RO Storage ? from the new guy.

[Justin Turco]

I pick up my RO on Monday afternoon. Springtech Mini Elite. The guy did a wash cycle on it at the end of the season and a rinse.

He is going to do an "acid treatment" ???? Is that an optional thing or is that something you definately want to do.

Randy at leader said that this little machine can be a pain to remove the membrane from and that maybe I should skip getting a "vessel". And just keep the membrane in the machine. I'd like to leave it in an unheated (to be built) RO storage room just off my sugarhouse. What are the typical chemicals or Antifreeze that is used to protect the machine and membrane during the off season? I realize it may depend on the type of membrane that you have. I DONT KNOW.....

I am thinking about sending this membrane out for a cleaning and checkup. (Even though it's only been used one season.) So that I start next season "Knowing" what I have.

[Russell Lampron]

It may be a pain to remove it but sending the membrane out to be professionally cleaned is a good idea. If you had a tank of permeate water on hand you could do the acid wash yourself but at this point you don't have anything to rinse the acid out when you are done. You also don't want to let the membrane dry out or freeze so getting a storage vessel or making one is also a good idea.

[Justin Turco]

Thanks Russ. It still seems like rocket science to me.

ps. Russ, pictures of the Doodle Bug would be cool. My Dad told me that many people used to have a doodlebug. You're the only guy i know with one today.

[Russell Lampron]

Justin when I get a chance I am going to take some pics of the doodlebug and post them. I also still need to take and post some pics of my bucket washer for someone who had asked before sugaring season.

[lpakiz]

Russ,
I too would like to know more about a bucket washer....
Does it use brushes, jets or???
Larry

[Sugarmaker]

Larry,
( sorry to get this thread off course. )
You can buy a bucket brush from most dealers. I have some pictures on my web site of ours.

Justin, Hope the new R.O works out well! Probably the way to go! I am a little old school, and a steam away is a jump for me!

Chris

[Justin Turco]

Chris, I hear you brother. I have taken pride in the fact that we basicly did it the old fashioned way. But we have grown out of our evaporator and don't have the space to go bigger. I always hankered for a 2.5X8, but I truely don't have the space. (It would be hard to knock out a wall, the way our sugarhouse is set up.) One day I finally said to myself, this is what I've got and I can't go bigger. That is when I really started thinking I too, would like to have an RO. Hopefully this won't be the thing that takes the fun out of it. (It should be fun to actually "see" the syrup that comes out of our little evaporator when it's drinking 6-8 percent sap, and to see how much faster the storage tank goes down when your drawing off 3-4 times as fast.) Maybe this won't happen, but I've told myself that when the sap is really nice I am going to make at least some, "real" fancy boiling 2%. Long live the 6X16 with the 2 foot stack and four foot wood! The Grimm Sap Bucket and team of oxen.

[Russell Lampron]

Justin you're going to like boiling concentrated sap. Once you have done it you won't want to boil raw sap again. The RO made sugaring fun for me again.

[markcasper]

I like the fact on lots of different angles. I actually burned 20 bundles of popple slabs this year combined with my hardwood. I could cut that literally down to 5 bundles on the same amount of syrup. That to me is unbelievable.

Instead of spending $775 on those 20 bundles, I now would be down to maybe $100 for slabs (to start and shut down) That would be a savings of at least 650 a year x 10 years=$6500. That amount saved would therefore be deducted 100% off the cost of the R.O., not to mention the extra labor involved and time saved evaporating.

[wdchuck]

..........And dont forget that because its so much easier to get a full seasons wood cut up each year, you'll get way ahead and your wood will be bone dry! Heck, this year we were burning dry cedar slabs from our portable mill mixed with a little hardwood- plenty hot to boil with! Our theory since getting an RO is that if its dry, it's ok for sugarwood.............

[Russell Lampron]

Larry the bucket washer is basically a 30 gallon barrel turned on it's side with a motor driven brush inside. It is cut out on one end and the bottom section is like a sink. When I get it back home I will take some pictures and post them.

[lpakiz]

OK thanks. I will look for them. I went to your website, thinking the pics were there but couldn't find any pics of a bucket washer anywhere...

[Sugarmaker]

Larry,
If you are commenting on our web site, you need to click on each of the four pictures on the picture page.
Let me know if it doesnt work. I haven't checked in a day or so.

Chris