simple plumbing/electric belly releaser question

[Ryan Mahar]

I am being advised to use a belly releaser with pump from 'leader' to use as a means of sap collection for a set up where my lines are coming in 30 feet below my sugarhouse and 300' away. Rather than a traditional mechanical releaser/tank and buying separate pump to pump to sugarhouse. Supposedly this will be more economical / practical to send the sap to the sugarhouse tank.

My question is: How does the line from the releaser to the sugarhouse not freeze at night? The line does not get pumped dry and would'nt a check valve leave the line full for freeze up at night in the cold little valley where all this sap is coming to?

thanks for any experienced advice!!

[brookledge]

Is the location of the releaser going to be heated? I feel if you are going to use a belly releaser with a pump you will definately need to have it heated. But you are correct in saying the 300 foot line needs to drain out otherwise it remains full of sap and will freeze up solid at night. I suppose if you are able to be there every night when things freeze up you could have a drain valve to let it drain out before freeze up.
Personally from the info you gave me I'd put a standard releaser and let it drop into a storage tank. Then pump up to sugarhouse when you need to. That could then drain back every time it shut off
Keith

[morningstarfarm]

Tee in a ball valve as close to your check valve as possible...then you can drain the line nightly...down side is that you will have 5-10 gals to carry back...but your lines won't freeze...and yes your elec releaser and pump will need to be heated..

[Ryan Mahar]

So if I put in a drain valve just 'upstream' from the check valve, could I not just drain the 5-10 gallons into five gallon buckets and carry to sugarhouse?? So this way the line is drained completely? I will have very small building to house the releaser and pump so this should not freeze at all. My main concern was the line? THanks guys for the help here!

[brookledge]

Another thing you could do if you didn't want to carry the sap up is drain it back into buckets leave them in the building. Put a valve into one of your releasers port with a short hose then in the morning suck the sap out of the buckets.
The reason I suggested going with the regular releaser is that you never know whaen it is going to freeze up. So as long as you are able to keep checking it through the night you will be fine
Keith

[extracto]

One other thing you can do is to run your pump line inside another pipe. Then run water (you'll need access to some flowing water) down through the pipe. Exit the water next to the pump shed. Use heat tape ouy to that point. Pipe won't freeze. The best answer is what someone already said. That is useto pump your extractor into a tank and then pump from there with a second pump up to your sugar house. Remove the check valve from the second pump so the line drains back into the lower tank. Only drawback is you lose a little sap when you clean. Done this for 30 years with 4500 taps