View Full Version : Impressed with Shurflo vacuum
This winter I hastily threw together a 12 volt Shurflo 4008 setup on 75 of my taps. I am highly impressed with this thing. I used to have "real" vacuum and an electric releaser on 1000 taps, and did not expect much from this thing. I have to say that I am amazed with how well it is working. My laterals are new and tight, with no squirrel chews (yet), so no air leaks to deal with (yet). I am getting more sap from these 75 taps than my other 140 or so on gravity. I do not even have a recirculation line, either.
Father & Son
03-10-2021, 10:29 AM
Jason,
Do you have a vacuum gauge on the system to know how much it pulls?
tombaisley
03-10-2021, 10:40 AM
I have 80 taps on four 3/16" lines. Two lines are flowing downhill, and two lines pulling uphill. When the the sap is flowing my 4008 runs at 20in/hg with the recirc line closed.
I have a Shurflo 4008 pump with four 3/16 lines feeding it, about 120 taps, no recirculation, and it pulls 25" of vacuum all day long. Two lines have no slope and lengths range from 150' to about 500' Trees are mostly red maples. End of lines read over 20" vacuum.
Dave
West Sumner Sugar
03-10-2021, 12:00 PM
They are good little rigs. We have a few systems. Just checked one here that has 80 taps on 5/16. 2 lines are pulling 27" and the others are 20-25".
RileySugarbush
03-10-2021, 12:39 PM
That is all we use on out tubing runs. If the lines are leak tight, they work great. Recirculation is only needed on low flow days. Simple, no releaser, and we even pump the output a couple hundred feet through 5/16 tubing to the sugarhouse tank.
mainebackswoodssyrup
03-10-2021, 12:45 PM
Should be our first decent run today/tomorrow to see what we can do with ours. Happy to report that after some tweaking, Biz's S3 maple controller is working great!
Jason,
Do you have a vacuum gauge on the system to know how much it pulls?
Jim at the pump it is pulling around 25. No gauges at the end of the lines.
ndtempel
03-11-2021, 01:51 PM
Has anyone run 5/16” taps and lines with a Shurflo? Thinking of trying one quick to finish the season but I already have 5/16” taps in and enough 5/16” tubing to give it a try.
ndtempel
03-11-2021, 02:49 PM
Are you using the 12V D/C or 110V A/C pump?
12v on an automatic battery charger
Just a simple setup copied from some others on the site. This is an unfinished setup. 22211
22212
Here is my simple manifold.
In working order. This is in the old pumphouse that used to contain my electric releaser.
22213
mainebackswoodssyrup
03-22-2021, 09:28 AM
Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible? We have zero vacuum in one of our bushes. After playing with the pump, it appears to be pulling OK. I thought about walking the laterals and clamping each one with vise grips while a buddy watches the gauge but the lines are all full of sap so not sure I would get anywhere with that. Can't really listen for leaks or see what the sap is doing when I have no vacuum. I'm planning to walk each lateral/tap again this week but it's only year 2 of a new install. I walked everything and fixed some damage in February before tapping, wasn't much to fix. It's about 900' of 1" mainline on good pitch with 120 taps on 20- 5/16" laterals. Shurflo 4048. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Could be leaking at a saddle or mainline fitting maybe. One way to isolate the leaks is to insert ball valves in the mainline to isolate sections so you can narrow down where the leak is coming from. Not sure if it is easy to do at this late stage but it should help a lot in finding which section is leaking.
Dave
DrTimPerkins
03-22-2021, 10:37 AM
Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible?
Leak checking can be challenging with diaphragm pumps because they pull so little CFM. If you have multiple lines, close them off with valves (if mainline) or vise grips (lateral lines) so you can isolate each line individually. Then open them one-by-one to see the movement in the lines. Once you can isolate it one line, you can walk that line to watch/listen for sap movement and air in the lines.
wmick
03-22-2021, 10:43 AM
Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible? We have zero vacuum in one of our bushes. After playing with the pump, it appears to be pulling OK. I thought about walking the laterals and clamping each one with vise grips while a buddy watches the gauge but the lines are all full of sap so not sure I would get anywhere with that. Can't really listen for leaks or see what the sap is doing when I have no vacuum. I'm planning to walk each lateral/tap again this week but it's only year 2 of a new install. I walked everything and fixed some damage in February before tapping, wasn't much to fix. It's about 900' of 1" mainline on good pitch with 120 taps on 20- 5/16" laterals. Shurflo 4048. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Not sure what type of saddles you have... I have the ones that they recommended tying on with rebar twist ties... I had to replace the ties with gear clamps on year 2.... as I was getting a lot of leaking...
PS - if your lateral is "full of sap", then that is probably not where your leak is.... If you have a leak in a lateral, it will likely be running empty or a lot of bubbles moving very quickly...
mainebackswoodssyrup
03-22-2021, 11:47 AM
Thanks all for the suggestions. The saddles are spin seal saddles. While we only have them in 2 bushes, they should be leak free. We pulled good vacuum on this bush last year with the same pump. And I had the same thought on the laterals. I was glad to see them all full but it didn't help because we didn't find any that appeared to be passing air. So we are truly stumped. Would the vise grip trick work even if the lines are full? I do have a new diaphragm coming just to try but when we closed the bypass valve and the valve to the pump to let the sap back up then opened the valve it pulled the sap hard. Do the diaphragms on these pump wear over time or is it 0% or 100% because it definitely is pumping good? We don't have a recirc. line but we still had 0 vac when the sap was running good and the strainer always had sap in it.
Maybe we'll have to put some valves in next year to isolate but I hate the idea of extra fittings.
wmick
03-22-2021, 11:58 AM
Ive never worked inside one of these little pumps... but I suppose, if a diaphragm had a small leak or a valve was not completely sealing off, it could still seem like pump can still move decent volume if there is no restrictions... (EG - being fed with sap and not needing to draw on it) But building up a vacuum level might not be possible..
I have two lines and two pumps running side by side in the same bush..... The other day, one of them was getting no sap and no vacuum... Turned out that I had a freeze-bust in my little manifold before the pump.. (1st time in 3 or 4 years) .. to quickly eliminate it, I ran the mainline straight to my pump, with a recirc T'd in right before the pump.... Started flowing like a garden hose...
mainebackswoodssyrup
03-22-2021, 12:11 PM
We're new to these pumps but that may be what is happening. Pumps fine and you can feel the air in the mainline part way up it but it's not pulling the sap from the laterals like our other pump is in the other bush. Also have a new 4008 coming to try a different pump.
mainebackswoodssyrup
03-22-2021, 08:27 PM
Well we found a combo of issues. Spare diaphragms came in the mail and we swapped it out on this pump. Sap wasn’t really running but we were able get 4” of vac. It was enough for me to hear a leak on one of the laterals- a chainsaw knick by the looks. Connector in and vac came up some more. So I guess these pumps can weaken or deteriorate and still pump good but not generate vacuum. Finicky for sure, need to add a recirc line for next year and see what it will do. For $20 we’ll replace diaphragms at the start of every season and have plenty of spares.
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