Vacuum system design issues

[Maplewalnut]

I want to present this to the experts. I am going for it! Designing a vacuum system made up with an Sp-22 and a hobby releaser. Lets say I have 4 mainlines all go downhill but wind up 30 feet below my sugarhouse and milk tank. I also have one additional mainline that is at the same elevation as the lowest point but below the 4 other mains. I really want to mount the pump and releaser in the shack and run vacuum out to the low spot (about 50 yards) but an concerned over the 30 foot elevation difference. I could stop the 4 mainlines about 25 yards shy of the lowpoint (now 75 yards from shack) and use that elevation to compensate for the rise back up to sugarhouse. So the drop may only be 20 feet now. I would however need to lift one mainline run that would still be below this level

Option #1- Mount vacuum pump and releaser at the shack and run mainline from shack to the bottom collection point and run back up with a series of ladders.

Option #2 same as above but cut mainline short of low point where it joins the last mainline leg. Continue to shack using less ladders. (single bottom mainline run would need to be lifted up to jon the rest of them)

Option #3...???

thoughts....

[Russell Lampron]

Option#3, Set up the vacuum pump at the sugar house and put the releaser at the lowest end of the system with a collection tank. Run a vacuum pipe from the pump at the sugar house down to the releaser. Pump the sap up to the sugar house from there with a gas powered pump.

[Jim Brown]

Maple walnut; you said the area is only 50 yards from the sugar house. Run a piece of 12/2wg and hookup a sump pump and a float and the sap will come up at a set time so long as you have storage space at the sugar house. Just make sure you drain pump line on nights you expect it to freeze hard.

My two cents

Jim

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I agree. Put the vacuum pump in the sugar house and transfer the vacuum to the releaser at the low point. Pump the sap from there. Electric/automatic would be nice but it would not be difficult to pump it back to the sugar house storage a couple times a day with a gas powered pump. Ladders should be reserved for where you can't get sap out any other way.

[Jim Brown]

Maple walnut; We just put in 800ft of 1" pump line to get the sap from 900 taps from the bottom to the top of a steep hill.1" black plastic is cheaper than garden hose(.17a foot) Bought a surplus 4 inch in and out diaphram pump off a government web site for $200 and it will bring all the sap out of there we can produce.

Jim

[brookledge]

I'm in ageement with the others that suggested leaving the vacuum pump at the sugarhouse and running a vac. line down to your releaser at the low point. Using ladders is not your best option. There will come a time when either the power is out or something happens to your vacuum pump and having the releaser down low at least the sap can run on it's own into your tank. With ladders no vacuum, no sap.
To pump the sap out of the hole only 150 feet is easy with a small pump. You could have your vac. line and a line for pumping tied together going down the hill. Make sure the line for pumping has no sags to cause freeze ups
Keith

[Maplewalnut]

Nuts, I figured that was the way to go but didn't want to go back to the bookkeeper (wife) for another $400 for another pump unless there was no other choice.

[Gary R]

If you can get electric there you could go the sump pump route or there's transfer pump's for about $150 at all the store's. Just tell your wife how much your saving:) just like when they go shopping and buy things on sale just because they are!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Or pick up a good used pump or cheap one on ebay!

[danno]

If you have power close (at the sugarhouse?), I'd run extension cord to a $120 electric sump pump - cheap, clean and easy. My only question is whether the sump will move sap up that hill.

[Pete33Vt]

Just my two cents. The setup at the old sugarhouse was almost the same. I had 501 taps setup on two mainlines going to the vaccum pump and realeser. Which was about 50-75 feet in elevation lower then the sugarhouse and about 100-1500 feet away from the sugarhouse. The realeser was electric hooked to a transfer pump. When the releaser filled the float would activate the pump and push everything up the hill to the sugarhouse. It took about two pump ups to get the sap to the holding tank at the sugarhouse. Then it would cycle all day long without any problems. At the end of the day or end of sap run I would go down shut off the vaccum and let everything drain back down into a holding tank I had setup outside of the vaccum shed. I had valves at the end of both mains so I could open those to bypass the vaccum system and go right into the holding tank at vaccum shed to allow lines to drain out and to catch those runs when it warms up a little at night. Worked great as long as pump line to sugarhouse was tight without sags .also worked if power ran out would run gravity. Then just a matter of sucking out holding tank using the vaccum and pump.

[Russell Lampron]

Tractor supply has a nice 1" gas powered pump for $200. It is similar to my Honda WX10 but has a cage around it.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited