whats the most inexpensive ro

[softmaple]

i am up to... well past my ears in sap. cant keep up this year. its going be a sad year if i have dump sap due to spoiling cause i cant boil down quick enough. but next year i need to have an ro in place to significantly cut the time down. what CHEAP RO machines have you hackers out there created? i need one, am going to build one, and going to have one next year to drop my boil times way down. i am realy intrested in building one for 2k or less. whats need, where do i get it, what do i need to know.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I got mine from clean water products its a CPW 100 and it works decent for 3k it might be able to be found used for cheaper. You'd have to run it with the evaporator or start ahead of time. I have had a problem keeping it warm. But i has been tested when it was fixed last year. right now its being tuned. If you can keep it warm its a decent machine. Figure it might process 35-40 gallons of sap an hour depending on temps. Some times i see them on Ebay all you need to do is switch the membranes out.

How many taps you running.

[MaplePancakeMan]

The link below is an ro that does 2200 per day or 91.6 gallons per hour at 77 degrees figure sap is usually 35-40 degrees you would process about 45 per hour. It would appear to be suitable, but you would need to put a different membrane (nano) i believe.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Reverse-Osmosis-2200-Gallons-per-day_W0QQitemZ130202929438QQihZ003QQcategoryZ57069Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[skinny78]

That looks like a good ro unit. I sent an e-mail to the seller asking if he would sell it without membrane and tds monitor both not needed for maple sap. That should bring the price way down. Then you could purchase a membrane for about $475 and be all set. I am interested in building a ro next year also but this looks tempting if he will sell without the extra stuff. Cant build one for much less.

[skinny78]

MaplePancakeMan,

How do you flush and rinse your ro? Also the commercial ro's have two pumps and the one on eBay only has one pump. Do you think the two pump models are more efficient?

[MaplePancakeMan]

Personally, i've never flushed it as i haven't actually used it. I have it at a maple syrup maker who fixes them (as he worked on them for a living) he tested it it his sap and is going to give me the run through on how to go about using and packing it next week as i never got any of that from the company . it condenses up to 4-5% sugar depending so i might have to run it through twice sometimes. I can get back to you on the answer. I just built a hot box in my barn for it with a door and lines that feed outside to a permeate and concentrate tank. i can see how two pump systems are more productive but it would ultimately depend on your needs i think it would be less expensive to run with one pump. I am by no means an expert but thats my best guess.

[mapleman3]

Bigger evap Mike !!


I have a chance to go up to over 800 taps... but......can't process that much and even if I had an RO I wouldnt have the time to run it through and boil in 1 night, so I'm trying to see if I can do 4-500 taps.... hopefully I get them

[Russell Lampron]

Jim 800 taps with an RO is like 200 taps without one. You run it while you are boiling and it's pretty much set it where you want it when you start up and forget about it until it shuts off.

An RO is a lot easier than you think to run and you use a lot less oil with the same evaporator. No need to get a bigger one.

Russ

[mapleman3]

I know.. but finances don't allow that investment yet... maybe a couple years... Mike, can you find more taps if you do an RO? you'll see you will have a lot smaller boils...

[Jim Brown]

Hey Russ; We are going to"baptize the RO tomorrow" have 450 gallons and more on the way. I'll no doubt be in touch!
Jim

[MaplePancakeMan]

I've used my friends RO and its pretty amazingly easy to run. He has one that came out of a hospital and it does my 275 gallon tank in about an hour. So if i get overwhelmed with sap which i have of late as my RO isn't back yet i get up early run the tank to him and i'm left with 75 gallons of sweet sap. The tank that would have taken me almost 10 hours to boil off now will take me less than three. Saves so much time and fuel. Mine won't work quite so quickly but i figure if i run it the night before, or an hour or two before i start i'll be able to boil off as much as its putting out even if its only taking half the water out, still better than the full amount.

[Mike N RI]

We are very happy with our new 100 GPH RO. It runs on 110V and does not need a "warm" room, as it has 8 drains that you open each night. The unit has two 1/2 HP pumps and a 4" x 40" membrane. We mounted it on the wall behind the evaporator. We have been able to process & boil 510 gallons with the RO and our 24" x 63" evaporator in 5-6 hours-- It would have taken us close to 20 hours last year. With the aid of the RO we can process over 80+ GPH instead of 28-30 on the evaporator alone. We saved a ton (literally) of wood and a lot of time.

We are believers-- best investment ever!

[Russell Lampron]

Jim Brown,

Good luck with the maiden voyage. The instructions on the front of the RO pretty much say it all except for the pressure to run the high pressure at. I run mine just under 500 psi. If the RO shuts off because of too much pressure just open the high pressure valve a little and restart it.

Russ

[softmaple]

we only boil on weekends due to having a woodfired evap and i have to collect for 2 or so hours every night. and im beat after that. this week we are swamped with sap i was out there last night with the wife after she ran the evaporator for monday and tuesday to catch up ( spring break is nice ) she runs the evaporator anyways. so we need to concentrate the sap futer so we can cut the time and wood use down. a bigger evaporator would be nice but i do like the 2x4 it gives us more room in the already small hut. if we can find a ro cheap enough it should offset the price that a 2x6 would cost. if we dont have enough sap the 2x4 can do smaller loads and not have to worry about running out of sap on the weekends when peole stop by. so an ro would suplement larger loads when needed.

[Mike]

CDL in St Albans has a 2 yr old 300galhr Lapierre for $6700

[mapleman3]

Hmmmm I just bought this !!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Reverse-Osmosis-6000-Gallons-per-day_W0QQitemZ130206880682QQihZ003QQcategoryZ57069Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

ok just kidding.. but I should... wouldn't it work???

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Nice looking unit, I wonder if it would work with sap. It is aprox 200 gph or less with cold sap.

[skinny78]

I think that unit would work. You wouldn't need the TDS meter or the membranes he sells with it. I emailed him about taking the extra stuff off on a smaller unit and he said they would build one however you would like. I asked for a price on a smaller single membrane unit less the TDS meter and membrane , but he hasn't replied with a price. The only thing I wasn't sure about was how to rinse or clean the membrane. It doesn't mention any wash valves. Does anybody have instruction they can post or send me for operation and cleaning of their reverse osmosis system? Also maybe plumbing diagrams?

[NH Maplemaker]

Hay Russ ! What do you think? Could this Work for us?

[Russell Lampron]

Jim L are you asking about the 300 gph Lapierre or the one on ebay? Both machines are a little small for a 3x10 evaporator but could be used. I would go for the Lapierre because it has circulators on the membrane housings which is important for cleaning. It is also manufactured specifically for maple so there is no guess work involved. The other one will need maple membranes and although it will work the membranes will need to be replaced sooner because it doesn't have the circulation feature.

For your size operation and evaporator you really need a 600 gph RO. The 300 gph will give you about 75 gallons of concentrate in an hour if you concentrate to 8%. The RO on ebay does even less.

Russ

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

I can get roughly 90 gals./hr. at 8% with my 300 lapierre. and about 75gph running at 10%. But I have the nf270 membranes and it starts to lose maybe .05-.15% of sugar if I go much over 10%.

[Russell Lampron]

I have the NF-90 in my RO it is slower than the NF-270 but passes only a trace of sugar. I crank it down so that it puts out .5 gallons per hour and take what it gives for sugar percentage. It it usually 8.5 to 9% but sometimes higher.

Russ