Vacuum filter not sucking

[Greenthumb]

My homemade vacuum filter not drawing syrup down now. I use a 2hp shop vac I filter hot and have tried it with maple DE both heavy and light amount per gallon and without l. Seems like it will pull about a quart and than just stops even if I empty the bottom pot. Obviously our syrup is darker but the first batch was great took like 5
Mins. To do a gallon or so. I use a orlon filter with a paper filter on top. Any thoughts ?

[ecolbeck]

It’s possible that a quart is all you get before needing to change filters. What diameter is it?

[Greenthumb]

The opening on the filter it’s about 7inches

[ecolbeck]

That’s not a ton of surface area so I’d guess that late season syrup is just plugging things up faster.

[LMP Maple]

I definitely ran into the same thing with my last few batches in my filter. Fouled up a lot faster DE did not seem to help one way or another. I agree probably related to the end of season runs.

[mol1jb]

I have been taking syrup off the evap through a couple pre filters to catch most of the niter before running it through the vac filter. This has helped a lot.

[needmoremaples]

De could be lodged in orlon still? I found letting the syrup settle out first really helped the filtering after. How much de did you use per gallon? 1/2 cup per gallon is what I heard but I use up to 1 cup per gallon on my press. Something to try. You may need a higher hp vac. I used 4 hp which seemed like alot also. It goes much easier without DE but if you want the clarity you need it. I stepped up to a small press and instead of 3 gal per batch, I now do 10 but could do 15 I think. Just need bigger bottler to do that.