ShurFlo Pump Recommendation

[tombaisley]

Hello,

I would like to run a Shurflo Pump to bring aprox 50 taps to my sap house. Half are on flat ground and the other half half will have aprox 15-20' elevation gain (uphill). I would like to use a 115 volt pump What model pump should I be looking for?

Thanks

[NhShaun]

How far are you needing to pump the sap? From my understanding having the pump at the collection point instead of the sap house would give better pumping power especially if the pump is not self priming and requires a lot of head pressure. But obviously for power it would be best in the sap house.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Use the 4008 or 4048 model pumps. The 4008 will do what you want to do and is less expensive. The 4048 is a little bigger pump with higher flow rate if you want to spend the money. We use Shurflo's for vacuum not pumping. One thing I don't know about pumping with Shurflo's is- what do you do with the sap that is left in the pump line? They are not designed to drain back.

[Openwater]

"We use Shurflo's for vacuum not pumping."

This might be a dumb question, but does this mean that the sap never goes through the pump? Does the pump just maintain vacuum in the lines but never actually "pumps" sap through the pump? I assume the sap is collected, then, in a container also under vacuum before it hits the actual pump.
Thanks for the clarification

[Biz]

Sap is usually passed through a diaphragm pump. They do not generate good vacuum unless pumping liquids.

Some diaphragm pumps will self drain or allow sap to pass through them when off, some will not. The Shurflo 4008 does not pass sap when off but my Seaflo 5.5gpm pump does (slowly) - it is a 5 chamber design, the 4008 is 4 chamber.

I use a drain valve with my transfer controllers. The drain valve is tee'd into the pump outlet, it is closed when pump is transferring sap and opens to drain line when transfer pump is off to prevent sap from freezing or spoiling.

Dave

[tombaisley]

I ordered this one

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001FAA5Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I poorly worded what I meant. The shurflos are directly connected to the mainline. There is no wet/dry set up with these pumps to create vacuum and their effectiveness is limited to 150 taps or so. So we suck the sap from the mainline through the pump and into a tote. But to empty the tote for the sap transfer, we use a different 1” gas pump. I took it as the OP was going to use these pumps to transfer sap uphill. That will work fine but understand you need a drain line like Dave eluded to avoid freeze up.
In regards to the 2088 pump you bought, we used one to start last year because I had it as a spare for my camper. But we had a 4048 on order. We swapped it out when it came in and the 4048 built vacuum quicker. It’s a more powerful/larger pump.