Small Vacuum Build?

[Tappy Sap Master]

Would this work? My releaser pulls & discharges from the bottom only. I am adding the manifold this year.10221

[Dennis H.]

This was an old Bender setup that I had run for a couple of years. Worked good and it looks like what you have drawn up.

http://mapletrader.com/maplegallery/member-galleries/p541-small-bender.html
http://mapletrader.com/maplegallery/member-galleries/p542-small-bender.html

[BreezyHill]

If you are looking to get the most out of your system there are a few things you need to change,
I don't see the check valve for the pump to keep all oil from reaching the sap area...install between pump and trap.
I would use 2" between the pump and the releaser... Two reasons: You want to limit the affect of friction on the system for maximum vacuum transfer.
The larger diameter pipe will act as a balance tank to limit the equalization time of the releaser to the sap system.

Vacuum primarily has a linier flow characteristic to the center of a pipe. The elbows that you show in the diagram look like 90 shorts...use a sweep elbow to limit the affect of friction on the flow. a @" long sweep will have the leas affect on flow.

I am only seeing one point of sap coming into the manifold. As long as the manifold is tipped toward the outlet of sap to the releaser then I do not see a benefit to having three outlets to the releaser. Fewer connections are less locations for leaks to occur and it saves on fittings and build time.

I like the 1" size from the manifold to the releaser...for best flow remember to limit the number of elbows and have the drain pipe as large as possible to get as rapid of a discharge as possible.

My old system had a 2" dump line and cycled in 3 seconds for 30 oz. It would handle 450 taps with a slight backup in the manifold system on a surge bb2 that ran right around 23-24 inches. When I increased the size of the lines from the pump to the manifold I had a sizable increase in production The releaser feed through a balance tank that was 21 times larger and would bring the releaser to vac level in under a second thru a tube that was very much undersized and was a limiting factor of the unit.

My new system for 2014 has a 3" pvc connection to the moisture trap and 2" to the releaser and 1.5" to the sap manifold and the dry manifold. I use a Delaval 75 and 73 pumps. Around 600 taps last season and 1100 for this season. I have an Alamo 100 plus as a standby unit for this season.

What kind of pump are you using and what vac level?

[Tappy Sap Master]

Its a cheap harbor freight pump it will pull 26" no problem, but the releaser i have cant take anymore then 17-18" HG or it wont reset. Thats why i have the gate valves so i can regulate more vac to the releaser than the manifold, making it priority.

[BreezyHill]

Make a priority for vacuum will be fine if the releaser is consuming the extra cfms. If it does not then you will need a vac regulator on the line to the releaser to keep the vac level low enough. it will be a balancing act at best...the use of a smaller line to the releaser will assist in this balance act if not using a regulator.

Ben

[Swampmapleman]

What pump are you using from harbor frieght?

Matt

[Tappy Sap Master]

Its one of those ac vac pumps.

[WESTMAPLES]

if its a bender and you want it to cycle under 20-26 inches of vac add more weight to the center shaft above the second clip mark in my case i just doubled the original amount of weight it used to cycle. and yes benders do have to have a small vac leak by the top cover ( they are designed that way) so that when its done dumping the float weight can break the closing vac to reset the cycle. i worried at first that benders would hangup alot and they didn`t at all, and both my vac pumps are turned on by timers without human aid. the most i did was add a check valve on the sap intake line to prevent backflow of sap during dumping cycles and the upped production alot with shorter cycle times they are neat inexspensive units if you have patients to set them up right.

[Tappy Sap Master]

Its a milk bucket claw releaser from partsdept.com. I tried adding weight last season to the float rod did not work.