RO concentration tank

[brookledge]

do any of you have a small evaporator feed tank that gets filled faster then you can boil it? I'm curious if the RO can be shut off until the evaporator catches back up or do you need to keep the ro running until the sap you plan on boiling has all been processed.
Keith

[howden86]

I shut my r-o off anytime I want. My problem is the opposite. I boil way too fast for my r-o to keep up

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Keith,
If your RO goes faster than you are boiling or threatens to overfill your head tank, why not just recirculate? That's what lots of us do. Put a y in your line from the RO to the head tank with the extra leg going back into your main sap storage tank. Valve both sides so you can decide where to send the concentrate. If your head tank is getting full, just send the concentrate around again, when it gets low, shoot a more concentrated product to the head tank. I want my RO either concentrating sap and sending water over the hill or washing or rinsing. Spent too much on the sucker to just have it sit there.
Another problem that leaving it sit might cause or add too: There will be a concentration of bacteria in the membrane that will continue to grow while it is just sitting and will contribute to the membrane clogging.
Doug

[Russell Lampron]

I have a recirculation line like Doug. When the feed tank gets down I add more to it. I boil with a small amount of concentrate in my feed tank. I only use the bottom 6 inches. I run a high concentrate flow rate so that I can fill it fast if I need to.

[sfsshadow]

setting up my new r.o. this week.i am going to put a valve after the r.o.sending sap back to the main tank,and put an overflow pipe at the feed tank,sending sap back to the main tank.my feed tank is only 200gals

[Brent]

From the 2 little Merlins I used for the last 2 seasons, the concentrate came out faster than I could boil, so I would pump to the overhead, forget about it until I got a cold sap shower ( too many times ) then set it to recirculate.

This year I am going to put a simple overflow from the overhead and that will go back to be recirculated.

with the 160 GPH coming on line this year I plan the same thing up to a point. I think I'll limit concentration to something like 12 % then shut down if I get that far ahead.

[sapman]

I need to put a recirc line in this year. One suggestion I would make (to myself, in particular), is put in the 3-way valve like is on a filter press (Wes Fab brand, anyway). If I can completely shut off the flow coming from the RO, someday I'll do it. Already happened once, and fortunately it was an easy fix on a hose.

Tim