hand pump filter press

[Baker]

Hey everyone knew to this site.this will be my 3rd yr and I'm looking to possibly get a hand pump filter press.any suggestions? Are they worth the $900?pro's and cons?what size? I run about 80 taps Mostly sap sacks.I bin using the orlon and prefilters and they work pretty good.but I hate the Hassel of them.I do all most everything by my self so anything to make it a lil easier on me Lol.thank you in advance

[Sugarmaker]

The hand filter pumps work very well. Check with Daryl.
Regards,
Chris

[WESTMAPLES]

ive seen hand pump units in operation they are a nice step up from cone filters and such, but for $900 i would look around to see if you could pickup a used electric powered unit. less hand pumping but anything is better than fighting with clogged cone filters

[Smitty8377]

I got my hand press from Maple Guys and has worked great for me. Cheapest price I've seen for a syrup press

[WESTMAPLES]

or atleast if you lived out this way you could pickup a electirc unit for under $ 900 theres a handful of them posted under the classifieds and even spotted a few on craigslist most are listed in the NE area but you maybe able to have a seller ship it out your way and good luck with whatever you decide

[Baker]

Thanks westmaples.I will have to look in to that.I went to the maple guys website.found one for $550.the maple jet. defenetly more in my budget.lol.any one else have experience with this model?I usually only filter 2 to 3 gal at a time.

[Baker]

Who is Daryl?does he have a Web site?

[Schiefe4]

http://www.sugarbush.info/forsale/showproduct.php?product=49&title=5-26quot-3b-hand-filter-press&cat=5

This is Daryl

[nymapleguy607]

I have one of Daryl's presses and have to say it is night and day compared to cone filters. For 80 taps it is probably over kill for you unless you plan on saving all your syrup until you have enough to filter. I filter mine as it comes off the evaporator, early season I was typically using 1 or 2 filter plates, but by the end of the season I was using all of the banks. Daryl's press is all aluminium so if you ever had the desire to replace the hand pump for electric you could. The press that I saw the malpe guys selling had a plastic plate. It will really come down to what are your future plans, are you going to expand your number of taps, are you planning on selling in glass? If the answers are no then I would consider staying with cone filters or buying a filtering tank and using flat filters. If your set on a press I would highly recommend you spend the extra money and buy one of Daryl's.

[Russell Lampron]

I've got the Wes Fab 7" hand pump filter press. I have replaced the hand pump with an air powered double diaphragm pump now. When I was using it with the hand pump I found that I could get about 5 gallons through it before it was too hard to pump. The trick to filtering with it is to have the syrup at a boil or close to it when you start.

[Baker]

Thank guys for all the advice.I do like the idea that with daryl's or the west fab I could up grade to a pump for down the road.I deffenetly plan on adding more taps In next yr or 2.I want to spend this yr and next yr up grading a few things.this yr filter press.next yr an evapoator I hope.

[Baker]

AIso i forgot to add that I do bottle in all glass.

[WESTMAPLES]

i do 1/3 of my syrup in glass also. in my pictures there is a pic of syrup packed in glass, because i was amazed at the clarity of the syrup and how nice it was to use a filter press idea in general. filter syrup on the quick with less effort into the filtering game itself and more time spent doing other things boiling more and maybe sleep some too...... with dreams of an RO in the future

[Birddog]

Baker,

Where are you at in Northern MN. I tapped about 80 trees near Barnum and hope to tap a few more this season. I'm not a huge fan of the cone filter process either but have a hard time spending the money on a single purpose item like a filter press, and have been wondering if it would be overkill for me. I'm hoping to try out a flat filter this year on a water jacketed bottler(another expensive item). I bottle everything in glass and last year I think I messed up a batch or two by creating some sugar sand after filtering by getting the syrup too hot after filtering. If you get the filter press, please update this thread on what your thoughts are after you use it.

[sweetwater sugar shack]

I purchased a used 5 inch hand press last year u will not regret the purchase I have 200 taps big time saver

[Baker]

Hey birddog, im from Deer River.I thought bout getting the 16×16 smokey lake finishing/ bottling pan that had flat filter.but the fact that I do most of this by my self and planning to expand in the near future.I thought the filter press would be the better investment.it's a pain for me to use the cone filters but they work.if i have to i will save and wait till i get 5 gal of finished syrup to filter. I had a batch last yr that was hard to filter and got a lil sugar sand also.I really like the the look of crystal clear syrup in glass bottles.I'm just torn on what press to get at this point.will save me in the long run I'm hoping.lol

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

i started with cone filters then went with flat filters, last year i purchased a 5" hand press from Daryl, this year i added a air pump to it. Hopefully im done now10619

[WESTMAPLES]

OGDEN`S just out of curiosity what did you spend of the 5 in press and then how much on adding the air powered pump ???

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

OGDEN`S just out of curiosity what did you spend of the 5 in press and then how much on adding the air powered pump ???

I bought the press with hand pump $700.00 and found the air pump on EBAY brand new $250

[tgormley358]

i started with cone filters then went with flat filters, last year i purchased a 5" hand press from Daryl, this year i added a air pump to it. Hopefully im done now10619

Hi, I'm a small backyard producer in central Ma in my 3rd year, also making the step up from cone filtering, but not sure yet of the advantages of flat filtering vs filter press. Since you went first to flat filter then to filter press, I'm wondering if you can explain how much better was flat filtering over cones in efficiency, and why did you move on to filter press? Should I go straight to a small filter press or will flat filtering be enough improvement? I made 8 gallons last year on 30 taps, next year will more than double.

[VTnewguy]

Hi, I'm a small backyard producer in central Ma in my 3rd year, also making the step up from cone filtering, but not sure yet of the advantages of flat filtering vs filter press. Since you went first to flat filter then to filter press, I'm wondering if you can explain how much better was flat filtering over cones in efficiency, and why did you move on to filter press? Should I go straight to a small filter press or will flat filtering be enough improvement? I made 8 gallons last year on 30 taps, next year will more than double.

We started off with cone filters last year and then went to flat filtering. You will find the flat filtering easier. We also started using the "optimizer" as a pre filter, purchased from a guy on Mapletrader. Here is a link to his video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJyG03Uwy8

[WESTMAPLES]

i would go right to a small filter press..... my first year on my own i cone filtered lots of syrup , then second year i bought a wes fab short bank 10 in press ( yes it was overkill.. but ive grown right into it for sure ) honestly i would never go back to gravity filtering , yes there is more cost involved with buying and using a filter press... but you will enjoy the fact that you can filter your syrup and cleanup in a matter of minutes, not hours and your filter press filtered syrup will be nice and crystal clear everytime for packing in glass

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Hi, I'm a small backyard producer in central Ma in my 3rd year, also making the step up from cone filtering, but not sure yet of the advantages of flat filtering vs filter press. Since you went first to flat filter then to filter press, I'm wondering if you can explain how much better was flat filtering over cones in efficiency, and why did you move on to filter press? Should I go straight to a small filter press or will flat filtering be enough improvement? I made 8 gallons last year on 30 taps, next year will more than double.

cone filtering never worked for me, the at best was always cloudy, did not look good in glass and wasted a lot of syrup, tried the flat filters next, was a slight improvement but was not happy. 3 yrs now with the press i love it no waste and syrup is always clear. Whats good for you, only you will know that, some people dont have a lot of niter so its not a problem but im on clay ground and about 1/2 sugars and 1/2 reds so the press was my answer

[maple flats]

I started by using a 16x24 bottler with flat rack for filtering. That was OK, but very slow. I used that thru the 3rd season when I made 32 gal of syrup. At that point I bought a 7" short bank filter press (3 sets of plates) and wow, what an improvement. While I bought a gear pump press (I was not aware of hand pump ones at that time, if they were available), I have since added 2 more sets of plates so I now have 5 sets @ 7", and once the gear pump got tired rather than rebuilding it for about 80% of the price of a new one, I got an air diaphragm pump. That was another huge improvement. My point is, that a filter press, hand pump version or electric powered pump can grow with you, and it rarely loses much value if you decide to sell it to upgrade. The only down side I see of the popular hand pumps is that most if not all are 5", where much more common ones with electric or air diaphragm pumps are 7" and 10" with even 15" and 20" for the big guys.
On my 5 bank 7" press I frequently do 30-45 gal on a set of papers, except it falls to about half that at the late season. When I bought it as a 3 bank I got about 60% of that. A 7" press gives you 49 sq. " in each plate, a 5" gives about half that so it should give you about half as much.
Much of your choice should be based on your plans to grow over the next 5 and 10 years. Most of us do not guess well beyond that, in fact it's very common to grow faster in the 5 yr. plan than originally thought.