How's my vacuum

[Brent]

I've just rigged up a sap-sucker style pump on my new tubing with about 160 taps. It's drawing about 16" vac and when the pump shuts down it takes about 5 - 7 minutes before the vac is lost down to zero.

What kind of performance am I getting compare to you guys with "real" vacuum systems.

I was fixing leaks today and pulled one tap, cut off the spile and put on a new one, and not one drop of sap ran down the tree. When I put the spile back in I could see it slowly start to suck sap out. I was pretty impressed. That's sap I would never had seen in a bucket.

[mountainvan]

16 inches is good. I pull 19-20 with my "real" vacuum pumps when there's no leaks in the tubing.

[Russell Lampron]

16" is good for a sap sucker. I am pulling 23.5" with my SP 22 and getting tons of sap from my red maples. On a comparison note my reds on buckets have done nothing this year. I know of 3 of them that will find there way into my outdoor wood furnace.

[Gary R]

Brent, is that a peristaltic type or double diaphgram? Curious as to how it works for you. Thanks

[Brent]

It's a peristaltic. aka hose pump.

It has a 3/4 Hp motor. I think I've got to make myself a sort of releaser and use this pump with a float switch with a small vac pump to run continuously.

[Brent]

I just wanted to add that after going around the lines and fixing leaks this pump was drawing 19" of vacuum.

The issue is hose life. So on to the solution in my next post asking for help.

[Peteyp426]

Is 15 - 18'' of vac enough on trees? Going to be approx 300 taps on approx 1500 feet of main line.

[Brent]

This is my first year on vac so I'm no expert. Half this season I was getting about 16" that improved to 19" with some TLC on the leaks. There were some days when it seem to make a difference compared to our buckets. Then there were days when the buckets had next to nothing and I had 150 gallons in the pipeline tank. I think the serious guys will tell you 22 - 24" is the target. The more the better.

[Haynes Forest Products]

This year I was pulling 25HGs in the backside of the bush and sap was flying into the releaser and when I would open a spare manifold valve and lower the vacuum down to 20HGs I could see a dramatic change in how the sap slowed way down. I think shooting for 19 will disapoint you if something fails or a leak develops and you lose alot of production.
The nice thing about having multible lines comeing into the vacuum tank or releaser is you can isolate the individual mainlines and check them for vacuum loss and not have to walk the woods everyday looking for problems they will show up as you check your lines one at a time.