Good pump to push or pull sap up hill

[berny27]

I’m looking around and trying to find a good powerful pump that can either push or pull,preferably pull up hill a elevation of 250 to 300 rise. Will be tapping 1800 trees using 3/16 line. 2200 gallon sap tank at bottom of hill. Can’t really drive directly to tank cause of ruining logging road. So best idea is to pump up hill to our landing. Any ideas or questions to help me find a good pump. Looked into well pumps and others but the up hill and GPM kinda low. Don’t want it to take forever. Also no electricity. So gas powered.

[Jim Brown]

I have a two stage high pressure pump I use to push sap up a 100ft rise about 6-700 ft long and pushed 20gal per minute tthrough a 1inch line Sold the business still have the pump 5.5hp briggs engine powers the pump Like to sell it

Jim

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

You will have to push the sap up. Physics says that you can't suck water or sap up more than 25 to 30 ft. I played with pumping sap for years and finally found the best solution was a deep well submersible pump powered by a generator. I only lift sap about 100 ft but I send it about a mile in distance so there is significant head to overcome.
Jim's 2 stage pump may also work well. The only gasoline pumps I used were single stage.

[maple flats]

Depending on your elevation above sea level and the barometric pressure at the time you will not pull sap up more than 24-25' to maybe 28-29' lift, more lift than that it must be pushed.

[WVKeith]

I use a Gould’s 18GBS15 pump (that is 18 gpm (at no restriction) stainless, 1.5 Hp) hooked to a generator to pump through 1200 ft of 1 in pipe with an elevation rise of about 100 ft. I get about 10 gpm with this setup. 250-300 ft rise is a lot of static pressure.

[VT_K9]

You'll be pushing it, not pulling it as mentioned. I know you said 250-300 rise. What is the distance you are going or this this just to the top of the hill.

Go to Honda's website and use their pump select feature. It will be a good guide for you. We used it to choose a pump for 1 1/2". We found the 1 1/2" pump was the most efficient (not much gain for going bigger, but really couldn't because of the 1 1/2" hole on the tank). We are pumping about 26 gallons per minute with a 750 foot run and a 65' rise. We used the pump select again to choose another pump to have at another sap shack. We learned we could have a 2" hole (and others) installed in the tank prior to delivery. The 2" pump is supposed to attain 42 gallons (or so) per minute. That is with a 1200 foot run with a 65' rise through 2" pipe.

Both pumps are Honda high pressure gas pumps (they have a lower pressure version of the same size).

Good luck,

Mike

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

your going to have to pump it up hill for sure. Smaller line equals less line left in the pipe but less flow due to friction loss. Larger pipe = less friction loss and more flow but more sap left in the pipe that you will have to run back into the tank to save it so it does not freeze in the line unless you bury it.

[S.S.S]

Right now Iam using a 1/2hp 12gpm deep well pump in a MES releaser and pumping sap 2800' with a rise of 50'

[WVKeith]

I do not think any of the Honda pumps will do 250-300 ft of static head. You will need some type of multi-stage pump. I have pump curves from some of the Honda Pumps and some of the Gould Pumps, if you need them.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Will a vacuum pull it that far up into a releaser or vacuum tank??

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Nope vacuum will pull a max of 30’ if you had perfect vacuum


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maple flats]

The best any vacuum can pull at complete vacuum is what the air pressure at that time can push sap up, never more than 30' You can however run a series of lifts, maybe 15-20' at each lift, but a proper pump (or series of pumps if necessary) to push the sap will be far better.

[maple flats]

When I was planning the tubing and collection on a lease I no longer have, pumping was going to involve a lift of 80' and a distance of 2600'. I found a friendly neighbor between the tank and another road at 900' distance but with a total drop of 15'. I then collected the sap roadside on that other road, it cost me 2 qts of syrup each year. Is anything similar to that an option for your situation?

[minehart gap]

USDA, NRCS offers what is called technical assistance. Nearly every county has a technician that would be able to size a pump for you and make a recommendation based on your situation that way you are sure that the pumps will be powerful enough to handle your sap without stressing the pump to the point that it "wears out" prematurely or that you are not spending more money than you need. This should not cost you anything other than the taxes that you already are paying.

[corrowbasin]

I would also be more worried about the static head pressure at the pump. If pumping 250-300ft, at .433psi per foot you're looking at well over 100psi pump discharge. If using cheap black plastic (Oil Creek, Charter, etc) you might have fitting or tubing failures due to the pressure. How far are you pumping, using 1" pipe for transfer line? Like others said, you'll need a multi stage pump, and if pumping out a 2200gal tank, better plan to have some time to waste.

[eagle lake sugar]

Right now Iam using a 1/2hp 12gpm deep well pump in a MES releaser and pumping sap 2800' with a rise of 50'

Do you have a tank or just a releaser? I'll need to do something similar soon with my next expansion. I like the idea of pumping it into my existing lines as it comes in, rather than having to pump out a whole tank at the end of the day.

[calvertbrothers]

I have to do something similar here to. I have to go 40 feet straight up and pitch it towards the shanty that is 700 feet away. I don’t have electricity to the shanty. so I’m going to buy a small generator and hook up the pump to a float switch. I believe doing it this way the head pressure will be less. Off the pump if it’s 1 inch I would go straight up with 1 inch. And for the line that is pitch towards the shanty I would jump up to 1 1/2 reducing restriction. For your situation you might need a few pump stations to get there. If that helps any.

[cjf12]

I pump 110' with a wb15 honda gas pump. Does an ok job but not overly fast. I have considered another pump midline to "boost" the flow. Not sure its practical or not. For your situation youll need really pricey pumps or a few to make that work. Hope you can figure this one out. Thats a lot of pumping.