Sand filter

[Danaputnam]

Is there anyone using a pool sand filter to filter their sap? Does anyone know if there is any such thing as food grade sand or since it is just the filter medium and doesn’t pass through, that it doesn’t matter. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks

[Cjadamec]

A simple inline strainer is all you really need for filtering sap.

Used pool equipment would never get clean enough to be used for syrup production. You would be forced to buy a new filter and sand. For the money spent there are better performing options.

A sand filter is only good for filtering down to 20-30 microns. Your average whole house water filter is good for around 5 microns.

Sand filters require backwashing which uses a large flow of water and dumping the backwash to waste. Not something you would want to do with sap. Even a small sand filter need 30-50 gallons of water to backwash.

The sand bed in the filter will retain a lot of sap even after it is drained, you run the risk of sap spoiling inside the filter in warm weather. That would be very hard to clean out if it did happen.

Most pool sand filter housings are NSF rated for potable water and 100% silica sand is about as inert as it gets so brand new equipment should be OK for contact with raw sap but there are a lot of downsides to this type of filter.

[maple flats]

VVS, (where the winter conference was held until this year) uses a sand filter. I contacted the trader member who ran the VVS sugarhouse in 2018. I'm sure he will answer this.

[maple flats]

The filter would need to be new and used only for sap. Neil will give you more info.

[Danaputnam]

Thanks! I appreciate your help

[maple flats]

Dana, I just texted Neil, he will answer this when he gets a chance.

[NH Maplemaker]

But to answer your Question, yes people use pool filters. But many use earth pool filter. Much smaller micron filtration, It's more like a filter press. But as said must start with new and takes a lot of liquid to flush.

[collinsmapleman2012]

We use a pool filter at VVS, works great because you can get high volume and great filtration. we were using whole house filters w/ 5 micron filters, and they were expensive and slow. I wash a tank out and then pump some permeate or tap water in and use it to flush the sand filter, you can go tens of thousands of gallons before a flush if sap is clean. we're putting 1000 gallons through ours in 10 mins, couldnt even come close to that before. i havent noticed any difference in our RO prefilters either since we got away from the whole house filters. theres a drain on the bottom of the filter too if it is going to be cold for a while i flush the sap out with water for a while, and then drain the bottom. i probably use 200-400 gallons of water per flush to get as much out as i can, i switch it back and forth between a backflush and a wash to get the most junk out of it that i can. ours is a large diameter, i believe that there are much smaller ones made. we keep ours in a heated room, i've been wondering though if i can just take the valve assy. off and drain the filter if it would be alright in the cold.
you can use regular silica pool sand, hard to get this time of year (last year we went to 3 stores to get enough) so i'd suggest buying it in the fall, plus it's on sale then! i think there are different grades, i think we had one bag that was coarser so i put that at the top and the fine at the bottom- otherwise i would have bought all fine.
i do flush it with water before use every season so that any really fine pieces wont make their way through, and to rinse the sand.
be sure to have disconnects on it when plumbing it in since you have to get new sand every year and it has to be dumped after the season.
i'd highly recommend them to any one, has saved us tons of time and energy.

[Danaputnam]

Thank you. We tap about 8200 trees so have a decent amount to filter on a good day. Used it this weekend for the first time and am very pleased. Flushed it with a lot of permeate to begin with and have set it up on a cart with pneumatic wheels to make it easy to move. Plumbed it so we can hook trucks up to it when they come in and just pump them off using the filter’s pump vs the Honda 2” pump we would typically use. Pool pump about 25% slower but still quick and the sap is coming out super clean. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[maple flats]

Everyone should realize that many if not all municiple water systems use sand and gravel filters to clean the water before chlorinating.

[Danaputnam]

And you can buy NSF rated filter media because as Dave said, they use it in commercial water filtration systems.