Homemade Releaser

[jrgagne99]

I've been getting a lot of inquiries on my homemade releaser, so here is a thread dedicated to it. Schematic and pictures are attached.

I used a 12" dia. x 24" long section of PVC for the main body. I used 1"-thick PVC plate for the top and bottom, although in hindsight, clear plexiglass would have been better so I could see in there. The bottom plate is glued on, the top plate uses an o-ring seal and tool-box hitches. I used a 5" dia. x 9" long plastic pool/swimming-area float for the float. It rides up and down on a very light 1/4" plastic rod that is from one of those driveway reflector sticks at Homedepot. Stops on the rod are 1/4" shaft couplings (SS for the bottom one which is generally submerged in sap, aluminum for the top one). The relief valve is a brass plug fitting with a 45-degree taper. This mates with an o-ring that is caulked in place around and on top of a 7/16" dia hole in the top plate. When the sap level is high enough, the float pushes up on the stop on the rod and pops the relief valve up. Along with a shaft-coupling stop at the top of the rod, a spring that rests on a bracket positioned above the top plate keeps the relief valve suspended until the sap has drained. Once the sap has drained, the weight of the float pulls the rod back down to compress the spring and seat the valve. I used 1.5" PVC swing check valves on the sap inlet and outlet ports. The check valve on the sap inlet prevents air from rushing back into the lines during a dump.

The whole thing sits above my gathering tank. It dumps 4 gallons in about 20 seconds and is probably good for up to 500 taps maximum. With my 2.5 cfm vacuum pump on 120 taps with a reasonable tight tubing network, I consistantly get 25 inHg in the bush.

[jrgagne99]

Couple more pictures...

576857695770

[DanE.]

jrgagne99,

Nice job on this. how long have you used it? also it looks like you are using one of those car ac vacuum pumps, how well does that work?

Dane.

[jrgagne99]

I've had it for two full seasons. Yes, I do use one of the cheap (~$100) automotive A/C evacuation pumps and I'm really pleased with it. It uses about 1 quart of vacuum oil per year, and I run the pump almost all the time the temp is above freezing. So far, so good. I consistently get 25 inHg on 120 taps, and if it fails, I'm really not out all that much money. In fact, I'd probably just buy another one to replace it if it did fail- I view it more as a wear item. Mine is 2.5 cfm, but you can get a single-stage 6 cfm pump on ebay for less than $150 that would probably be good for up to 500 taps?

Does anybody have experience with something like that?

[lpakiz]

When it dumps, does vacuum just keep on going into the releaser, or is there some sort of "shut-off" for the vacuum?

[jrgagne99]

There is no shut-off to the vacuum, so when the releaser dumps, the vacuum pump is free-flowing. But the tubing lines in the sugarbush are isolated of course by the check valve on the inlet.

I haven't experienced any problems with free-flowing the vacuum pump during a dump. Is this considered to be a no-no in vacuum pump operations? Do the commercial releasers isolate the vacuum pump during a dump to prevent free-flow?

[NH Maplemaker]

jrgagne99, No I don't belive they do ! That is they work the same as yours. The check valves hold the vacuum in the line so pump doesn't have to rebuild vacuum every time it dumps!
I have followed alot of posts about home made releaser! But yours is the best and most do-able I have seen! We live fairly close each other and I would love to look at this releaser at some point! As a matter of fact I was in Enfield yesterday! Took my tractor over to the Koiti dealer on 4A.
Again great job, keep this subject going! JimL.

[farmall h]

I can't view larger images of your pictures jrgane99. I think if you wanted constant vac to your lines during dump cycle you could build a manifold such as DennisH has on his Bender releaser. Just my $.02.

[wiam]

There is no shut-off to the vacuum, so when the releaser dumps, the vacuum pump is free-flowing. But the tubing lines in the sugarbush are isolated of course by the check valve on the inlet.

I haven't experienced any problems with free-flowing the vacuum pump during a dump. Is this considered to be a no-no in vacuum pump operations? Do the commercial releasers isolate the vacuum pump during a dump to prevent free-flow?

Commercial mechanical sap releasers shut off vac to the lower chamber when they dump.

[Gary R]

That's a nice looking releaser. I'm having a hard time understanding how the float stays up during the dump. How did you cut the groove for the end caps? Thanks for posting.

[500592]

The float isn't held up the rod is held up by a spring that the float pulls down

[jrgagne99]

That's a nice looking releaser. I'm having a hard time understanding how the float stays up during the dump. How did you cut the groove for the end caps? Thanks for posting.

During a release, as the sap-level drops, the float slides back down along the rod which is held up by a spring positioned above the top plate. When the sap level drops enough, the float contacts the bottom stop on the rod. As more sap drains, more and more of the float's weight is transfered to the rod. Eventually, there is enough downward force on the rod to compress the spring that was holding the rod up and preventing the relief valve from immediately re-seating. Once the spring compresses enough, the relief valve seats and the vacuum pump starts pumping down the releaser again. With my 2.5 cfm pump, it takes about 30 seconds before the releaser vacuum level is back up to the level preserved within the lines out in the sugarbush - about 25 inHg.

I used a lathe to cut the groove on the top cap. You could probably achieve similar results with a router if your plate is cut circular enough to begin with.

[RustyBuckets]

What is the diameter of your relief valve? Im scratching my head how that can dump 4 gallons in 20 seconds with the size of that hole with a rod in the center restricting even more air from entering the chamber to allow the sap to dump. Its a cool build but in order to break 25 inches of vac its either one small hole or one big float. The smaller the hole the longer it will take to dump. Is that float a food grade material?

[jrgagne99]

Rusty,
I sized the diameter of the relief valve hole based on the maximum buoyancy of the float. The float is 5" dia x 9" long and when fully submerged, it provides about 4 lbs of buoyancy force. For the relief valve hole, I chase 7/16" diameter becasue at that size, the force holding down the relief valve at full vacuum is about 2.2 lbs (14.7 psi * 0.15 sq-in), plus about 0.5 lbs for the weight of the rod and stops (2.7 lbs total). When I drilled the hole and tested the releaser, I found that the hole was small enough for the float to break the seal, yet big enough for a reasonably quick dump time. The float is high density polyethylene- (HDPE, #2).

I don't know how to convince you of its dump rate. Maybe I can take a video sometime and post it.

[lpakiz]

I would think the dump rate is influenced as much by the size of the out-bound check valve as the size of the air vent. Once the cannister is vented, it needs very little additional air volume to replace the fluid being drained.

[jrgagne99]

Larry,
I think you're probably right about the out-bound check valve having the stronger influence on dump-rate. I use a 1.5" check valve that seems to enable nice quick dumps.

That said, the net air-flow into the cannister is still important. In the past, I have turned off the vacuum pump during a dump (thus increasing the net air-flow into the cannister) and this reduces the dump time by maybe 30%.

It now occurs to me that if you wanted to put say 400 taps on this realeaser, you would probably need a vacuum pump with more cfm's, say 6 cfm. With that pump, the dump-duration may be a fair bit longer due to the increased amount of vacuum free-flow. Therefore, with a larger vacuum pump, I would likely need to increase the diameter of the relief valve hole to compensate for this. This, in turn, might require a larger float with more bouyancy to pop the relief valve.

Things tend to snow-ball here... Some sort of manifold to prevent free-flowing the vacuum pump during a dump (any input here DennisH?) might be an alternative.

[bees1st]

I'd like to know where you found a piece of 12" pvc ?

[jrgagne99]

When I built the releaser it 3 years ago, FW Webb had it.

[NDGraaf]

What did you use for your top cover and how big is the gasket?

[jrgagne99]

Bump....

Top cover is a piece of PVC sheet-stock cut into a circle. The top-cover gasket (blue rubber) is about 3/8" diameter cross-section. Smaller dia. would probably work fine, but I found that one lying around so I used it.


Tapped yesterday in Enfield NH, had 28 inches of vacuum after fixing a few leaks (2/24/13)

[RunInCircles]

This eBay seller appears to sell any diameter PVC by the foot:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/swamppgas/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686

Were you able to buy just the 24" you needed from FW Webb?

[jrgagne99]

Sort of. I bought a 4-foot section from salvage, and actually built two of them, one for a friend.

[tjg]

Would love to see pics of your homeade RO.

[maplesyrupstove]

I build a releaser like yours,jrgagne99 . Used 8 inch pipe 24 inches long,2 pieces of 1/2 inch glass.The float is 4 inch PVC pipe 12 inches long with 2 caps and a piece of 1/2 PVC pipe in the middle, to slide on the rod.The dump valve is 1 1/2 inch check valve on two 45 degrees elbows.Got a 3/4 check valve on the pipeline to hold the vacuum when it dumps.It dump around 3 gallons each dump, and dumps in 10 seconds.My little pump is 1/4 HP, 5CFM it cost 160 dollars on ebay , the mailman brought it right to my door.It is on 220 taps on 1200 feet of 3/4 inch main line.It runs at 20 inches of vacuum when I got all the leaks fixed.I try to put a video on here but can't get it to load. There are pictures in my photobucket, in the 2013 year.

[maplesyrupstove]

I cut the groove on the top of the pipe for the o ring with my router.The o ring is the rubber ring out of the little bucket cover, just the right size. Darrell

[small_operator]

Maplesyrupstove, I like your sap sucker pump in photobucket. where did you find that pump. I'm building a releaser similar to what you described. I'm curious as to what size vent hole you have. Following the discussion, i didn't realize that it would be so critical to get the right size. One thought I had was to use a two stage vent, so the vac is broken with a small opening followed by a larger one. The thought didn't get much further than that. Wasn't sure how to implement it. Also trying to figure a way to use the vacuum to operate controls maybe use two releasers in alternate. Did you use glass or plexiglass for the ends. I'm thnking 1/2" plexi, but want to make sure it's strong enough.

[maplesyrupstove]

I used a 7/16 hole ,same as the plan he had and used 1/2 inch plexiglass . My sap sucker pump came from Home Hardware Stove for 70 dollars.I had on it my taps and it pulls 14 inches but had some leaks still.I have to try it again with the leaks fix.Last year I had a little tank for vacuum tank and it was only on 75 taps.With 220 taps and 1200 feet of 3/4 pipe I don't need a vacuum tank.The plexiglass is 10 by 10 and 2 pieces cost 40 dollars.When my releaser dumps it take about 15 seconds ,and it start to suck sap again.Works great for me.

[maplesyrupstove]

Made a new video of my sap sucker pump today.It was pulling 16 inches today when I fix all the leaks,Haul 1 1/2 barrels of sap today.

[Eric Schoembs]

Tell me about your $150 vaccum pump. Does it run off of 12 volt power? The reason that I ask is that my sugar house is far from power and I currently have everything running off of 12 volt deep cycle boat batteries that get recharged by solar panels. I would love to set up vacuum without having to run a generator.

Eric Schoembs
Fairfield,VT

[jrgagne99]

I used a 7/16 hole ,same as the plan he had and used 1/2 inch plexiglass . My sap sucker pump came from Home Hardware Stove for 70 dollars.I had on it my taps and it pulls 14 inches but had some leaks still.I have to try it again with the leaks fix.Last year I had a little tank for vacuum tank and it was only on 75 taps.With 220 taps and 1200 feet of 3/4 pipe I don't need a vacuum tank.The plexiglass is 10 by 10 and 2 pieces cost 40 dollars.When my releaser dumps it take about 15 seconds ,and it start to suck sap again.Works great for me.

Glad to see it working out for you maplesyrupstove! Just wondering what that canister is on the inlet side? A filter of some kind?

Regarding the question about vent-hole size, it needs to be big enough to allow more air than your pump can free-flow, otherwise the releaser won't dump well. Also, the float needs to provide enough buoyancy to pop the valve up against the vacuum. 29 iwg of vacuum (or 14.5 psi top-side pressure) on a 7/16" diameter hole requires about 2.2 lbs to pop. So a feather-light 1-liter float is the minimum required, but 2 liter would be preferred. Bigger holes require bigger floats. Then don't forget that the spring on top needs to be stiff enough to support the rod, but supple enough to allow the float to compress it once all the water drains.

Also a word to the wise is to apply food-grade grease to the vent-valve o-ring in the off season. Mine dried out over the summer and got kind of stiff. I needed to replace it this year.

[maplesyrupstove]

That a 3/4 inch brass check valve on the mainline to hold my vacuum , when it dumps.If that is what you means. Darrell

[Moser's Maple]

thanks Tim
here's my version of a sump pump electric releaser
hope this helps out anybody wanting to build one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l4hQHhjG9k

[Tmeeeh]

thanks Tim
here's my version of a sump pump electric releaser
hope this helps out anybody wanting to build one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l4hQHhjG9k

Jake,

Really good job! It looks like it will work very well. I finally rewired the float switch relay control circuit on mine and it works even better than it did before.

What brand of conductivity switches did you use and where did you get them?

I will be pumping sap 1/2 mile to the sugar house and want to control the pump that does that. I wonder if the conductivity switch might work better than the float switches in the sap tank. I think the float switch would be damaged by ice in the tank where the conductivity switches might not.

[Moser's Maple]

here ya go tim
http://www.sumppumpsdirect.com/Images/HydroCheck-HC6000/i12358.html

[Moser's Maple]

hey what about some pics of your new wiring set up so I can get an idea of what you were trying to explain to me

[Tmeeeh]

hey what about some pics of your new wiring set up so I can get an idea of what you were trying to explain to me

Here is a drawing of the circuit. It uses one relay as a "latch" to control the second relay. The second relay sends power to the pump. The way it works is when the bottom float switch closes the coils on both relays become connected to the neutral power supply. The relay circuit is not complete until the upper float switch closes and connects the other side of the coils to 120 volt power (L1) Once the relay coil circuit is complete, the relays are activated. The activated relay coils cause 220 (L1 and L2)volt power to turn on the pump. As the sap level inside the booster tank falls because the sap is being pumped out to the sap tank the upper float switch opens. The relay coil circuit remains complete and the pump stays on because the single pole relay is closed (latched in the on position) causing 120 volt (L1) power to go through the the contacts of the single pole relay to the coils of both relays. Once the sap level falls enough to open the bottom float switch the relay coils are disconnected from the neutral power supply. With the neutral power supply disconnected from the relay coils both relay switches unlatch and open. Once the relays are open the pump is disconnected from 220 volt power (L1 and L2). I wired in a manual switch so I can manually control the pump as needed.

This circuit works well as long as the relay contacts remain clean and you don't break the float switches while you are washing out the sap extractor. I understand CDL is using conductivity switches in their electric releasers. The conductivity switches can fail if they get gunked up with old sap. Just keep the contact sensors clean.
8441

[ryebrye]

This is a very clever releaser design.

I like the idea of having atmospheric pressure + gravity dump out the sap.

Have you ever thought about using this in combination with a liquid sensor and solenoid valve instead of a float? That's what I'm toying with now. Something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-Inch-Plastic-Electric-Air-Gas-Water-Solenoid-Valve-Normally-Closed-12V-DC-/111122910537

+ a liquid sensor. You could have it use a timer, or for more consistent releases have two liquid sensors and some relays to have it basically start draining at the top one and stop draining when it gets below the bottom one.

I'm toying with building one with that kind of a setup - it'd be a pretty low powered releaser since the pumping is done by mother nature and the only power used is a very small amount of power to hold a solenoid open when it releases. You might be able to power it with a battery for a whole season.

[jrgagne99]

Necroing my own thread here...

I've been running my homemade releaser for about 10 years with decent success. This year I'm monitoring it much more closely with a webcam on my smartphone. After a dump, it quickly re-establishes a vacuum level of 25 inHg typically within about 5 minutes. During decent runs, it takes about 30 minutes to fill up the releaser, at which point the float begins to push up on the stick with the gas-fitting popper valve on it. This causes a small leak in the popper valve that tends to drop the vacuum level slowly until it is low enough (or enough additional sap has flowed in to increase the float's buoyancy force) to pop and trigger a release. This leak-down process can take up to 15 minutes, during which the vacuum is dropping approximately linearly from 25 inches down to about 15 inches. My question is, aside from not running constant high vacuum 100% of the available time, is there a second order effect on the trees that a cyclic vacuum cycle such as this can have? For what it's worth, I'm running clear CV2 spouts and my drops are 3 years old. During the leak-down leading up to a release event, I do see the bubbles in the lateral lines traveling backwards, but not really up the drops.

I attached a schematic of the releaser for reference.
21121

[iby]

I can't speak to this with any scientific evidence, but I know I have seen things "STOP" after releasing the vacuum on a lateral line. sometimes it takes upwards of 15-20 minutes after vacuum is reestablished for trees to start flowing again...

on my homemade releaser, I have a 3/4" solenoid valve to depressurize things... IF i could only find a normally open mechanical ball valve, I would install it on the mainline to keep the vacuum while dumping.

and btw.... I read this thread a couple months ago when I was doing research into making my own releaser... Thanks for starting this thread and all the great information you shared.. it was very helpful for me :)

[jrgagne99]

The issue is that when the float is high enough to begin popping the popper, it creates a small leak that drops the vacuum level slightly in the releaser. The inlet check valve closes, preserving vacuum in the trees, but also preventing additional sap from coming in. It isn't until the trees leak down enough that the check valve opens again, lets a bit more sap in, the popper goes up some more, leak gets worse, check valve closes, lines leak down, lather rinse repeat, until the buoyancy is high enough to finally pop the popper. On medium days such as today, this process takes upwards 20-minutes, even though the releaser itself fills up after just 15 minutes...

[DocsMapleSyrup]

Iby

How is your solenoid triggered? Can you explain your setup further. I’m trying to figure out how to depressurize the canister to get the canister to empty more quickly than to have a slow leak until the float finally breaks the vacuum by forcing the gas fitting upward.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to depressurize the vacuum releaser quickly that is mechanical as I have no power in my woods?