Lapierre Releaser Manifold Came Apart

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday late afternoon, I was at the woods and watched the releaser (single vertical) dump multiple times w/ no issue...sap was runnin pretty good. Went back this morning to check on things, and found the plunger end of the manifold cap laying on the board the releaser sits on...not sure how it came off overnight. We got about 400 gallons overnight, so the releaser must've worked most of the night. Moisture trap was full of sap, and the ball sucked in. Put the end cap/plunber back on, and everything working fine. My wife checked the releaser at 9:30 and still working. We're running 26.5" of vac. It snowed overnight and no tracks in the snow from someone taking it off...also figuring someone would need to know that part came off to know to take it off. If it got below freezing last night, it wasn't by much, nor long.

Has anyone seen this happen before? We've been using the releaser for four seasons now and have never seen this happen before.

Thanks

[unc23win]

Haven't had that happen. Its threaded isn't it? Maybe just put some teflon tape on it?

[Amber Gold]

not threaded. it slides over an o-ring on the manifold tee. It slides over pretty hard and have never seen it come off/loosen up before.

[ejmaple]

ya that is my only complaint with my new lapiere releaser i think it should be threaded. mine seems to stay on under vac but without just the little tension from the main pulls it apart, i had to prop up the main line to ease the tension.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

We have a bernard single vertical that happened to. The releaser is about 10 years old and happened shortly after we bought it. I think when the temp. gets down close to freezing their is some ice buildup around the piston and that is the cause of it. We wrapped electrical tape around the end 10 yrs ago and it hasn't happened since. Neil

[Dennis H.]

Maybe that is why they are making the new hobby releaser the way in the pic.
there is a machined groove around the inside of the fittings and on the outside of the male side of the connection. Then a length of 1/16 tubing is pushed in thru a slot cut into the fitting all the way around the inside.
Can't pull apart unless you pull out that 1/16 tubing.

[Amber Gold]

Dennis, that whole end section on the right of the manifold popped off, and their solution would certainly fix the problem. On mine, those fittings just slide over an o-ring. I wonder if this solution will make it into all of their releasers. I have noticed that pulling these high vac. levels, the releaser tripping can be much more aggressive than when it's pulling 22".

[briansickler]

My Hobby Double has the same retainers as Dennis'. They can't come off unless you pull the retainer out.
Brian

[Amber Gold]

It almost happened again while I was there watching it this morning. I took the manifold apart to clear out any ice/mist/whatever to make sure it'd function properly when sap started to run. When I get it back together, I like to trip it a couple of times to make sure it's working. The first tim it tripped, I watched the end section of the manifold almost slide off, then get sucked back in. What I think is happening is the plunger sticks for a second (frozen in place probably), then all of a sudden releases and slams against the end cap of the manifold. I'm guessing this isn't the first time it's happened, and it doesn't appear to have damaged anything yet, but I'll need to rig something up to keep the end cap from being able to move. Maybe it being able to move is a good thing??? It relieves some of the force when the plunger sticks...maybe if the end cap was fixed, the plunger would slam back hard enough to bend break something?? Not sure, but if Lapierre's now putting hard connections in each of the locations where the manifold can come apart, they must not be worried about it, unless they've changed something I'm not aware about.

[briansickler]

The cylinder should be taken apart and lubed on a daily basis according to a lapierre video I watched regarding maintaining releasers. Maybe it's not lubed enough? Could an o-ring be out of shape or position and sticking?

Brian

[Brian Ryther]

Same thing has happened to several of my Laiperre Releasers. They have odviously seen that there is a problem and have found a solution with the retaining ring. They should recall all of the old ones and replace our old style. Nothing worse then finding the exploded plunger guts on the ground.

[Amber Gold]

Pulled apart and lubed on a regular basis...most every morning.

Brian, has anything been damaged when it's come apart?

[Brian Ryther]

7193
Broken shuttle.

[maplwrks]

I have a single Lapierre releaser and have never seen this. I will try to help you out though. I run high vac on mine and see this thing act much differently then when they are being demo'd at an open house. I have to wonder if the "t"at the top of the vessel is freezing up under high vac. When the plunger slams back in to send vac back to vessel, it is hitting an ice "dam", pushing the plunger out. When I watched my releaser operate, a splash of sap would hit the top of the vessel and a little would go into the "t" where the plunger operates. I adjusted the lock collars on the float rod so that the releaser would not fill quite as full. It still splashes under high vac, but doesn't splash up into the t. Check the o rings on the end of the plunger, make sure they don't have cracks to allow air to leak by. If this still happens, I would try cleaning and degreasing the o ring and the part that slides over it. I would not lube these 2 areas. It's hard to help w/o seeing it operate, but I hope this helps.

Brian==I have never sen a shuttle crack like that!!

[Brian Ryther]

Mike,
I have two sinlgle horizontal and one verticle. The horizontal have a nice feature that alows the user to adjust the air flow to the shuttle. You can adjust, choke down, the air flow to the shuttle so that the shuttle will not close until a few seconds after all of the sap has exited the extractor. Thus eliminating the splash back caused by premature closing of the dump flap. However, I still see vapor caused by the rapid change in atsmospheric pressure. When it is cold, like last Friday when it was 31* and running buckets, the vapors freeze in the "T" area as you described and do exactly as you estimated. The vapors freeze and restrict movement of the shuttle, causing the shuttle to burst out the back of the "T".

[Brian Ryther]

Update. I sent a photo to Shaws Maple Products, they sent it to Lapierre, Lapierre sent me a new "T" / shuttle. It is the new style with the retaining rings. I am happy with the service from both Shaws and Lapierre.

[Amber Gold]

Ditto what Brian said on his post from the other day. I also think this is what's happening.

[unc23win]

Brian thats awesome you got a new part. Sounds like you got some good customer service that doesn't happen as often as it should these days.

[pipeline]

at low temps and high vac you will rip your hair out with these releaser valves and they are around 250.00 when broken!! we are running heat tapes on 2 of ours and a little buddy propane heater on another. no problems as long as the heat stays on!! shouldnt be any problems this weekend !! better get your running shoes on !!!!

[Amber Gold]

Been running this releaser for five seasons now and never had this problem before...always been outside w/ no heat. This year, I've found it off the releaser three times, and watched it almost come off another time. This morning, I go to the pump and no vac., go to the releaser and manifold's apart. I've thought about ziptying it on there, but I question if I do that if I'll break something. I figure, if the manifold can come off, it's relieving the force of the shuttle slamming against it. If I zip-ty the manifold on and the shuttle slams against it, I wonder if it'll break something instead. Thoughts?? Still plenty of season left.

[Brian Ryther]

Tie it on there. The new / modified versions have lioking rings on them to prevent them from pushing apart.

[Dave Y]

You may need to replace the o-ring where it goes together. If I am understanding correctly where it is pushing apart. Call Eric Miller at Lapierre USA in Swanton. He should be able to help you.

[Dennis H.]

Yeah good luck with calling Lapierre in Swanton.
I had a SS ball valve freeze and split that goes between the flue pan and the syrup pan.
I found a SS valve locally that is a lot beefier. But I had to shorten the pipe that goes from the SS valve and the syrup pan float box.
Since I made it shorter I wanted to have another on hand just in case I ever had to replace the valve again and it happens to be smaller than the one I am using now.
I called Tom up there and ordered it. 1 week later and still no reply if it was sent of even if they had it. Made a call and He said he had it and he was just waiting for my credit card info. So I gave him that info and now it has been over 2 weeks and I do not have anything yet.
I do need to make a call.

So if you do call up there good luck.

[philkasza]

Everyone running over 25 in. of vac HAVE TO LUBE ALL MOVING PARTS ON THE RELEASER EVERYDAY (or every 12 hrs.)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have also had one come apart this year so we quickly relubed everything, cleaned the ice off of the end of the plunger AND we wired it together so it would not come apart. It worked very smooth after this. One key is to use very low viscosity oil to lube - don't freeze as fast. Just my experience and 2 cents with high vac.
Samuel