Memprotec Hobby 100H or CDL Hobby 125V RO

[concord maple]

Looking for any feedback between these two hobby ROs from anyone using either.
Thanks.

[Robert K]

Looking for any feedback between these two hobby ROs from anyone using either.
Thanks.

I have the CDL 125 , I would say for those with small tap counts and limited boil time a good choice. From what I have seen the memprotec looks the same as far as I can tell. Keep it in a heated enclosure, any problems I have had related back to ice crystals. Good to 6 and when pushed hard 8% . I mostly just did 1 pass to 4%. This is not a professional machine, but a cost effective way to cut boil time.

[BAP]

Looking for any feedback between these two hobby ROs from anyone using either.
Thanks.
Have you looked at the RO’s from The RO Bucket? He makes some nice 60,80 and 140 gph machines and is located in New York.

[concord maple]

I have the CDL 125 , I would say for those with small tap counts and limited boil time a good choice. From what I have seen the memprotec looks the same as far as I can tell. Keep it in a heated enclosure, any problems I have had related back to ice crystals. Good to 6 and when pushed hard 8% . I mostly just did 1 pass to 4%. This is not a professional machine, but a cost effective way to cut boil time.

Do you get 125 gph on the first pass or a little less?

[DMF]

This is not a direct answer but we have the Memprotec 200. What we love about it is that it is made to self drain and it is the only RO that can be kept in an unheated space. We have ours mounted outside over our 600 gallon tank. There is a thawing procedure to follow before start up. It ran flawlessly for us last year. Also, we had questions during one of our first uses, called the number on a Sunday and someone picked up and walked us through our questions. I called once more at the end of the season when I was putting it away for the year and again a person picked up and answered my questions right away. I'm not sure how the CDL customer service is as the only CDL item we have is a 100 gallon head tank and that's pretty fool proof, but I can't say enough about Memprotec's customer service. Top notch!

[concord maple]

This is not a direct answer but we have the Memprotec 200. What we love about it is that it is made to self drain and it is the only RO that can be kept in an unheated space. We have ours mounted outside over our 600 gallon tank. There is a thawing procedure to follow before start up. It ran flawlessly for us last year. Also, we had questions during one of our first uses, called the number on a Sunday and someone picked up and walked us through our questions. I called once more at the end of the season when I was putting it away for the year and again a person picked up and answered my questions right away. I'm not sure how the CDL customer service is as the only CDL item we have is a 100 gallon head tank and that's pretty fool proof, but I can't say enough about Memprotec's customer service. Top notch!

Did you get 200 gph on the memprotec unit? Also, what % did you get on your passes?

[nymapleguy607]

Mempro or CDL ro machines of that size are going to be very similar. GPH will most likely be slightly less that advertised but will depend in temp and condition of the incoming sap. What you need to remember is that machine total output is 125gph it splits between the concentrate and the permeate flows. Go with the best dealer support you can get as that will make or break a season. Good luck either machine will be a good choice.

[DMF]

Did you get 200 gph on the memprotec unit? Also, what % did you get on your passes?

Yes, Memprotec 200 is a 200GPH unit which is pretty accurate as we would go through our 600 gallon tank in 3 hours repeatably.
According to my records we got:
1.6 - 3.1
2.3 - 4.0
2.0 - 4.2
1.6 - 3.9
1.8 - 4.2
1.4 - 3.2
For some reason I didn't record the after RO for our last two boils. This was running the machine with the floats for concentrate/permeate almost level each time.

We don't batch the sap all in one tank like Memprotec illustrates in their literature. We have a 600 gallon tank that we put the raw sap in. It goes through the RO and feeds the 100 gallon head tank in the shack which in turn feeds the evaporator. Once the evaporator and head tank are full, the 100 gallon tank overflows into our 400 gallon tank as the RO will outpace the evaporator. Once the 600 gallon tank is empty and the RO shuts off, I'll swap the intake for the RO to the 400 gallon already-concentrated tank, but I don't have a good way to measure percentage coming out of there. Not much gets run through twice. If we are boiling slow (ie open house, guests/customers coming in and out) there's probably only 200 gallons in there, much less if we have no visitors and we're boiling hard.

It works for us. It's our first year with it and we are very pleased. There are valves on the unit to drain at the end of the day to remove as much liquid out of the unit to prevent total freezing. During the start up, you let a little sap run out of the valves in a certain sequence to prime everything. That's fine if you mount the unit over an open tank like they illustrate but ours is not so it killed me the first time we used it to see sap dumping on the ground. Many of the valves had a barbed fitting but not all of them. The ones that did I put hoses on to go back into the 600 gallon tank during priming. When we went to the open house in VT last month, I mentioned it to them and told them they should supply each valve with barbed fittings for customers who may use the unit like we do. Yesterday, out of the blue, I had a package in the mail from them with a bunch of barbed fittings, free of charge. It's little things like that which makes me like them even more. We're just a small operation and they answer the phone and help us like we were the biggest producer they serve. That means something....

[EriobNY]

I purchased the CDL 125 V. unit at the end of season sale last year. Haven't used it yet, but I'm curious about the drain valves at the bottom of each canister should drain the majority of the sap in the the canisters given that there is a valve at the top between the two series membrane canisters that would allow me to let air in the canisters "back pressure" for complete draing. Regarding the Memprotec 100H, how does it drain so that one doesn't need to keep it from freezing yet, no mention of this on the CDL 125? The Memprotec unit is the only R/O unit that seems to disregard the "keep it from freezing" policy. Asking because I want to simplify daily operations. I.e. building a heated closet and how to heat it using LP.
As far as keeping the R/O from heating:
I'm off grid so running a generator for electric is expensive when I'm not running the vacuum.
I'm looking for a heating system that runs on LP and will switch on/off using a thermostatic switch.

Any thoughts on the draining and/or the specific products would be great!

[Bricklayer]

There is no way I would ever use my RO for the day , drain it and walk away and leave it in an unheated area exposed to freezing. No later how many drain valves it had on it. Even just leaving damp membranes in freezing temperatures would make me nervous. I’ve had pressure gauges unhooked from anything just sitting on their own go all wonky after freezing with just a little splash of liquid in them. I find it hard to believe that any manufacturer would advertise that their RO can be left in freezing temps after drained.

[Robert K]

Some-what of a measurement has always been a bit less than 125. It really depends on things like temperature and sap quality. For the money it works well. If my tap count grows in the future I would consider a professional machine able to process to 8% on a single pass.