Remote bush and ro's

[butler]

My sugar camp is run by a 6500 generator. Runs my lights, filter press etc....is it possible to add an RO to this mix or electricity a must for an RO upgrade. Looking to get an or for next year...

[jmayerl]

Ro's run on 220 so you would need to do a load calculation. Second option would be a gas powered ray gengerich RO

[butler]

I thought some of the hobby ro's run on 110 ...

[VT_K9]

We have a CDL Hobby RO 250 and run it with a generator. The problems are not necessarily running the RO. Even a 6500 generator can run some 220 equipment. The primary concern is freezing. If you are not careful you may end up causing damage because you did not drain the RO properly. We fired up our RO last thursday for the first time with the assistance of a rep from CDL. I could easily see where a heat lamp would be beneficial, but if your careful and pick your times to run the machine you should be okay. They talk about using a cloth with hot water wrapped around the motor prior to starting it on cooler days. Tomorrow we are going to run ours for the first time with sap.

Mike

[maple flats]

If you decide to get either a small electric or a Ray Gingerich gas powered RO, you must have heat to prevent it from freezing. You might need t small insulated room with a small propane heater in it. I understand one company (CDL I think) makes a small RO that is designed to drain and can be used where you have no heated room. That was available in 100 and 200 GPH sizes I believe.
I started with a gas Ray Gingerich 250 GPH RO, then I got grid power at the sugarhouse and converted it to 240V electric. The gas engine is now one I use on my vacuum pumps in the bush.

[butler]

I guess I can run an ro with a generator...but I hear you have to do these long rinses over night....wouldn't you burn a ton of gas...I also heard if you run the to with a generator it can void the warranty...any truth to that?

[VT_K9]

In follow up to my post above and the post above this one....we used our RO (CDL Hobby 250) for the first time today. We ran about 275 gallons of sap through it. One batch was gathered over the last couple of weeks and the other (about 70 gallons) was over the last couple of days. The sugar content in the first batch was 1.75% and 2.25% in the second one. I ran the sap through the RO twice (50/50 each time) and the combined sugar content was 6.75 with approximately 60 gallons of sap to boil.

We use a 6500 watt generator to run it and it runs on 110. No issues. Clean up...run it for a 10 minute quick rinse with permeate, fill a 5 gallon pail with permeate and RO soap. Run the soap solution until the machine shuts down (while reaching a temp of 84 degrees). This step took about 1 hour and we started with low temp solution and warmed it up about 45 minutes into the process. Then we rinsed with about 100 gallons of permeate. We opened all drain points and not it sits until the next time.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[butler]

Awesome..very helpful info...makes me realize it's very doable with my set up...did you guys get info on whether or not your warranty is still good if you run the RO with a generator?

[VT_K9]

We did not ask the specific question. When the CDL rep. came down he saw it was run off a generator. He did not say anything, where as he did bring up other points of concern to help maintain warranty coverage...such as the prefilter. He recommended using their 20" filter and cutting it in half as opposed to using once from a hardware store.

I agree some equipment does not handle all generators well. You may have to watch out for how your generator produces electricity.

Mike

[Diesel Pro]

I run my home built RO with my Honda UE2000i

[lastwoodsman]

In follow up to my post above and the post above this one....we used our RO (CDL Hobby 250) for the first time today. We ran about 275 gallons of sap through it. One batch was gathered over the last couple of weeks and the other (about 70 gallons) was over the last couple of days. The sugar content in the first batch was 1.75% and 2.25% in the second one. I ran the sap through the RO twice (50/50 each time) and the combined sugar content was 6.75 with approximately 60 gallons of sap to boil.

We use a 6500 watt generator to run it and it runs on 110. No issues. Clean up...run it for a 10 minute quick rinse with permeate, fill a 5 gallon pail with permeate and RO soap. Run the soap solution until the machine shuts down (while reaching a temp of 84 degrees). This step took about 1 hour and we started with low temp solution and warmed it up about 45 minutes into the process. Then we rinsed with about 100 gallons of permeate. We opened all drain points and not it sits until the next time.

Hope this helps.

Mike

I am plumbing my 250 ro Rays this week-end. Any photos of your setup sure could help. I am a little hesitate on the setup process although I will stumble through it.

I will run mine on my onan 6500 genrator as well. I run my well on 220 as well. I feed the lights with what ever I have running like my Generac 3500/ Burns less gas. But if the Onan is running I plug everything into it. As it is all not pulling power at the same time anyway. I have a 6 gallon hot water heater on 220 I run with the Onan as well. 15 minutes and I have all the hot water I need.

[Brent]

I have seen the claims that some RO's can be drained and allowed to freeze without damage. There are 2 issues.
1) drain the pumps, tanks, hoses, filters etc to avoid mechanical damage due to freeze expansion.
2) to avoid ice crystals damaging the membranes. I have searched the web sites of membrane manufacturers and none of the them say you can freeze the membranes. ( I acknowledge I may have missed one) I think the damage will be cumulative. The membranes will likely pass more sugar every time they are allowed to freeze.

IMHO you have to keep them heated or take them home with you every night after flushing the sugars out, regardless of claims that you can let them freeze.