Guzzler "stalling out" on me - how do I troubleshoot?

[BlueberryHill]

SETUP: I have a 3/4" mainline with about 120 taps on it. It's flat terrain so my slope on my lines is 2-3%. Where the mainline starts, it is only about 6" off the ground and I have the guzzler on planks that are right on the ground. From the guzzler, I have it pumping up 2 feet into my tank. I know it would be best if I could have the pump right on top of the tank, but I can't have the pump that high or it would be higher than my incoming mainline. I have a Shurflo strainer right before the pump and I made sure that was nice and tightly sealed. I have a vac gauge at the beginning that runs between 19-22" depending on how much sap is coming in. I have another gauge at the end of the line, 500 feet back, and it always reads about 2-3" less than the one by the pump. No obvious leaks to be found anywhere but probably some real small ones that I'm missing?

PROBLEM: During a run, I'll come over to the pump, and it's chugging away, but sap is not moving. Then I look at the mainline and its loaded with sap. Laterals close by are backing up with sap too. I have seen this sort of thing on a small scale where sap will pool up before the pump for a little bit and then suddenly get sucked through really fast and the line clears. But now it is "stalling" to the point where I am not sure if it will and up grabbing and pumping out the mainline at all. I stood around and waited, but it was still stalled.

TEMPORARY/HACK SOLUTION: So I tinkered with some fittings and that did not help. It all seems to be sealed up good. The one thing that I found that will get it going is if I very quickly disconnect the banjo fitting that connects the mainline to the pump. Just enough to let a jolt of air in and that usually kicks the pump into gear and it chews like crazy and clears out the mainline. I had to do this 4 times yesterday.

Has anyone else had this happen? Any ideas on how I could troubleshoot this?

[derekp]

My 2088 was doing that at first until I inverted my strainer and lowered my pump well below the level of the line coming in. It was having a problem with air getting locked up somehow. Once I added a good slope dropping in, things got better..Been running at 18" now regularly

[BlueberryHill]

So your strainer is upside down and that helps? Screen part up and fittings down?

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try it out.

[VT_K9]

It looks like you are saying you pump your sap up 2 feet from the guzzler. When I used a guzzler I was under the impression this was not how it worked, rather the guzzler dumped into a tank. Is there any way you can change your setup for a little more elevation? I understand that can be asking a lot. Maybe you can use a combination of guzzler and pump to move the sap to a higher elevation (top of tank). Can you extend your output of the guzzler (10-30 feet) to a lower elevation where the tank may sit lower. As long as the sap flows freely from the guzzler you should not have any issues. It sounds like the weight of the outgoing sap maybe causing the problem.

Another idea based on air getting in, make sure your check valves on the pump seal up well and you don't have a hole in the pump membrane. I did not have a screen on my pump for the two years I used it and did not have any trouble.

Mike

[BlueberryHill]

My mainline comes in lower than the top of my tank. I might have to dig a hole to sit my tank into. Raising the mainline would be a big issue. I'm already doing some "ladder tapping" as it is. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[rjoly]

Hi Mike

We had the exact same issue with our Guzzler pump. We where pulling 26" of vacuum and it stalled out, main lines full and nothing moving, i tried everything new diapham, new check valves, new filter strainer nothing worked. what i found out was happeneing is the pump will only pull down to about 26" at this point the check valve will not work because the pump will not pull any deeper thus causing no differtiantal between the pump and the main line. What i did for a fix is put a bleeder at the furthest point on the main line and i run our vacuun at 24". We have 3 fields with about 200 taps each with 1 guzzler pumps on each field and we never had this issue again. What i used for a bleeder was a needle valve with a very small orfice. hard to find. then i listen with a ultrasonic listen device to set the valve kinda trial and error open a little watch vacuum then shut slowly till you find the sweet spot.


hope this helps



Ray

[lakeview maple]

Put in a sap ladder to get your elevation, the guzzler will pull it I have 2 ladders in my line to gain about 6 feet on a flat section ,works great and will solve your height problem, hope this helps ,Allen