Bender Milk Releaser

[Dennis H.]

I have a question about a Bender Milk Releaser/Receiver.

What is supposed to be on the bottom glass port?
The metal rod sticks down into it but there is nothing else there. What is to keep the sap in the jar until it's full?
Am I supposed to put a check valve there myself or is something missing that I should have gotten with it?

I will post pics later today of the receiver, just don't have the time right now.

Thanks for any info

[dschultz]

Dennis,The jar you have mounts on a ss pipe which goes to a transfer pump.That's why the metal rod is there.When the milk touches the rod it turns the pump on and sucks it out the bottom.

[Dennis H.]

This isn't an electric receiver, it is all mechanical.

I'll take a few pics after I clean it up.

[Grade "A"]

Dennis, I used 1" silicone milk tube and hooked it to a 1" check valve. The vacuum will hold the check valve closed until it dumps. You will need a check valve for the sap line coming into the releaser as well.

[lpakiz]

That's right--two check valves. One to prevent the sap from going backwards when it dumps, (inlet) and one to hold vacuum as it fills (outlet).
I have mine both mounted horizontal-one on each side of the glass spout under the jar.

[Dennis H.]

Thanks guys for the help, I will pick up a few check valves and some hose and give it a try.

I got it all cleaned up and ready to go back together but I have to reseal the float. When I was cleaning it all up I found that the float halves were not sealed the whole way around. So I cleaned the inside out as best as I could and right now I have some paper towels pushed thru the seam to dry the inside out. Once it is dried I will use silicone and reseal the float.

[Dennis H.]

I got a pic finally of the receiver.

If I understand how this thing works I have it labeled the way it will be hooked up.

I will also need to put a check valve on the glass port at the bottom labeled Sap out.
I will also need a check valve for the Sap In port, right?

[maplecrest]

the in port and out both need check valves. the most taps will be 300 max.i see you have a plastic float which is good. mine was stainless and froze quickly. on the very top is a gasket i had problems with air leaking in and freezing up. but a great starter releaser till you can afford a benard single

[lpakiz]

My Bender releaser had both check valves arranged horizontally under the lower nipple in an up-side-down tee. The main leg of the tee was pointing up and slipped over the glass nipple. The 2 remaining legs were horizontal and held the check valves--the one on the left was inbound and the one on the right was outbound. The port you have labeled as "sap in" is really a wash-out port to swirl and splash the cleaning solution around.
Lost the digital camera or I could take a photo--sorry

[markcasper]

I use 3 of them. One comes in at the bottom, the other 2 I have running in at the top. You are right, the top inlet was for washing only in a dairy application. I prefer the top and assume I get a wee bit more vacuum transfer. (less restriction).

As far as the air leaking, new seals should do the trick. If the glass is chipped a little, then it probably won't help much. In that case, I smear the top, inside and out liberally with vaseline. put the top back on and then smear the outside of the seal/jar with more. Hasn't failed yet.

[Grade "A"]

My Bender releaser had both check valves arranged horizontally under the lower nipple in an up-side-down tee. The main leg of the tee was pointing up and slipped over the glass nipple. The 2 remaining legs were horizontal and held the check valves--the one on the left was inbound and the one on the right was outbound. The port you have labeled as "sap in" is really a wash-out port to swirl and splash the cleaning solution around.
Lost the digital camera or I could take a photo--sorry

If you hooked it up this way you could use the upper port for a dry line. I had problems with sap gushing in the top and making spray that would freeze up the releaser. Maybe if you hook it up this way it wouldn't freeze up as much. I wish I would of thought to do that when I was using them.

[KenWP]

In the english langauage you guys are saying the sap comes in and leaves from the same port I believe. The vacuum is the very top one and he has to disregard the port he has labeled in as its for washing. Is this correct.

[Grade "A"]

Yes, that is what lpakiz is saying. The port for washing can be pluged or hooked to a dry-line with a check valve on it for better vacuum transfer.

[Dennis H.]

So what you guys are saying is that I shouldn't use the metal port on the side of the top?

My plans were to make a small manifold off to the side where the main line would come in and act as a holding area while the Bender was dumping, but i was going use that metal port as an inlet.

I will see if I can draw something up and post it here that sort of shows what I am trying to do.

[Dennis H.]

Ok Here is a pic of how I was going to hook up the Bender Milk receiver as a sap Releaser.

To me it looks just like a releaser that you would buy but the actual releaser part is the Bender milk receiver.
Please Let me know if my thinking is incorrect.

[PATheron]

Dennis- Doesnt the vac line on the top of the bender releaser get blocked off when the float goes up to the top and that lets it dump or isnt that how it works? Im kind of confused too. If you put your vac sucking on top of a homeade primary stage it wont dump will it? Theron

[Dennis H.]

For what I can tell the rod that the float is on will rise up and dump the vac out of the Bender which will allow the liquid to dump out of the bottom of the bowl.
Also it doesn't look like it blocks off the vac it just dumps the vac and it is running open to the outside until the float drops back to the bottom which then returns the vac back to the bowl.

The fitting on the side of the top goes only into the area where the liquid would go, so I can't see the difference between that or what someone else here has mentioned comeing in from the bottom.

I will have to try and get a few other pics of the Bender disassembled.

[lpakiz]

When the float rod goes all the way up to dump, it gets sucked up to the underside (nose) of the plastic vacuum elbow thingy and held there by vac until the weight of the (falling) float, (plus rod plus extra weight as necessary) pulls the rod and float down and off of the vacuum nipple. When it does fall, it lets vacuum into the chamber, thus starting the cycle again. It does not let vacuum out into atmosphere while in "hold", but rather just shuts it off and holds it until the float assembly drops.
Geez, not sure if I even understand it now.....
In the diagram you showed, move the upper left assembly straight down and hook it to the lower assembly, making two check valves in series, separated by the glass nipple at the bottom of the releaser. One check valve will be on each side of the nipple. Both of my check valves are orientated horizontally.

[vermaple]

Dennis,

I think your set up will work with one small modification.

Vacuum in only to the bender releaser as you show.
No vacuum direct to your manifold. The vacuum in the lines will close the check valve between the manifold and the Bender Releaser to maintain vacuum in the system while the releaser is dumping. The check valve will reopen when the releaser regains its vacuum.
Just be sure that the check valves that you use work easily enough to work with the vacuum.

[Dennis H.]

Thanks for the info guys, This is a work in progress so I will take any help that you'all can give.

[treefinder]

i haven't been on in a while so i might be a little behind. this is how mine was set up. the plastic valve on top is where the vacuum hooks up the s/s fitting you plug off. there should be a glass nipple on the side of it with a little ball inside that shuts the vacuum off to the pipe line, there is also a small ball on the bottom that also opens when its ready to dump and shuts for vacuum. if you have a wash jar don't waste your time they will only work on about 20 taps i have 4 of them that i would give away.ask casey to send you a pic of his . i sold these to him last year or look @ my pics and you will get the idea.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Here's the milk jar releasers i got from tree finder, there bigger than the bender washer ones and they work great, you can tell there differnt from the washer type

[Dennis H.]

Casey I see that the sap dumps out of the bottom hose, but is the side connection with the SS elbow where your sap comes in?

That is quite a bit bigger that the Bender washer/receiver.

[caseyssugarshack93]

yes with the s/s fitting is where the sa comes in witha flapper check vavle, on the washer your going to need two check vavles one for the bottom, then on fore the top of the releaser, there a little differnt then the ones i have because mine have a place for the sap to come in,on the glass, one the washers they come in on the top, which is probably better so it dont have to pull sap though the sap already in the glass, but maybe it dont matter but hope i helped,

[PATheron]

Casey- Do you have a pic of yours all hooked up with the valves?

[caseyssugarshack93]

thats all the valves i have that s/s fitting has a flapper valve in it and on the bottom theres like a inline ball check valve, all i have to do is look the vac to the top and hook the mainline to the s/s fitting and im pretty much ready to go

[brookledge]

Another thing to remember when using them is the amount of vac that you are using. They were made for the dairy industry and work good for about 15". If you are planning on having higher vac you will need to add weight to the float to get it to reset. To heavy and the float won't shut off the vac and the sap will go out the vac line and to light and it won't reset after it dumps.
I have had good luck in the past running them with just lines hooked up to water to get it to work properly with higher vac.
Keith

[markcasper]

Catching up on posts......one more thing. If you have extreme vacuum leaks, the bender will not work and you will get frustrated really fast. I have walked the 1/4 mile many times back into the woods trying to fix lines, only to have the bender get stuck and hung up and no vacuum transfer. Its best to have a person monitor the bender while the other fixes the BIG leaks to get it to work initially. Then use a cell phone or walkie talkie to communicate.

[caseyssugarshack93]

http://cgi.ebay.com/SURGE-DELAVAL-BENDER-MILK-WASHER-RECEIVER-JAR-w-Mount_W0QQitemZ140342018200QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_D efaultDomain_0?hash=item20ad094098&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 here is a smaller setup of the kind i have see how the sap/milk comes into that stainless side fitting, and then below that it dumps, out hte bottom, i never seen a smaller one like this i seen the ones dennis has but not set up like this, check it out

[Dennis H.]

I was asked to post new pics of my small Bender Milk releaser setup so here they are.

The 1st pic is the one that dumps into the milk tank and the second pic shows my homemade dumpvalve that I am using on that one.
The 2nd pic is of the Bender that I have on a 50 gal tote on the lower part of my property. It aslo has the same style of dump valve.

The changes that I made since I originally installed tham was to add the 4" PVC pipe res/manifold next to the Bender. I was have trouble with sap being sucked back up the line when the Bender would dump. Now there will be a place for the sap to hold over till the Bender is done dumping.

[MASSEY JACK]

I have a bender releaser that I bought from Maplecrest. I was able to buy all new gaskets for it from a place in Vernon NY near the Maple conference. It used to have brass check valves with it. They do not seal up good enough and I would get bubbles coming up under the float which affected the float operation. It also caused foaming in the releaser. I replaced them with the clear pvc ones that seal better and it works much better. Also, the plastic ones don't freeze up as fast. I had originally put the discharge check valve down in the tank. It would freeze up at night but would not thaw quick enough in the day.I drilled a hole in the reservoir area after the check flap to allow it to drain and it cured the problem. I also recommend having the check away from the releaser as it adds more reservoir and helps increase the cylce time of the dumping so it does not have to work so fast(more constant vacuum on the trees).

[farmall h]

Masseyjack, your right...the brass check valves do not seal as well as the inline plastic "ball bearing" check valves. Dennis H needs to blue print his conversion. He has it right.:cool:

ps: Dennis H. Got the pvc all glued up to the bender mechanism. Gonna try it out on water this weekend. Wish it were clear pvc but too expensive$. Will post pics once satisfied.

[maple sapper]

That arraingement would work well for a small guy like me. Anybody got any of those benders? or access to some particularly in NH or maybe shipping is an option. send me a message.

[Dennis H.]

Here is the post on the Bender setup that I made Marc.

I made sure that the 4" PVC resoviour is mounted at least at the full level of the Bender. Other wise the Bender never dumps until the res' is filled also then will dump like 4 or 5 times in a row.
You can see in the pics below how high it is mounted compared to the Bender.

Oh one more thing. I was have a problem with my homemade dump valve. The rubber seal would get sucked in and cause a really bad vac leak. I just couldn't find an answer to that problem so I took another clear flapper valve that I had and I cut everything off the one end up to the flapper and attached that to the elbow worked great. I tried making one my self and found I couldn't make it work as good as something that I could buy so I will leave it at that.

[farmall h]

Dennis, I would be more than happy to ship Marc a Bender. The small unit should be just right for his amount of taps. I will include the original Bender check valves as well. Maple Sapper...pm me for details. Will make it worth your while.:)

[Bucket Head]

Guy's,

The place in Vernon, NY is Eastern Crown, Inc. distributors of dairy supplies. Phone 315-829-3505

Steve

[tstew]

anybody know where to get their hands on the plastic fitting on top of the benders were your vac line hooks in. Picked up 2 of the bender releasers and that fitting was broke on both. I have checked with local dairy suppliers with no luck. any help would be appreciated.

[farmall h]

tstew, I would suggest getting a bolt with the proper threads and drill down the middle with a drill press...maybe a socket head cap screw or threaded rod. The fit doesn't have to have extreme pressure between the jar and bracket, they are hand tight only.

[Dennis H.]

Check out Hamby Dairy Supplies. I got 2 of them last year for the 2 benders that I got.

Bender Top Fitting (http://hambydairysupply.com/xcart/product.php?productid=879&cat=120&page=3)

[tstew]

just order them, thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.

[jasonl6]

I am also having problems with my check valve lettiong in air at the bottom of my bender. Does anyone have a good source for buying a ball style check valve?

jason

[Dennis H.]

I would replace it with a flapper style checkvalve, unless it has to dump straight down.

Here is where I got my flapper CV's they are clear so you see them working when you are really bored!!

Clear Check valve (http://www.aquacave.com/swing-check-valves-true-unionbr-clear-pvc-socket-connection-479.html)

The one thing about these CV's are that they have unions on both ends so it easy to remove to clean.

[jasonl6]

thats almost identical to what i have already. Mine are black and were from home depot. I'll check to see how much pressure they are good for but i think it was over 100 also. I'm pulling 26lbs right before the releaser.

jason

[Dennis H.]

I couldn't find them localy around here that is why I ordered them on line. The cheapest I found that are clear was from Aqua Cave. I can't remember where but I know you can find the white ones cheaper.

[lpakiz]

The thread into the top bracket of the Benders is 1/2 inch Coarse thread.
I made a few by drilling out a 1/2 X2 inch long bolt on the lathe. Then I turned the hex head down til it just fit into the vacuum hose. I did experiment with one bracket by drilling out the 1/2 inch threads and tapping it to 5/8 NC. Then made a 'fitting" with 5/8 bolt. This allowed a bigger vacuum passage...