Pump Suggestions

[Krasas Maple Products]

We have approximately 150 taps on a line that relies on gravity and runs along the side of a fairly steep hill. Next year we are hoping to extend that line next year to take 5-600 taps that aren't on the same pitch so we were hoping to hook a pump to it. Whats the cheapest way to go about getting a decent pump for this? I dont really know the difference or even what to look for in these types of things. Its also way back in the woods where we dont have electric readily accessible to where we could plug it in however we do have generators. Alrighty let me know if anybody has any good ideas.

[Parker]

Here is my 2 cents,,,For pumps that are affordable and produce a lot of vacuum (18")for the dollar on a consistant basis and are cheap to keep I would go with a surge sp-11 or sp-22 (both piston pumps) the piston pumps can maintain higher vacuum for longer periods of time than the vane pumps and consume a lot less oil (in my experiance),,these pumps also seem to last pretty well,,,,,I have herd good things about the DeLaval vane pumps but never tried one so I dont have any experiance with them BUT believe that they wont pull as high vacuum as the piston pumps,,,,from what I have seen there is a big diffrance between 15" and 18" of vacuum
I believe your major expense will be the releaser,if you dont have electricty then you will need a manual releaer,,I have Gilles-berdards and like them very much although one of mine is in need of repair after 5 years of use,,,
the vane and piston pumps can be set up to run on gas moters relitivly easily,that way you would not need the generator at the site,I could E-mail a pic of how mine are set up,,
if you run vacuum you want to be sure you are running big enough mainline to handel carring the vacuum to the last tap on a good flow day,,the longer-flatter the line the bigger it shold be,,,,Good luck

[maplehound]

If you are going to run your vacuume pump off the generator, keep in mind that they pull alot of power. I have a 5000 watt generator and it just runs my 1 1/2 hp vacuume pump. I tried to run my 3 hp on it and it didn't handel that much. Even though I do prefer running my pump off a generator since it also gives me a sorce of electric for my other pumps. As for the releaser I can 't say much about the diffrent kinds but I jsut use a zero bulk milk tank. They are made to be vacuumed and work real well with no problems having valves and floats freezing up.

[lmathews]

Maple Hound,
How many inches of vac will the zero hold?I have one and do not use it as a vac tank.Will they hold the higher vac?

[maplehound]

Zero tanks will tell you right on them if they won't hold Vacuum ether wise they were designed to be vacuumed. I don't think you can harm them with any dairy pump anyhow. I run mine at 18" but have had them at 20+ on ocasion.

[ennismaple]

How far from a source of electricity is the bottom end of the line? If it's close enough it could be cheaper to put the vacuum pump where you've got electricity and run a dryline to a releaser or Zero tank than to put in a gas generator.

[maplehound]

True, When I was tapping the woods behind me I ran a 3 hp in my garage and ran a 1" pipe 900' to my tank in the woods. Then I woould go out to the woods each day and pump the sap 900' back to the sugar house next to my garage. Worked great, only problem was you had to have the vacuum running when you went to the woods too be sure you got the tank sealed good, otherwise yoou wouldn't know if your vacuum was even working.

[Mike]

Hey Maple Hound! How many bulk tanks do you have??? I thought I had a few...

[maplehound]

Check out my pictures some of them are pictured there,
I have 4 tanks behind my garage ( outside the sugar house) 1 in the woods and an extra for a spare ( all milk tanks) Then I have a 110 gal poly over head tank for my feed and a 550 gallon poly tank for hauling. I feel it is better to have alot of small tanks than one big tank. I can keep each run seperated that way and decide wich one to boil first without mixing them all together. Also the smaller ones are cheap to buy and easier to find than big ones.

[MASSEY JACK]

Yes, Zero bulk tanks can be sucked in! I recently saw one that was caved in from too much vacuum.

[maplehound]

What size was it? I do know that some of the larger (and maybe others) are marked right on them " DO NOT VACUUM" Other wise I sure don't know what the limits of them are. Mine show no sign of any damae and I know that they where vacuumed in the dairy operations long before I had them.