Sucking sap slightly uphill over 100'

[DaveB]

I thought I remembered a discussion from several years ago about sucking sap uphill. I have a tank in my woods that's about 5' below my sugarhouse but is also about 300' away. In the past I've literally run extension cords down there and plugged in a shurflo pump and it can pump the sap no problem over that distance. My question is, can I do the reverse and have the shurflo PULL the sap from the tank at the sugarhouse. This would save me time going down there and allow me to stay at the sugarhouse. Any thoughts?

[Rselleck91]

It all depends on pump capabilities. I think it would move some sap just not as efficient as having the pump by the tank. If it was me I would keep my pump by the tank and run a power source out there on a 110v float switch. Let it pump automatically?

[Biz]

It's probably not going to work very well if at all. The pump needs to pull all the air out of the line, and it will take a long time to do so. I use one of my transfer pump controllers to pump my tanks automatically when full so something like that or a sump pump type of setup would save some time.

Dave

[Cjadamec]

If it's truly only minimal elevation rise from tank to building yea you can do it. You will have to set the pump up like you would if you were using it to generate vacuum on a tubing run.

Once you have the line from your tank to the pump full and primed you can shut off the recirculation line to the pump and just pull from your tank.

Congratulations you've just made a self priming pump.