Water Meter

[Hop Kiln Road]

I want to put a water meter on my 1-1/4" feedline doing 25 to 35 gph. Any suggestions meter sizing, brand or placement? Thanks, Bruce

[Haynes Forest Products]

From the water meters that I have used fire hydrant to irragation they all need certain amount of pressure and flowrate to be acurate.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I picked up a 1" water meter that was well used from one of the trader members a couple of years ago that was selling them. You can also pick them up on ebay too. Mine is inline between the storage tank and feed tank. I have a quick connect on both sides of the meter and it is pretty heavy, aprox 6 lbs I would guess and it has a backflow preventer built into the meter on the exit side. It works great and seems very accurate. What the quick connects work good for if in the event it froze up or something weird happened, I can take out the meter and connect the line together less the meter in less than 10 seconds. I have a 625 gallon Sunset milk tank for storage and a 320 gallon Lappierre SS round bottom tank, so I normally pump up quite a bit of sap at a time but it should work good even if you are only pumping up 10 to 50 gallon at a time.

With the quick connects, I have a male on one side of the water meter screwed onto it and a female on the other side so I have opposites on the line also so it connects right together.

I don't worry about gph rate during boiling, but at the end of the day, you can take total gallon boiled for entire day and boiling time including startup and shutdown and it will give you exact gph you averaged for entire day. One thing to mention, these type of meters can't be reset and may be in the millions when you get it. I write down the start # at the beginning of the season and the end # at the end of each day, so you know exactly how much you boiled off each time you boil.

[Homestead Maple]

I have a 1"feed line to my King evaporator with a Steamaway and I use a 3/4" Badger Recordall cold water meter inline to measure the flow through the evaporator per hour to check efficiency, so that I know when the Steamaway is losing efficiency. When I start a season I'm usually running 143+ GPH through the evaporator according to the water meter and around half way through the season the meter is telling me that the flow is down to 135 - 138 GPH, so I know that it's time to clean the Steamaway. The Badger 3/4" meter will flow 1/4 - 20 GPM, (15 - 1,200 GPH) according to the manufacturer's specs depending on the pressure in the line. I run approx 2 feet of head, at the lowest level, which figures 4.4 psi when the tank level is at it's lowest, and the highest level in the tank when it is full is another 34" above this, so with a full tank the pressure is approx. 10.5 psi to start. The outlet to my holding tank is about 2 feet higher than the inlet to my Steamaway. The meter has a plastic body and is a disc type meter. It is in the feed line just before the Steamaway.

[maplehound]

My experience has been told before but I will tell again. When i had a meter between my feed tank and the evaporatore, i almost lost my evaporator. The meter wasn't reading anything do to the low flow rate through the meter, When I wasn't watching things as close as I should have the meter stuck and wouldn't allow anything to come in. I noticed it just in time but It still took a while before I relized what was the cause of my problem. i highly recomend not putting a flow meter between the feed tank and the evaporatore for this reason. They are nice however to have them put between the holding tank and the feed tank. The flow rate, and pressure are high enough to get them working and if they get stuck It isn't as dangerouse in that spot.

[RileySugarbush]

Homestead: 2 feet of head is less than 1psi for water or sap. Just clarification for those looking at meters and how much pressure they need to run them.

I used a rotometer for flow rate, which is not a positive displacement meter so is less likely to block flow. However, it will not total the flow, just indicate flow rate. Another fun thing to add to the evaporator.

[Homestead Maple]

Your right.Excuse me. I should have said 2.2 feet of head equal 1 psi of pressure. With a sediment trap inline a head of the meter I've never had any problems.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I agree with Ron and not criticizing anyone for putting a meter between the feed tank and evaporator, but if it fails 1 time in 10 years, it could cause you a few gallon of syrup in the evaporator and possibly pan damage, etc.

[brookledge]

I think you are better off keeping the meter on the feed line to your head tank. And not on the feed line to the evaporator. When s%@* hits the fan you want no restriction at all. Plus the one I used isn't as accurate when there is a real low flow.
Keith

[Brian Ryther]

If you put the flow meter in the evap feed line be sure to put a bypass around it. Two tees and three valves are cheep insurance.

[Dave Y]

I put a water meter between my pump and head tank and took it off. It made my pump work too hard. my pump ran 3 times as long with it on than without it. If some one wants it I would let you have it for $25.