How much would I save by building my own RO?

[maple marc]

I'm just beginning to delve into the RO world. My 100 taps are drowning me in sap this year, and my 25-30 gph 2x6 makes for long days of boiling. My average run is at least 300 gallons of sap. I had 400 gallons on hand yesterday. An RO system is looking really good to me right now. I like the idea of an RO unit on a dolly that I could wheel into my unheated sugar shack and feed my evaporator on the fly, or maybe with some head start. It would be nice to raise my 2.2 brix sap to 4 or even 6 brix. I'm still learning the lingo, but I guess I would want a unit that would remove at least 30 gallons of water per hour for 4 brix, right?

Being a farmer, I'm somewhat handy with hoses, etc., so I could probably build my own RO on the dolly. What would a unit of the appropriate size cost to buy, and what could I build it for?

How much money could I save by DIY?

Thanks for any ideas and education.

Marc

[wnybassman]

I bought a NextGen 50gph single post 4x40 a few years ago. I only burn about a 1/4 to 1/3 of the wood I used to. 10 hour boils turned in to 2 1/2 to 3 hour boils. I have saved COUNTLESS hours of boiling since I bought it. It was $2k, but money well spent if you value your time. I run 210 taps on an evaporator that gets about 15gph.

[gbeneke]

I built my own from information from RO Bucket and others on this forum. It was $650 and it does between 22-30 GPH. you could buy a kit from Carl's ROBucket and put it together or build your own from Ebay items. I have 190 taps and I run the sap at night from my truck tanks into a concentrate barrel and than take the RO out to my shack and run the morning sap. Having the sap disappear while I'm doing something else, like sleeping, is saving my 75 year old arse.
Doc Beneke

[wnybassman]

Sorry, I misread the question. I thought I saw "How much wood would I save?" lol I have no idea about your actual question.

[mol1jb]

Like anything it depends. There are several affordable hobby RO dolly units worth looking into. Nextgen maple and Deer run maple both have units under $2k. I bought Deer run maple RO 125 gph dolly unit for $1600 and I dont think I could have built my own for that cheap.

[blissville maples]

Factoring in all the headaches making and then the possibility of not functioning correctly and lack of tech support bc it's homade. It's hard to say if it would be worth it. I guess it depends what your looking for in the end.

[bawurster]

I too am looking for a lower cost RO option. Not sure if this will meet your needs at 7 gph but the price is right for under $400. With 100 taps you'd probably have to run it round the clock. Not sure if you could beef it up.

https://soulyrested.com/2019/01/08/build-your-own-reverse-osmosis-system-for-maple-syrup/

Let me know what you think. Reviews look good.

[carls47807]

That entire DIY was taken from the mattatuck design. They work awesome. His site is a great resource if you want to build your own and he has great maintenance info. https://sites.google.com/view/mattatuckmadnessmaplesyrup/home
The 4 membrane system is comparable to the RB5 RO Bucket (~400gpd membrane capacity). In terms of sizing, every 100gpd of membrane capacity you have will get you 2gph of processing rate (assuming 50/50 ratio taking 2% sap to 4% sap).

[ddociam]

I built my own using information Steve Childs generously shared. It has a 4 x 40 membrane and 4 x 20 5 micron pre-filter. I’m using a 250 gal/ hr. Procon pump. And a 3/4 horse motor. This little baby really works. I don’t have actual numbers but I 65 gallons of 2 % to. 5% in about an hour. It’s hard to believe it’s that fast it takes out water. It probably cost me a thousand dollars. But I bought everything new except I used an old pressure washer frame for the cart. The money and time it saves me is a lot. What it has allowed me to do is keep some concentrate frozen or in the refrigerator in buckets until I have time to boil. It really reduces volume.
I’m so excited about I’m building a second one that I can put two membranes on. This one has a 2hp motor and 330 Procon pump. Can’t wait to see what it will do.


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[Trapper2]

Factoring in all the headaches making and then the possibility of not functioning correctly and lack of tech support bc it's homade. It's hard to say if it would be worth it. I guess it depends what your looking for in the end.
Exactly!! I know others that have built they're own and generally they have problems and then ask others for advice. Is it rocket science? Nope. Go with someone that already makes a unit as most suppliers have done a bunch of testing and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I myself went with the RB15 from the RO Bucket that advertises on this site. I'm currently doing about 18 gallons an hour through mine. Good luck.

[ddociam]

It is hard to quantify all the savings. I know I gained a great deal of satisfaction out of building one. So much so that I did build a second one.
In terms of savings. I know it trimmed the amount of boiling time to much less than half. Maybe by two thirds and that means much less time cutting wood.
I also feel it gives me a leg up on quality. I can spend time cleaning and organizing. Getting things ready for the next batch.
It also gives you time to make more!
😉


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[30AcreWoods]

If time is money, I doubt you will save much (there are quite a number of posts on here indicating as such). Many people on here struggle with home built RO systems...and you can see all the people trying to help and answer questions as to why they aren't working properly (which is why I love this site - so many people willing to share knowledge). I'm an engineer, and very handy. I can, and do, build almost everything around my homestead. I purchased an RO from Carl and have worked with him to make changes and upgrades over the past few years. I think that for me, that was a good balance point in investment vs. return. I make 4x the amount of syrup burning the same amount of wood in the same amount of time boiling vs. pre RO. I've said previously, I would invest in RO before investing in a larger evaporator - any day. I can process over 200-gallons of sap while I sleep right now. That's huge for a person with a family, a full time "real" job and a homestead. No matter which way you choose, though, once you have an RO, you will wonder why you didn't do it years ago!

[gbwaterski]

It sounds like we are a similar size operation

I am an engineer and handy with mechanical projects. I would recommend building a 4x40 RO with a 240gph or 330gph Procon pump. Honestly they are not hard to build. I started with the mattatuck style and quickly out grew it. I usually have 300-400 gallons of sap to run at a time and have a smokeylake full-pint pan boiling 15 gallons an hour. I run it through my RO one day and then boil the next. This saves me 50-70 hours a year in boiling. I can convert 400 gallons down to 70-80 gallons. I can boil this in one night roughly 5 hours of boil time.

There is also a reduction in amount of wood you consume. I burn less than 1/2 a cord to make 25-30 gallons of syrup. This is a lot less time cutting and splitting.

If you can find a motor the cost is well worth the reduction in boil time and added sleep.

Bellow is a quick search for the cost to build an RO. Contact me if you want more information.
$172 Procon pump
$67 Procon mount
$27 Coupler
$40 Hoses
$40 Valve
$60 Feed pump
$199 RO membrane
$300 SS housing may be able to find it cheaper.

[SeanD]

There's no argument from anyone about the benefits from having an RO. As for building one or buying one, I based my decision on time (and money), but mostly time. Some things are worth paying the other guy to do and some things are worth doing yourself. How do I decide? I base it on how much I will enjoy the build. I built my sugar house and its additions. It took a long time working weekends, but I loved every minute of it. When I ran into problems, I loved thinking them over and sketching ideas. Slow, but "fun". There are people who hear about what I do for a hobby and tell me that I can go grab a quart of syrup at Stop and Shop for about $20.

Building an RO from scratch? For me, that would be a task that's not as much fun - especially if I ran into problems mid-season which will definitely happen. That said, I'm a little more familiar with the machine and I'm going to upgrade mine this summer. I'm going to add another membrane. Ray designed this unit to be "EZ" expandable. That is just simple enough that it will be fun for me to do myself - and I save a little money.

Good luck with your decision. Trust your gut.

Sean

[Bainbrook Boiler]

Hi Marc - I boil with three friends. We have 99 taps, very close to what you are doing, and boil in a Leader half-pint evaporator. We built a 4x150 RO a couple of years ago for about $400. I think the price of the membranes has come down so you could do it for less. I would suggest going to 400 GPD membranes if I were to build it today and I think the price would be about the same as when we built ours with the 150 GPD’s. I don’t know how much money it saves us since we burn with wood that we get from people who want a downed tree to be taken away so we really don’t have big costs. It does save hours and hours of boiling. I run it in my garage the day before we boil to reduce the sap I collect. We also have it running to feed the warming pan when we boil. It doesn’t keep up with the boiling so we add the concentrated sap I made the day before to keep up. The last time I checked it this year, it made 2.7GPH of concentrate at about 7% and 5.2 GPH of permeate. It is easy to build and a little reading in these forums will give you everything you need to know about operating and cleaning it. Bottom line: As much as we like standing and watching water boil, we are glad to have the RO.

[wmick]

Anyone who knows me, would confirm that I'm not a buy it new guy, when it comes to equipment... I like to tinker, learn and build... and I am allergic to spending money...
But even with used equipment, I tend to over-do it a little bit.... I knew I wanted to build a double 4x40 unit...
I searched for about a year on Kijiji (canada's version of Craiglist) for some equipment or parts to start with....
Housings, and pump were high on my list of want to find cheap...., (knowing that Id need to spend some money on Membranes).
Eventually I lucked out and found a stand-alone commercial unit similar to the photo, very close to home.... that was removed from a factory closure... The guy was thinking about using it for Maple, but just never got around to it, so he passed it on for $700 CDN ($500 USD)
Basically came ready to use, complete with flow meters, pressure switches, etc...... Just needed to add some hoses, a couple new membranes and a feed pump. I removed up to 80% of my water this year at about 50 GPH... My wife is still not convinced I needed it... but I am very happy with the result. AND learned a ton about RO in the process, which is the fun part for me...
21388

[dmichel]

I know it's late in the year, but thought I'd chime in as well. I'm a DIY guy as well, and a couple years ago I built my own, first with an aquatec 8800, then moved up to a procon. I'm in Canada and I found it difficult and expensive to get alot of the fittings and parts I needed. I started with a 2.5x21 membrane, added another in parallel, and honestly spent way too much money on my little setup. I'm just a hobbyist but have a couple hundred taps. My little system couldn't keep up and I don't have a heated shack to let it run 24hrs a day. About a month ago I found a used 4x40" RO system (not meant for maple syrup). It's from https://waterguy.com/. Paid CDN$1000 for it. It's been awesome. Even though it's meant for drinking water it works fine for sap, and I'm pulling my sap up to 10%, and it does it quickly.
I'd keep your eyes open for used unit like this.

[bmbmkr]

If I can do it anyone can. I'm a farmer too, shoe string budget, I bought a 3rd hand Deer Run for $1k 2 years ago., Upgraded it to electric and 2 4x40's last year, just ordered 2 new posts for it today, hope to get it t 400. This year I took out 120 gph water with 2 posts. Made runnin 600 taps on a 40 gph 2x6 a breeze compared to raw sap on a 20 gph hobby rig I started out with 4 yrs ago.