Horizontal CDL Plumbing Pics

[BradWilson]

Evening all. I'm looking for pics of your horizontal set up. We just bought a CDL 250 Horizontal and we're keeping it inside in a heated/insulated cupboard. The raw, concentrate and permeate tanks will be outside, just on the other side of the wall. I'd appreciate anything. Thanks in advance.

[VTnewguy]

We have a Memprotec 350 that is horizontal. We built a shelf for it and run hoses to our tanks. Just a trap door to feed the hoses out. When we're done for the day just pull the hoses back in the room and fire up the heater.

[NhShaun]

I bought the same unit and will be plumbing it all together in another week or two. I have done quite a bit of research on this subject but haven't been able to find a lot of pictures out there on the web.

Most importantly would be to avoid running the pump dry at first start up. These were designed to sit on the sap tank and pull about 3ft, but some users have reported premature pump issues or failure. If you can make sure your feed tanks are higher or nearly level with your RO inlet it will avoid unnecessary wear and tear on your pump from running dry at each startup. I am struggling with that issue the way my tanks are set up outside and about 4 feed below the pump. I have thought about adding a Tee on the RO infeed manifold i am designing with a valve that will allow me to back fill the line to whatever tank with Perm or water. Eliminating the run dry issue altogether. I have a Shurflo set up to my sink with a water tank(No well yet)in the sugarhouse and will just run a line from there to that valve by the RO to easily fill the lines. The same could be accomplished just setting a bucket above the valve and letting gravity backfill the line.

Design your system with Quick connect camlock style fittings on the RO tubing to make it easier to switch things around. Some users on here advised me to Tee in the Raw sap and Permeate infeed lines together with valves. Then you can just switch over to a Permeate flush to push out any last sugar without having to restart the machine(avoiding a possible dry start on your pump too!)

[VT_K9]

Our first RO was a CDL Hobby 250 in 2014. It worked like a charm. We found it liked a head lamp near the pump. We used Thermax type insulation on the walls and ceiling close to the unit to help keep the area warm over night. We had a 230 gallon tank inside we pumped the sap into from the woods. We cycled that sap through the RO and into a 160 gallon tank. Sometimes we recirculated the sap at this point. Then pushed it to a 100 gallon feed tank. We started with a sap puller and moved to full vacuum using this RO. We finished with about 450 taps and a 2X6 evaporator before an upgrade to larger sugarhouse and equipment.

Here are some pictures of our 250 and the tanks.

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