Vacuum set up??

[butler]

Hi guys...looking for some advice for my future set up...I currently have 3 ..500'... 3/4" mainlines with laterals ..each main is fed by around 100-130 taps. Each gravity set up is on a different corner of my 100 acres..all sections are downhill from my cabin. My plan I'd to do vacuum next year...but not doer the best way to capture these different areas...do I need three different pumps and releases ....1 for each section? Any advice would be great.

[JoeJ]

Your woods sound like my spread out system. 985 taps on my sugar house land. Five releasers and five collection tanks. 125 taps run to the sugar house. I pump sap from 280 taps 350' uphill to the sugar house and I have 3 other tanks to collect sap from with my tractor, trailer and sap tank. It was an expensive set up over 8 years, but the system works, just time consuming.

You can run all of the taps that you have on one pump located at the sugar house. Pipe your vacuum to each remote tank location and releaser with large vacuum dry line. Good luck. Gotta work with what you have

[butler]

How far can the releases be from the vacuum pump? And in my case...from the releases to the pump would be uphill...will this work...how high can vacuum pull uphill or can it at all?

[wiam]

My releaser is 1600' from pump, up over a hill. You just need to use correct vacuum line size based on number of taps.

[butler]

Ok ..that's good for me...so do I have this right...I would have 4-5 lines coming in to the vacuum pump...one from each releaser .....how do I connect all these lines to the vacuum pump at the cabin?

[JoeJ]

. Determine the distance that you are going to have to transfer the vacuum to each releaser and then size the vacuum lines according to the number of taps on that line and how far you need to transfer the vacuum. I would suggest coming off vacuum pump with at least 2" if not 3" pipe. Then, you make a manifold with 2" or 3" pipe and install either 2" x or 3" x (1 1/4", or 1 1/2") y's with long sweep 90" to cut down on line loss. A short radius 90 degree elbow will reduce your vacuum.

How long are your runs out to the releaser locations? I would probably suggest nothing smaller than 1 1'4" pipe depending on the distance.

[butler]

I would say my longest run to a Releaser would be around 1000' . So your saying make a manifold with a couple y's and then attach each line to the manifold and then attach the manifold to the pump? Does anyone have pics of something like this...would really help me visualize.

[JoeJ]

Sorry, no pictures. With 4 or 5 lines from your vacuum pump, it becomes a very custom build. I would start off the pump with a long sweep 90 to bring your manifold line to horizontal, then a check valve if your are going to use an oil cooled vacuum pump, a tee for the vacuum regulator, a tee for a vacuum gauge, then you can start installing your 4 y's with long sweep 90's and then 1 long sweep 90 off the end of last y for the last run. Each line should have a shut off valve. Buy a pump big enough if there is any room for expansion.

[butler]

Thanks...I think I am starting to figure this out...pretty daunting...having never used one!

[BreezyHill]

butler, I will get you some pics to day while things are running. My longest run to a bush is 2800' on the southern most end of my property. I rebuild vac pumps ad have found that 3" pvc is the best product for manifolds. The vac transfer from 3" is out standing and the extra capacity acts as a balance tank. Side walls are easily drilled and tapped for ay size mainline. The worst scenario is to use the same size pipe of of your pump and then split off from there. This severally limits your vac transfer which in turn limits production.

Vacuum can pull up hill. Air infinitely but sap only 12" for every inch of vacuum available. I have to elevate sap 112 feet to get this section of a bush to the sugar house. This is done thru ladders in a 7 ladder series. Total umber of tapes on this system is currently 287. I am currently doing a test on a dry line for the ladder system with mixed results. So far spider ladders seems to be working the best. Total mainline length of the ladder section is 1200'.

I run a tight system...that is when trees are not falling in the wind storms and pulling lines of saddles, or deer are not scratching on the saddles. Max seal with bolt kit helps keep the saddles on this season so far. Yesturday the system was running at 27-28+" on a delaval.

I have to run because the temps here didn't freeze and it ran all night and I have to switch tanks. I will get pics and post them for you.

Ben

[butler]

Sounds like your bush is similar to mine....what size pipe would I run from my releasers to the manifold ....each section is around 150 taps approx...and the piping from the releaser to the pump...do you use high tensile wire or does it not really matter because no sap will be in the line? Look forward to the pics...thanks again guys.