Buried Vacuum line? [Archive]

labman

04-13-2009, 11:23 AM

Haynes Forest Products

04-13-2009, 11:55 AM

When you say vacuum line do you mean the main sap line that will carry sap back to the tank? Like a water line you will need to protect it against freeze up and if you do that than treat it as a water line and go from there. If its just vacuum then its easy keep moisture out and your fine.
If its your sap mainline then I would go with 1 1/2 with a dry line all in the same trench. Dry lines dont have to be higher than the sap line until it is conected at the vacuum booster/seperator.
Going that distance and keeping bags out of the line is impossible but than so is keeping bags out of lines supported by wire.
I would go for at least a 25 CFM 26 HG vacuum pump and a good tight system

labman

04-13-2009, 12:59 PM

Does anyone have their vacuum line buried underground out to their woods? if so how far is workable I have a 1500 tree woods approx. 1/3 mile from my house how big of a line? how big of a pump? Any info would be appreciated.

I'm just talking a vacuum line so I can run the pump on electricity from home and not a gas setup

Haynes Forest Products

04-13-2009, 02:36 PM

Thats easy then you dont need to worry about freeze up just make sure that you dont suck sap into the line and block it. I would run a 1" line to the releaser and go with a elec dry vane pump. I found a few on Ebay if you have the time. I ran a 21CFM Gast pump that was maintaining 25HGs in the entire bush 1125 taps for a day untill I hooked up the gas powers unit. How many releasers are you planning to use?

Squaredeal

04-14-2009, 07:41 AM

I visited a 100,000+ tap operation in Quebec which had their entire conductor line buried under ground. Each mainline came along though the woods to the point where it met the conductor and then dove underground to meet it. The conductor was about a 2 miles long. It was mind boggling to consider how much went into setting it up, but they said that it worked great, never froze and kept the sap cool during the day. An added bonus that I saw was that they were left with a great "road" above it which facilitated driving out to the deepest reaches of the bush.
Makes you realize how seriously these people take their operations.

802maple

04-14-2009, 08:36 AM

When going under ground bury big enough line never go on the slim side. I would recommend using 1 1/2 mainline at the very least.

brookledge

04-15-2009, 09:58 PM

If you do it you may want to put in some valves along the way so that if for some reason you do get a freeze up it could be isolated. I understand you are looking at just a vac line from the pump to the releaser but if you ever had a problem with the releaser or have a low spot that fill from condensation it could be a problem.
I would put a moisture trap in line at the releaser.
Keith