UV Inline sterilizer

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am going to install a UV inline sterilizer next year and I would like so ideas on where to purchase them and some feedback on how they work and if they are worth the cost. I have a 140 gallon tank on the tractor that I gather in and I can pump from that to a 100 gallon tank and let it gravity feed through the UV sterilizer into a larger holding tank.

I try to mainly boil on Friday evenings and Sat, so I think this will really increase my holding time for the sap a lot.

I would appreciate any and all input as I seen a post on here earlier today, but I am not sure where it was now. I have been planning for a while to install one and I can get one on ebay for fairly cheap if it will work correctly :?:

[syrupmaker]

Brandon....Most that i have seen in use are between the tank and the evaporator so that the bacteria is killed before it enters the pan.I would think that by running from tank to tank you would still get some bacteria while holding it till boiling time.Just my opinion as i do not run one YET.

Rick

[tubetamer]

We have used a UV light for 2 years now with no problems . Any bacteria you can kill at any time during this process is beneficial. I bought a 15 gpm unit off e-bay for about $200. Clean the bulb a couple times per season to keep the wave lenghts doing their thing. Some claim, not me, that you can make one grade higher syrup with uv.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guys,

Thanks for the help. I try to wash out the tanks every week or so and sanitize them good, so the way I look at it, it will help some.

Anyone tried using them and holding sap for several days? I am curious how much difference it will make and if it will make as much difference as Leader claims from the research that was done independently by the University of Vermont and Mrs Maple.

[powerdub]

Installing them before the evaporator does no good as the bacteria will be killed as soon as it hits the back pan, by then they have already done thier damage. Hitting them as you pump into the tank is a good idea but if you are going to save your sap for a few days you need either a light over the tank or circulate the sap through the UV light constantly. I would recommend the latter as you would have to agitate the sap somehow. The UV light suspended over the tank is only good for about three inches. I think it will make a difference but you need to keep at it as bacteria from the air and the tank will grow quite rapidly. Lets face it, most tanks are not sanitary tanks and have seams and crevasses that habor bacteria.

[MaineMapleDave]

The theory is that you need to have whatever in-line UV sterlization happen BEFORE your storage tank. The goal is to sterilize the sap so that you may hold it longer before boiling.

Most of the big maple equipment dealers have them and can offer some good advice on the best way to use it. I have a fairly blabby post under "Homemade maple equipment" describing how I have been using a fairly cheap one for 3 years now, but it depends upon recirculating the sap.

Good luck.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My plan is to run it through a UV light before it ever hits the storage tank to prolong its holding light.

I need to find a powerful UV light I guess, I don't need one with a high flow rate.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

That is more in what I am looking for. Thanks for the help. I may do a price search and talk to them so see if I can get one cheaper, but with a free bulb and shipping, it looks just like the one the maple suppliers sell for about half the price.

[saphead]

I stopped in at a sugarhouse earlier this season that uses a UV machine made for sap. The origional design was for raw cider which has FDA approval.The machine he uses processes around 600gph,a little more than his RO.The machine has 8 uv lights inside of the inner glass tube,this tube is surrounded by another outer tube leaving .100" gap between the two tubes which is where the sap is pumped through. The amount of light and proper exposure time results in 100% bacteria kill.Last season 2/3 of his crop was light amber while other large producers struggled to make 1/4 crop of light amber. His operation is around 6000 taps so the $3000 price tag was more easily absorbed,they make alot of candy and cream. As you will see on the website of Orchard Equipment Supply Co. ,the graph of bacteria and sugar content speaks for itself. www.oescoinc.com The biggie seems to be light intensity and time of exposure for 99.999% kill of the little critters. I'm trying to convince the owner of the operation where I work to buy one! Gathering tank-UV machine-RO-concentrate tank-evaporator-light amber!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Saphead,

Might be able to convince him of that if you do one item at a time versus all at once. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I like the stainless design on the web link listed above and I will be giving a lot of feedback next year on the advantages of it since I have made syrup for a number of years and I know how sap behaves.

[gearpump]

I have been searching the web for a UV unit myself. The best I have found so far has been at www.caitechnologies.com. I am not into all the techno facts about how there units compare to the ones made for the maple industry, but the price looks right.

Marty

That same place also offers 12 volt DC models for those of us without power.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

I am going to do some research and find out the technical information on both of them. As far as wattage and things. I was talking to Randy Gaudette at Leader a couple times in the past year and he highly recommends them along with about everyone else I have talked to.

One this he did say is that there should be no more than 1" of liquid on any side of the light for it to work the most effectively.

If you find out any other info, let me know and I will try to contact Leader and the internet company this week. I am also interested in how long a bulb will last and does it hurt to run the uv light dry and if it affects it to turn it on and off all the time. :?

[Tubetamer]

Brandon: We have used UV for 2 years now. We use a swimming pool pump to pump the sap up to the upper tanks and it gets air locked once in a while pulling off the old milk dumping station we use for filtering the sap through, so we shut the pump along with the UV light off and back on quite often. Hasn't hurt the original bulb yet. I know that these smaller UV units are used as a point of use disinfection unit in homes for an on demand basis quite often so they get turned on and off regularly. Should have a backup standby bulb just in case. I've read the other posts on this subject. If you used UV pumping into your tank and then the circulator through a smaller gpm UV light such as mentioned for an aquarium that would be the ultimate setup. I may have to look into a small circulator pump with a small aquarium UV unit to upgrade our system. Does it ever end? Been bit again.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Tubetamer,

I am going to pump my 140 gallon gathering tank into a 100 gallon tank and let it gravity flow through the UV light. This way it is going through it slowly and not exceeding the gph for which it is rated. By the time I get the 140 gallon tank empty, the 100 galllon tank should have fed enough throug the gravity line to hold everything in the 140 gallon tank. I am going to try to get a 400 gallon stainless milk tank for the 100 gallon tank to gravity flow into through the UV light and then pump it up into the 320 gallon stainless feed tank for the evaporator when the 400 gallon tanks fills up or I am ready to fire up the evaporator.

I don't want to deal with more than 1 UV unit so I can keep it simple. The stainless UV unit on the website listed earlier comes with an extra bulb.

[mapleman3]

saw this while browsing around, think it's an interesting way to go, it's a submersible unit with it's own pump, for ponds up to 2000 gals.. why not in a sap tank?

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/8990

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

Looks fine and there are a lot of those floating around on ebay and the internet. The thing I don't like about them is that they are low power unit and they kill a small percentage of the bacteria each time the liquid passes thru them. The idea is to pass it thru a lot to eventually kill all the bacteria and keep it killed. I like the idea of a high power light that will kill nearly all the bacteria with a single pass through.

I have thought about it for a year +, and it seems to be the way to go. I think all or at least most of the commercial producers that use the UV lights use the high power kind and only pass the sap thru it once!

[wanabe]

Brandon,

Have you decided on a type or brand of UV sterilizer yet? Im toying with the idea of getting one myself because my work schedule is 4 twelve hour days of work so my sap will have to set 4 days at a time. Ive never had a problem with this in the past because I bury my barrels in the snow. This year going from fifty taps to 250 to 300 It maybe a little more difficult to find that much snow at the end of March beginning of April. Ive been looking online but there are so many sizes and types its a little confusing.

Thanks Jeff

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeff,

I haven't done a whole lot more research on it. I have looked a couple of places but I haven't found a better one than the one on CAI technologies website.

If you find out any other models or better information, I would like to see them!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Here's another link with the same brand of unit that has the 5gpm on sale for a good price!

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/products/index/p220/220/61/73

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am sitting here waiting for my late appts this evening at work and found this old post. I did use a UV lamp last year and it is manufactured by Wedeco. It is identical to the one pictured in the Leader catalog this year and last year. I picked it up for $ 288 on the internet from Aquascience. It has a 13gpm flow rate and I was very impressed with it last year. I used it as a gravity flow last year, but this year, I mounted it directly to the wall and will pump the sap straight from the tanks on the tractor thru it and into the 625 gallon milk tank I picked up. My sugarhouse is on the North side and it is always 10 to 20 degrees colder inside the sugarhouse except when the temps get below 20 degrees. I have the milk tank sitting inside the sugarhouse where no sunlight can hit it and will the low temps that are in there and having an insulated milk tank and a UV light, I don't think I will have a problem storing sap for up to a week during the first 2/3 of the season. I have always stored all my sap inside and never had any outside, but I have never had a cool place like this. I know it will warm up a little when I boil, but with the airtight arch, it doesn't put off heat like it did, so I don't expect much of a temp increase inside the building that would affect the sap temp in the milk tank.

[sapman]

I've had a UV in my system since I started making syrup in '92, since I install them regularly for household water disinfection, so got a used one free. To be honest, I've tried unplugging it for a few hours, then plugging it back in during the same boiling day, and I really haven't seen much, if any, difference. This is inline, perhaps 20-30 minutes before the treated sap would enter the evaporator, which doesn't seem to me to be the most effective method. But when I talk to the experts, they say that's where it is usually installed. But still, as long as I have it, I'm going to use it. Don't know if I'd spend several hundred dollars on one, though. I know we get around $600-$700 to install them in houses.

The lifespan of the bulb we tell people is around 9-12 months. This is on continuously. The water will actually warm up when it hasn't run through in awhile. And the slower it runs through, the greater the kill rate of bacteria. Essentially, the bulb starts to weaken as soon as it's plugged in, from my understanding, but is considered to be effective during it's recommended lifespan. I think I replaced my bulb about 5 or 6 years ago. Also, the sleeve around the bulb can get a residue/stain on it that needs to be cleaned for full effectiveness.

FWIW, on a maple tour in 2000, a producer from Quebec was there, and said most guys up his way had stopped using them.

I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from buying one, especially if you can get it for just a couple hundred dollars, but it may not be as effective as one would hope.

Tim

[sweetwoodmaple]

From the few people that I have talked with on UV's. If you are able to boil the same day, it's not worth it.

If you have "a day job" and can't boil for a few days, it helps as long as you keep the bulb clean (some units have a wiper).

Heard also that they don't react too well to freezing with sap in them... 8O

Brian

[sapman]

That makes sense about boiling the same day. Very rarely have I not boiled immediately after collecting. Just gotta get the lightest syrup possible!

I don't think I want to see a frozen UV!

Tim

[brookledge]

I have had my inline UV for a few years and I feel that it helps but can't prove it. There are alot of other factors that will affect the final outcome of your syrup grade such as how clean your pans and holding tanks are. I have a UV lamp that hangs over my feed tank and it keeps the tank clean all season. Before the uv light the sides of the tank would get slimmy over the course of the season and now the tank stays clean. So I know that it keeps the bacteria from growing.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guys,

Unless you are using two uv lights like Keith, I think you are almost wasting your time putting it in the feed line before the evaporator. I think it will do a ton more good running the sap thru it before it even goes into the storage or feed tank. This is especially helpful if you are going to be storing the sap overnight or for a few days.

This way you kill the bacteria before it gets a chance to grow and do much damage, not 5 minutes before it is going to be killed anyways. :?

[MASSEY JACK]

Driving home last night I got to daydreamin bout this UV stuff. Here's a wild idea for everyone to shoot full of holes. What if..........the tubing was made of some sort of fiberoptic material??? We could put the Uv light in the sap storage tank and send UV all the way to the tap hole :D :D :D . Just a wild thought. Would that be cool or what?? Better than the pill!!

[maple flats]

You develope it and I will be your lab. Just send me the equipment and the report form, hook it up and run it. I will fill in the report to you in your postage pain return envelope. I will give an honest appraissal as I see it. Just notify me when you need my address for my sugarbush. Oh, by the way, maybe you should also get power run in from the road because the generator gets expensive to run with gas prices like they are. I will furnish the hot dogs when you need lunch and you can sleep in my spare bedroom.

[cropseyvillemark]

I can't wait to see the first photos of a glow in the dark sugarbush!

[MASSEY JACK]

I KNEW I'D GET SOME GOOD FEEDBACK ON THAT ONE :D :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Can you imagine what a roll of that tubing would run??? 8O 8O 8O 8O

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Here's one on ebay. Not sure if it can be used??

http://cgi.ebay.com/UV-Ultra-Violet-Light-3-GPM-Water-Purifier_W0QQitemZ4437359684QQcategoryZ20684QQssPa geNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Charlie