Sap Lifting Tanks vs. Sap Ladder with Stars

[Welikit Farm]

We are new to this site and have spent some time reading about sap ladders and what we could find about sap lifting tanks.

We were wondering what others experiences were with lifting sap, what are the pros and cons of each way? We have taken a break from sugar making but will be tapping again this coming winter. This will be our first year ever using vacuum so we are trying to set our sugar bushes up for some expansion and to buy equipment with this in mind.

What are your thoughts and experiences?

Thanks,

Sam

[Sunday Rock Maple]

We put in sap ladders in a new install last year. The largest has 350 taps and lifts sap 11' over two lifts about 200 feet apart. Each lift is two 1" pipes with no venting. They worked well but we had 26" of vacuum before the lift and 18" after. Lapierre has a video for a "reverse slope releaser" on their website that I'd like to try -- but not this year....

[Russell Lampron]

I have used the 2 pipe and star sap ladders and also experimented with a sap lifter tank. They all work but the lifter tank was prone to freezing and took too long to thaw out. I had good vacuum transfer through the 2 pipe ladder only losing 1" after the ladder even with it vented. I only have 18 taps on a star ladder and didn't have a noticeable vacuum loss.

[Welikit Farm]

We are planning on having two set ups lifting 200 taps each, one is a 4' lift the other about 7'. Russell thanks for your response, we were reading about your 2 pipe lift, but we couldn't find much for details about it. Do you think that it would work for 200 taps or more, we can expand the one bush to 400 with some more work next year. What do you think? Pro? Cons? Thanks for your help.

Sam