natural vacuum vs sureflow

[O3C]

I'm confused on the right vacuum system for my woods. I currently have about a dozen 3/16 lines in my woods, 25-30 taps on each line, at least 10 feet of drop from the last tap to the tank. Most days on most lines I can get 20-30 inches of vacuum on the gauges at the top. I have 3 other lines that are lower and close to the tank that do not have as much drop and would benefit from a vacuum pump but I am probably 2000 feet from any electric. Mu current system is pretty simple. Is there much more to gain on my 12 good lines by using a vacuum pump versus natural vacuum ? These are mostly reds very low sugar content but on a good day I can get 2 gallons per tap. Last year ended up with about 2/3 of a quart of syrup per tap so I have a ways to go. Is a quart per tap attainable on red maples ? Thanks Ron

[DRoseum]

I use a shurflo 4008 and an aquatec 8852 in 2 small vacuum setups across 100 taps. It is 95% red maples and I got 0.27 and 0.35 gallons of syrup per tap the past two years. I have good slope and use the pumps. Normally I am seeing 20 - 25 inches at the pump and ~30 for every tap.

[MajorWoodchuck]

I recorded all my trees last year every collection. I have only reds with lines going to buckets on the ground. My best tree was 12.5 gallons and my worst was 4. Average was 7 gal on all 125 trees. I averaged 43 gallons sap collected per gallon of syrup made. It was a weird year in my woods in 2022. Sap did not start until March 26th and I got tired of making the 3 hour drive each way and shut down April 21st. Sap was probably another few weeks but I had been going up every week from mid Feb on.

[DrTimPerkins]

On decent vacuum, reds will produce the same amount of sap as sugars, but the sugar content might be a wee tad lower (but probably not much). In terms of yield, for each 1" Hg additional you pull, you'll get 5-7% more sap.

https://mapleresearch.org/pub/vdbyields/
https://mapleresearch.org/pub/m1007sapcollectionvacuumlevel/

[TapTapTap]

You need to decide if it is worth the cost and extra maintenance for vacuum on 60 or so taps. Now if you're talking about boosting all your laterals then it is likely worth the effort. You should also be looking at whether your entire operation is balanced - do you have boiling capacity? Do you have time? Will you need an RO? Etc

Ken

[O3C]

Thanks for the resources Dr. Tim, very helpful. And Ken , I appreciate your perspective, had an old milk hauler that when I was thinking of making a change would say " How many more things are you going to have to change to make this work ! " I do have the equipment but this maple idea started and may end with my generation and probably within 5 years I'll downsize to a hobby evaporator and just make enough for family. Thanks for all replies. Ron