filter on RO

[Brent]

I'll be running a 160 GPH Airablo RO for the first time this year. There is a 20 sediment pre-filter on it.

How often do you guys change the filters? My experience on the little GE Merlins was that the pre-filter really slowed down flow and changed color after one day. Mind you that was a 1 micron filter and I see the recommended filter on this rig is 5 micron.

I want to get in a stock before the season starts.

[H. Walker]

I would think that the filter should be changed or cleaned after every use. Otherwise you would have a bacteria bath for the next sap run to go through.

[sapman]

I don't change my filters til they plug, which is pretty much every use later in the season.

Tim

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I also run my filters until they plug. I use a cloth cover for the filters that is washable and is changed every time that I rinse the RO. This greatly extends the time I can use the filters. Sometimes, if the flow is slowing way down, I could just shut down and change this cloth outer filter (I referred to them as diapers) and was good to go for a couple more hours. As Tim suggested, things really plug up much faster at the end of the season.
Doug

[maplwrks]

I use the diapers like Doug does. I change the diapers as needed, quite often the filter is fine.

[Russell Lampron]

I do the same as Doug and Mike but I call the diapers "beetle skins". I use the 5 micron filters that are recommended and only replace them when they get clogged. I swap them out when I do a wash using one for washing and the other for concentrating.

[maplwrks]

BEETLE SKINS!!!! I like that!!!

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

I have an airablo 1000 gph machine from Leader. Will these "beetle skins" work on the prefilters in this machine too?

[maplwrks]

They should, because the filter canister is the same. To the best of my knowledge, Lapierre is the only company that sells the "Filter Wraps"

[white mt]

Would cheese cloth work with 2 or so bands to hold it on the filter for a cover/ "beetle skins.?

[maplwrks]

These wraps remind me of a cloth diaper---about the same texture and weight. I would think that any cloth wrapped around the filter would work, as long as sap can flow through it. I think cheese cloth would be a bear to wash and reapply. I run my "diapers" or "beetleskins"through the washer when I get a couple of them filthied up.

[Homestead Maple]

Ya, all the cloth does is make it easier to clean the bigger "chunkies" out before they plug the prefilter.