Anyone use these before?

[rhwells2003]

Would something like this work or no? Has anyone had any experience with these?
http://www.amazon.com/Conditioner-Refrigeration-12-0-CFM-Service/dp/B00GLZXQ1S

So I tap 400+ trees around my house on 4 acres. I will end up having 2 8-10' high sap ladders. I've heard you want 1cfm/100 taps which this more then exceedes. My tank is about 450' from my house, but I'd like to keep the pump in my shed (180' from the house) and run a 1" dry line down to a releaser at the tank. I'd put a 5 gal moisture trap in front of it just in case (my shed is probably 20' higher, and 300' away from my tank so doubt I'll have anything backing up all the way back to the pump). I believe it has a 3/8" inlet but couldn't I reduce down from 1" to 3/8" with a couple fittings?

Just looking for some opinons, its a hobby thing for me and $300 for a pump is better then $2,000. Thoughts?

[DrTimPerkins]

Would something like this work or no? Has anyone had any experience with these?

We use small vacuum pumps like this to test chambers and setups at times. A couple of things. First off, they aren't really rated for continuous service. They're made to run for a brief period of time, then shut down (and cool off), then run again. They might not like being run for hours or days on end. If you did use it, I'd be sure to put it somewhere that is fairly cool (maybe with a fan blowing over it) and a place where if it did overheat and catch on fire it wouldn't burn your place down. Secondly, they can atomize and blow off oil a fair bit (depending on the pump and the conditions you operate it under). You probably want some sort of filter on the exhaust port at the very least. Third....you're going to need to buy or build a releaser and moisture trap of some sort, and probably will need to change the oil periodically depending upon how much vapor makes it into the pump.

On the positive side, they do pull decent vacuum, especially if you find a 2-stage unit, and are pretty simple. I know you can get something like that cheaper from Harbor Freight....but no idea how long it'll last.

[Tweegs]

It’s been a while, but back when I was looking for a vacuum pump I considered one of those.

I contacted the manufacturer directly and they stated that these units, as Dr. Tim said, are not rated for continuous duty and strongly advised against using them for this purpose.

Other options for you would include the Sureflow pump method, Lunch Box and Guzzler pumps, none of which require the expense of a releaser.
Search the threads, much talk has already been made of these.

[tcross]

i second the sherflow pump. with only 400 ish taps, it would work real well. if you're thinking of the pump in your link for $300, add anther $800...$900 for a 500 tap releaser. for a grand you can probably find a new sherflo or guzzler for 500 taps that'll pull 22+ inches, with no releaser required... less if you go used!

[n8hutch]

I bought one of these on Ebay, It was originally a Lab pump. I'm not sure of the CFM. It has A 1hp motor so I am guessing 20 ish CFM Free Air. So maybe 3-4 at 29". Hard to say. I'm only going to have 150 or so taps on it max. Just something to try.

It's a rotary vane, made by welch. It is rated for continuous use. Figured it was worth a try. I got it for 300$. Only time will tell.

[Helicopter Seeds]

I was thinking of rigging up a micro pump right to each 5 gallon drop line bucket, with a switch, just like foodsaver equipment. It would run for a while when the bucket is empty, but should not have to run much from there. Could be a fairly portable setup with battery or solar power. But if it doesn't last then it needs to be real cheap to make sense. Trouble for me is since I am using people's back yards, nobody wants a vacuum line network. So until I buy more property not a lot of vac options.

[rhwells2003]

The continual service thing is exactly what I was worried about with these pumps. I figured that would the be the reason why they wouldn't work.

I actually bought one of the shurflow's last year and it did nothing. I knew how many taps I had on pipe line, and kept track of the amount of sap I got out of my pipeline. Equated to 5gal/tap, exactly the same amount my 8 buckets produced so I figured it was just too much pipeline for it to make a difference. Plus I got sick of every day lugging car batteries 400' through the woods usually at night.

I've inquired about a few guzzlers and I know those would work, my only hesitation is again I'll be unhooking and lugging those pumps up out of the woods on nights below freezing, and I'll have to run some sort of power 400' down through the woods. Could I do this with two heavy duty extension cords? Or a couple rolls of 12/2 wire? Will the pump draw too much for this distance? This is why I was looking at a pump of some sort in my shed (150') away from the house, and run a dry line to a releaser at the tank.

2 different solutions, both with pro's and cons

[unc23win]

Personally I think electric is worth running 400' feet given that your more than likely will have to do some work in the dark it is nice to have a light or two in addition to being able to run your pump. It is also nice to have a light bulb for a little heat. So I would run the electric either way really.

In deciding which way to go guzzler or pump an releaser the decision is yours of course. You should probably base it on potential growth if you expect to someday have more taps than a guzzler can handle then maybe you want to look for a releaser and a nice starter pump maybe both used. A lot of people start out with a used pump like a surge or a new smaller pump like a gast pump and then go bigger later. Same thing with the releaser if you expect to ever have more than 500 taps you might want to skip the hobby releaser for a larger one to start. There are releasers and pumps in the classifieds.

[WESTMAPLES]

unc23win is right 400 ft is close to run power even if it is with extension cords strung over head, which i do at both my bushes to get 150 ft from plug to pump, and also i was going to go with a guzzler when they first came out, then i researched ideas for starter pump and releaser. searched craigslist & got 2 gast vac pumps on top of air vac tanks for $160 for both and found 2 bender washer / releasers on ebay for $225 shipped from wisconsin straight off the milk room wall, bought 2 tote tanks $150 and built a hut to fit the the top of the tanks for covering releaser and pumps, plus other odds and ends, tweaked them to work prefect under 25 in of vac. so i spent about $500 on each unit and they are very productive, but not top of the line components but they have pulled in more sap, with less headache. great vac starter setups, but 2017 i will be upgrading one bush to a large releaser and pump, because i can see that the bender 1600 will have alot of work to do releasing sap from 480 taps!!! in 2016 LOL check out my pics you can see the hut setups

[Tweegs]

400’ of 12-2 (copper) would get you 4 amps at the site with 5% loss.


You can use this calculator to determine wire size once you know the current draw of the motor +50%


http://www.paigewire.com/pumpWireCalc.aspx

[MT Pockets Producer]

We used the Harbor Freight 2.5 CFM on 100 taps last year and must say we were pleasantly surprised running in the upper 20s for vacuum. It was our way of entering into the world of vacuum affordably and figured we would not be out much if it failed. Our buckets gave us just over 7 gallons per tap and the vacuum gave us just over 13 GPT. Not quite double the sap that you may read about but being new to vacuum we had to overcome some other inefficiencies in our homemade releaser and manifold as well as the taps we chose to use. As far as pump temperature and oil issue that Dr. Tim mentioned, our pump ran very cool but there is a lot of oil mist on the exhaust side that needs to be collected. The pump ran an average of 8 hours a day for the season with no noticeable difference in performance all season. Just need to keep an eye on the oil and change it when necessary. Went through about a quart of oil for the season. Knowing now what we have learned obviously more CFMs would be better. We are setting up a Gast 1550 this season for another section of woods but we intend on using last years set up again as well. I do agree with the others though when it comes to expanding it is probably better to buy now in preparation for later.