RO bucket

[fishman]

Anyone try the RO bucket?

[jbutton]

I have not tried the ro bucket but heard on facebook chats that they are very nice. I made my own just like it. Just not in the bucket. Mine works great

[antelope76]

This is the third season for mine and love it. Saves time and firewood. I have anywhere from 75 to 85 buckets and run about half of it thru the ro bucket.

[marlmucker]

I just bought one this week, it has shipped. I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’ve read about DIY options and maybe that’s a cheaper route. However, I haven’t read one bad thing about the RO Bucket or the guys that run it.

[30AcreWoods]

I'm convinced you will be happy. Carl is great to work with if you have questions or any issues at all. Once you use it, you'll be plotting how to add more taps!

[Person25]

I always wanted to do RO, but after many years of seeing even the smallest RO units at places like Bascoms and what they cost i sort of dismissed the idea altogether. It just didnt seem cost effective for the small guy, like me, so i put it out of mind. But a few years ago i found out about the robucket, and looked into it. I didn't act because i felt it was to good to be true and was still not exactly what i would call 'cheap'. I toyed with the idea of building my own, using their schematics but once i priced all the parts out it was basically the same, so i finally pulled the trigger this year. I got a kit from them, which I built into my own bucket and man, i am now kicking myself for not doing this when this thing came out years back. It is so cool to have it pumping out 8% concentrate all day, from 2% sap. I havnt boiled off any concentrate yet, i plan to this weekend, but just knowing im starting off with 8% vs 2% should mean shorter boils and lighter than motoroil colored syrup and I can see how it is worth the money already in time savings.

[GramaCindy]

Just an FYI Person25, I'm under the impression that the concentrate spoils much more rapidly that un RO'ed sap

[TheNamelessPoet]

Just an FYI Person25, I'm under the impression that the concentrate spoils much more rapidly that un RO'ed sapI am currently freezing my sap since I can only boil in the weekends. it should be ok if you freeze the concentrate correct?

[30AcreWoods]

You should be o.k. freezing concentrate.

Cindy, yes, concentrate spoils much faster because of higher sugar content = faster bacteria growth. This isn't necessarily the case with boiled concentrate because you've killed a lot of the bacteria through boiling.

If you do a search on here, you will find lots of discussion about storing/freezing sap and concentrate.

When you thaw your sap/concentrate, you can consider boiling when 2/3 has melted. The remaining [frozen] 1/3 will be mostly water (it's called freeze concentration). You can look up that on here as well for more details.

[maple flats]

Freezing the concentrate will keep it from spoiling, but it will take quite a while to thaw. Yes, concentrate spoils much faster than sap, because you have not only concentrated the sugar but also the micro-organisms.
Proctor maple research had an article in the Maple News, I believe about how they hold concentrate for a few days, They concentrate to about 35% sugar (for more than any regular RO can get) and they refrigerate a bulk tank to I believe 26 degrees, just short of freezing. They then boil it a day or 2 later.

[Person25]

Just an FYI Person25, I'm under the impression that the concentrate spoils much more rapidly that un RO'ed sap

Thanks for the tip! I’ll pay special attention to it. I’ve never had issues in the past but this RO presents another opportunity to learn a new process. I’m hopeful I’ll be ok, I’m able to store my sap and concentrate barrels in refrigeration. I’ve processed about 200 gal of raw sap through the ro since last Sunday. Currently boiling, it all off now. Amazed at the light color of syrup being drawn off. I’m amazed that I am drawing 1gal of finished syrup every two hours.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Freezing the concentrate will keep it from spoiling, but it will take quite a while to thaw. Yes, concentrate spoils much faster than sap, because you have not only concentrated the sugar but also the micro-organisms.
Proctor maple research had an article in the Maple News, I believe about how they hold concentrate for a few days, They concentrate to about 35% sugar (for more than any regular RO can get) and they refrigerate a bulk tank to I believe 26 degrees, just short of freezing. They then boil it a day or 2 later.I LOVE the Maple news!

[Btrotta]

I will add an enthusiastic recommendation for the RO bucket and RO in general. I'm very much a small time operation, 40 taps all on buckets, boiling on a turkey fryer. Last year it was taking me an average of 10-12 hours to boil down the 30-35 gallons of sap I was collecting before boiling. That's a lot of time and money - propane ain't cheap - for a quart of syrup.

This year I added the RO20. I'm still getting about 35 gallons of sap. But the difference in time and money is huge. It takes about 20 minutes to run a 5 gallon pail from 2 percent up to 7-8 percent. So in less than three hours I can turn those 35 gallons of sap into 4.5 gallons of concentrate that take only 2 hours to finish.

So I've cut my work time in half and I'm using 1/5 of the amount of propane. That's a huge savings all around.

I'm sure the savings scale up with your operation.

[Troutman10]

So I got an RO bucket as well (RB10). Looking forward to its benefits! Do I need to rinse anything or clean anything before I start processing sap?

[carls47807]

Run 10 gallons of non chlorinated water through it to saturate the membranes.


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[30AcreWoods]

If you only have city (treated) water, use an activated carbon filter in place of the 5 micron water filter that came with it, and run the 10-gallons through and you should be good to go. Also, buy a box of 5 micron filters and replace them frequently. After I run a batch of sap through, I wash with about 10-gallons of permeate with the old 5 micron filter, then pull that filter out, put in a fresh filter, and run another 10-gallons through. Then you are good to go for the next batch.