Filter Press Upgrade

[Paddymountain]

I am wanting to put a air diaphragm pump on my Daryl Sheets 5" press. I've spent time looking
through some of the posts concerning this upgrade. I found a pump on Zoro , an Aro . It has 1/4"
ports, flows 5.3 gal per minute and is rated for 225 degrees. I am not interested in using it for a transfer pump
and basically filter around 6-8 gallons at a time. I feel it is probably big enough, but thought
I would ask everyone here what they think. I don't have much chance of expanding my tap count, due to the number of trees in my area. The filter press works fine! not so much my shoulder hand pumping.

[Russell Lampron]

I don't know if a 1/4" pump will be big enough. I put a 1/2" pump on my 7" Wes Fab short bank press and it worked great. I wouldn't go smaller than 3/8" myself.

[arcticmaple8]

I think it will work fine. We put a 3/8 air diaphragm pump on a full bank wesfab. It works great. Ours was also rated around 5gpm. I think it was around $450 but cant remember brand. Its a high temp plastic one rated for 212degrees but has worked for 2 seasons and 1600gal through it. I would keep 1/2 or bigger suction hose then reduce at pump inlet. The small inlet may get plugged if there is scale from pans, a strainer basket where you draw off would solve that. Good luck

[maple flats]

I have a 3/8" diaphragm pump on a 5 bank 7" press, it works very well. I believe the 1/4" will work well for you. The main thing on diaphragm pumps is to be sure it is rated for food, and rated for the temperatures you need, which 225 is real good. Then I suggest you use a larger suction hose so the flow is not restricted. On my 3/8" pump I use 1" suction and 1/2" pressure hose between the pump and the filter press, then a 3/4" hose after the filter. That works great. I suggest you use a mini pressure regulator and valve for the air line, that works very well for me.

[bill m]

I agree with Russ. I don't think a 1/4 inch pump will be sufficient. If you want to stick with a plastic Aro pump there is one on Amazon right now, !/2 inch, 220 degrees for only $417 with free shipping.

[Paddymountain]

Thanks guys for the input! Next question. I guess I don't need a bypass line; just a pressure gauge and
a ball valve to control air flow. Correct?

[Russell Lampron]

Thanks guys for the input! Next question. I guess I don't need a bypass line; just a pressure gauge and
a ball valve to control air flow. Correct?

If the ball valve to control the pump doesn't come with it you'll need one for that. You won't need a bypass and the gauge is nice to have but not needed.

[maple flats]

While a bypass is not necessary, I put one to good use. I use it when filtering, as the pressure gauge shows the pressure climbing to 40psi I open the bypass slightly, that enables me to get a few more gallons thru a set of papers. Secondly, I use my filter press pump to move syrup. As I draw syrup off my evaporator it goes into a draw off tank (it holds about 25+ gal). As it gets towards full, I run the syrup pump, open a valve in the hose between the draw off tank and the filter press pump (with a valve between my mixing tank and the pump closed), that syrup then flows from the draw off tank, thru the pump, thru a filter bypass valve and it goes into the finisher. When I clean the front pan I also use the draw off tank, pump and bypass, but this time all of the contents from the front pan is pumped back into the front pan after cleaning and completely rinsing the front pan. To do these, I have a 10-' braided 3/4" hose on my bypass with a J hook on the outlet, that reaches either the finisher or the syrup pan. When filtering I also use it to aid in fully mixing in the DE in the mixing pot. For that, I hook that J hook over the side of the mixing tank and start the pump with the bypass open. I first stir in the DE using a long mixing whip, then I run the contents thru the pump and bypass back to the mix tank for 30-60 seconds. Then I open a valve to the filter press and close the re-circulation valve. The filter discharge hose at that point is also hung over the side of the mixing tank (until the filtered syrup looks like it sparkles. Then, with the pump still running, I open the bypass, close the filter valve and move the filtered syrup discharge to either the bottler or to a clean SS barrel. I thus find a bypass very usefull.
For the hoses, any hose that will handle the hot syrup under vacuum or pressure should be silicone hose, rated for syrup temperatures. Since my bypass hose has no way to shut it off (the valve for it is before the hose) it will never have pressure. For that I use 3/4" braid re-enforced vinyl hose.

[Paddymountain]

I ended up buying a pump with 1/2 inch outlets. I figured it's easier to connect with all 1/2 inch pipe, rather than
reducing it down to quarter or 3/8. That being said , I'm going to reconfigure how everything is mounted
and maybe make it a little more stream lined. Thanks all for the input.

[Paddymountain]

With the cold weather last weekend, I took time out to revamp my filter press. I need to
upgrade to SS quick couplers; but that will have to wait until next year. I tried it out
with water, seemed to work well. Come syrup season we will give it a work out!
20591