Bit the Bullet and Bought a press

[Cindee]

After reading everyone's comments regarding the filtering process and posting my tale of woes about filtering using the usual stack of filter papers we bought a Wes Fab hand pump. The hand pump is $400 cheaper than the electric one but we only finish 2-2.5 gals a day so this will certainly meet our needs. Last night we set it up with papers and ran hot water through it to remove any machining debris and we did have some show up on the filters. I wanted to thank all of those who for the past year listen to be P&M about the filtering process taking 6 hours and now I can do a gal a minute. We still have 4 feet of snow in the woods here in Northern WI and I was told yesterday they do not see us tapping until the first week in April....we will see about that :D

[Michael Greer]

Having the right sized equipment is so nice. Post a couple pictures of your set-up. It might be the right thing for my operation.

[Four D Acre Farms]

Congrats on the new filter press! You will surely love it compared to the old way. We bought a full bank wes fab last season definitly good investment, we had the hand pump model the season before and after 40 gals we decided we needed somthing bigger. We have 3+ feet of snow in the woods but the weather may turn for us in the northern part of the lower in mi mid march. Lord willing. well good luck in your season. We did break the handle on the hand pump with late season syrup, it was an older used pump, hopefully you dont have that issue. Keep the syrup up to temp when filtering

[BreezyHill]

I also have a wes fab. Great product...but the hand pump will get old fast. Bought a gear pump on ebay for $70 with a rebuild kit that will fit another pump I have.
The hand pump will be fine at first but when the press starts to plug it gets tougher, then it gets really hard as you get to the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I like to press as it comes off when doing batch draws as it is hot and goes well. Continuous draw is more tricky to mix in DE and pump while all is hot.

Best Wishes on the new investment!

Ben

[WESTMAPLES]

yeah I went overkill and bought a mint WES fab 10 in short stack filter press with transfer valve for using it as a transfer pump for syrup . it was a super good deal ive used it with half the plates in its because it was doing small amounts, or all the plates when my friends needed there bulk syrup filtered for a couple bucks. but next year its an RO and 500 more taps for me. so I didin`t want to pay full price for 7 in short bank or full bank press to only have to sell it in 3 years to upgrade. im looking at going big with maple syrup in years to come.