Bender releaser question

[relseek]

On my bender releaser, the rod that the float rides on has two notches where the weight sits. right now there is a pin in the lower notch, with the weight above the pin and a spring below the pin. Does anyone know what the other notch is for? Is it to just have more liquid in the jar before it dumps? It had been working great so so far (first year with vacuum) and I am hesitant to mess with it. (if it ain't broke.....)

[BreezyHill]

Rob it has been a long time since I even touched one of these but as I recall the second spot was for a smaller herd and allowed more product per dump. This would use less CFMs of vacuum if the farmer had a smaller pump. I recall dad adjusting the unit when a pump was failing for a farmer.

The problem with sap is a longer dump time then less vac to the system unless there is a priority circuit to your system.

A PC would supply vac to the tubing or bush thru a smaller or valved line but the releaser would have full flow from the pump.

I did this on our system back in 2012 and it made a huge diference in production. Releaser dumped 30 oz per cycle and my dump time went from ever 13 seconds to every 3 seconds. That little change increased our production for the season by nearly 30%.

I agree with the "aint broke" usually...but I am one of those that is a "lets see what we can make it do with this", kinda guy now.

I am tapping trees this season that have never been tapped on the farm since we started syrup in 1971. It took 800 feet of mainline and tree ladders but we added another 275 virgin taps and they are in a valley that the wind doesn't bother much. I already had like 10 ladders so no big deal on them. 1% slope is new and over a pond and thru the deer's swamp was a challenge to fly the main. But what is life without a little excitement?

Remember you cant find a better way if you don't try something new.

Ben

[relseek]

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking that a longer dump time would not necessarily be a good thing at this point. I only have vacuum to releaser- no priority circuit,(but that may change for next year) How is the circuit routed? Right now I just have vacuum line to top fitting, fitting on the side of bender is plugged and I have an "in" and an "out" check valves in series on the bottom.

11006

[BreezyHill]

Priority circuit will be fairly easy for this unit. At the top of the bender you have an elbow. Remove the elbow and add a tee. on the far side of the tee install a gate valve and to the valve add a small line. It could even be a 5/16 line. This line will connect to your mainline after your check valve for the releaser.

What this line does is to provide vacuum to the tubing system when the releaser is dumping. When it is pulling in sap, the line will still have a small amount of contribution to the line but minimal as the releaser is taking the majority if not all the vacuum to suck in the sap.

In the event that you ever get sap up this line then you close down the valve to limit the vac transfer and five the releaser more priority.

I like your setup. well thought out and good use of materials. Good Job!

In the future to get the best vac transfer you can run a larger pipe after the check to the mains. This will act as a manifold to gather sap and separate out gases and get the most volume from the releaser on those heavy flow days. Not sure about your pump but a balance tank will enhance this units productivity by bring the releaser back to full vacuum faster after each dump. This is most important when you are getting near the max capacity of the releaser.

Our old releaser dumped 30 oz per dump. Our last season on it I added a 5 gallon milking bucket for a balance tank. On heavy days she was running 3 seconds between end of each dump cycle. The priority circuit got us more production and the balance tank allowed the releaser to keep up with the flow. The longest part of the cycle was the 30 oz going out a 1.5" tub into the tank below. Less than a second to pull in a full shot of sap.

You too could use a milk bucket as a balance tank. The surge belly pails are cheapest on ebay and you can get a fab shop to install a 1" or 1.5" threaded nipple to a claw cover and plug off the 4 claw ports.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-DeLaval-Surge-Milker-Bucket-/251871991322?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa4bd961a

Here is an example of the milker and if you search these units you can find the lids and gaskets.

It would not be hard to turn one of these into a water trap. In the lid you will want 2 pipes for inlet and outlet for the pump. On the out to the pump have this one slightly longer into the bucket and have a cage welded to hold a racket ball. The ball will seal of the pipe when the level elevates the ball up. The inlet will simply allow air and any sap to enter the container. The velocity of the air will make it impact the bottom of the tank and its shape will dissipate heat quickly and condensate moisture very well.

Good Luck

Ben

[relseek]

Thanks so much for the input! I know that there are alot of areas that I could improve my system, but it was kind of a last minute decision to actually try vacuum this year. My pump is a 6.5cfm hvac pump that I had on hand, I also made a moisture trap. they both sit at my sugar shack and there is 3/4 pipe from there to approx 400 feet down hill in woods where my releaser and tank are. The 3/4 pipe was my sap transfer pipe that was used to pump sap out of woods and to the shed. So now when I need to empty woods tank I have to shut down the vacuum, switch a couple of valves and start the pump. When empty I drain the pipe back into the woods tank (approx 12 gal), and turn vacuum back on. Not very efficient but works for now.

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