap water membranes with some success. I don't think anyone makes a special "maple" membrane in 2.5" diameter but you could use a "nanofiltration" membrane which will be pretty similar.

The pump setup you have is equally important and the other major expense... you may want to share that info on here to get some advice on how to set it up.

If it's setup for tap water, you'd have to probably add a recirculation pump or make sure the pump can support much higher flowrates at lower pressures. This keeps them from fouling up.

The parts you have may be worth over $1000 (new) if you have a good pump - in which case it would be well worth pursuing if you want to spend a lot of time researching about RO and modifying it into something for syrup making. With two nanofiltration membranes of that size, I think you could design it to do a great job with 200 taps - it could easily cut your boiling in half; more if you really manage it well. But it won't be trivial to get going.

I just built one this year (after a LOT of reading up through here and other sources) and I'll never go back to boiling raw sap. It's awesome and completely worth it if you get there.

[danpasulka]

Most maple producers buy the NF nanofiltration membranes. It allow much more to pass through as waste while keeping the much larger sugar molecules as product. Regardless of the machine you own, our company manufactures adapters so you can buy standard filmtec and hydranautics nf membranes. OEMS set up deals with Dow and Hydranautics to sell them proprietary models that are required for use in the machines. The adapters are inexpensive. We also STOCK NF membranes at www.bigmembrane.com (http://www.bigmembrane.com)

[Brent]

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, you have to keep in mind the maple systems are rated for the real world that they operate in, which means the
average temperature of sap that we see being in the 40 to 45 degree range. The ratings for water systems are generally done at 68 degress F.
A DOW tech guy told me that you will lose 3% of flow for every degree C that you drop below 18 C. which roughly means you'll get 1/3 of the flow
rate of water. And, all of that is the flow rate you get without sugar gumming up the membranes. I've only seen a few maple systems but they lose the
first 20% of flow rate in about the first 15 to 30 minutes then gradually creep down from there, until at about the 4 hour mark you need to flush them.
Hope this helps