Just wanted to say hello and to get a few questions answered

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

Just found the site, wanted to say hi from New Durham NH. This is our first year going from back yard hobby to having room to expand for the next foreseeable future. We started out this year with right around 350 taps with 300 being on gravity 1" mainline with 5/16" feeding the main and another 50 on bags. Most of all laterals have either 6 taps to 12taps feeding a vertical 600ga11364l tank. the pic is a little out dated we now have a y in our mainline right before it enters the tank so we can hook up our homemade pump. Now this is our first year running tubing, always used 5gal buckets for my yard. We are having a problem with the 1" line pictured from the y at the tank back oh about 50' being full of sap and not making it to the tank, we had better flow on the last couple of small runs we had but I think it was caused by a few open tees that we forgot to put anything on it. Is this normal or do we have a pitch problem, it looks level from eye but using that yellow mini transit it show that its pitched. I have been putting my pump on and sucking the sap to tank. Hope the sap gods answer our prays soon only made 2gals of finish syrup with another 2-3gals soon to come off. First time using a big boy evaporator got some nice color

[Mark-NH]

Was it running better for you today? May just have been too cold to run until now.

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

No this is a new problem, I only got to check it around 12pm today. for what I could see in the line it wasn't frozen.

[SandMan]

I've been running two gravity systems for a few years. On one of the two, I had a fairly gradual slope coming into the tank (3-4%). If the flow was sap flow was marginal, the 3/4 main line would fill and not appear to drain. I think it was actually developing a "vapor lock" and had a negative pull behind the sap column. This was frustrating because I wanted it to drain completely into the tank. The reality was that I was just not patient....as soon as the sap really started running, it would drain just fine...that sap fluid column may stay there but it was draining out the end. Only suggestion would be to make sure the end is above your sap level in the tank...not on the bottom. This same principle is happening on your lateral lines as well, it is "slug-flow" which is a good thing, it keeps a negative pressure in your lateral lines behind the sap.

Hope that helps!

Mike

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

I guess I need some Patients, it was better today maybe I got to it yesterday right when things were starting to defrost. I think your right, it definitely drains just not as fast as the other line. Is this a major problem, or a learning curve for this year and try to fix the slope of the mainline on the off season. The tank is not staying there it will be moved probally another 500-600' closer to the barn to be closer to electricity, we couldn't justify this year running that much 1" with no taps for the length.

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

I'm a little confused on what you ment on the sap level in the tank not the bottom? Are you referring to the mainline? To line that we're having the problem is probally 1000' long has close to 200 taps on it from where we start the mainline it is above the tank. Or are you meaning were the line enters the tank? The 1" that goes into the tank just ends at the top into a hung fitting. I was wondering if we added some pipe so it enters the tank more would it help with the pull more?

[SandMan]

hung fitting is fine...you can also add a short piece of 1" mainline so it is just inside the tank.... My sense is that you will see it run better after this next freeze up and thaw. If your mainline is right at a 2% slope, you may need to add just a bit more slope so it has a fluid/air mix and drains easier. Honestly though, as long as there is a 2% or greater slope, it will be fine once it really starts to run....most areas have yet to see a real run this year, although the past 24 hours have been more encouraging.


Mike

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

Well things have finally started to pick up for us, finished 5 gals with all but one of our sap tanks drained left about 50gals in it. Tubing seems better it just takes hard runs to put the sap to the tank. finally getting the new evaporator under control thanks to some pointers from Josh aka" amber gold". Im going to throw this question out there still haven't really grasped what the little syrup pan dividers do, do I leave them at the same?

[Risingsweetnesssugarshack]

Well still plugging away, finished 5gal each night sat-mon with mon being our biggest with a little over 7gal night. Trees are acting funny again our bags have only produced about 30gal out of 48 bags for the past two days each day, was averaging around 40. Our big tank was looking great up to over 200gal a day sat-mon, checked today and we only have 100gal or so since we drained it on Monday. So I'm lost, but I guess ill keep riding the rollercoaster. Syrup hasn't really changed color for us been at amber rich, to the last batch hovering the rich/dark. Well hope everyone's year ends on a good note, lets pray for a few more days of sap weather.