best piece of equipment

[40to1]

Other than your evaporator or sugar house, what is the best - can't live without it - piece of equipment you have bought for sugaring?

[Haynes Forest Products]

Filter press! by far the thing that will save the most time when you start to make drums full of syrup followed by my 2 double Bernard releasers.

[sapman]

Yea, filter press is right up there, along with RO, auto-drawoff(I'm spoiled now), vacuum pump.

Tim

[jdj]

RO, Steamaway, Vacuum Pump and Filter Press. And I almost forgot, an oil burner on the evaporator so i don't have to feed the hog wood now!!:D

[Lyle]

For me the best things so far are my filter/canner (used to use cones), and my blower. With the blower going I can make that 2x6 jump up and down!

[Russell Lampron]

The RO by far but the vacuum pump, releaser and filter press are also right up there on the great purchases list. Because of the RO I have used a cord of wood to make 97 gallons of syrup this season. Because of the vacuum I am able to get the sap to use the RO to make the syrup. The gravity and bucket guys are starving around here.

[220 maple]

This season my favorite item is the Snowshoes that I got on sale from Cabella's, just kidding! this season for sure the 35 cfm Indiania Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump. Worth it's weight in Liquid Gold (ie Maple Syrup)


Mark 220 Maple

[Greg Morin]

My Hydrometer with this I know Im actually making syrup

[mapleman3]

It was the filter press.. but now the new toy, my home built perfectly working auto draw off... man it's nice to know that even if your firing it will draw syrup when you cant. Now if I was on oil...

the other thing for me is my Cable TV LOL... My kids or wife hardley visit me in the sugar house anymore after all these years. I'm only 50' from the house so they don't miss me enough . So TV keeps me company too

[Dill]

White 5 gallon buckets that I get from the pig farmer down the street.
They work for everything, collecting, used filters, holding wash water, collecting drips from my bad evap plumbing, protecting the sump pump in the back of the truck.

[vtsnowedin]

18 volt Mikita cordless drill with Canadian tapping bit. Used it a lot building the Sugar house also.

[Brian Ryther]

Vac pump wins hands down. With out it there would be no sap. Without sap what is the point.

[vtsnowedin]

Vac pump wins hands down. With out it there would be no sap. Without sap what is the point.
Sitting here with a bone dry head tank in the middle of March I'm beginning to see your point very VERY clearly.

[sapbrush]

my back lol and legs to carry all those empty buckets

[backyardsugarer]

Vac pumps/releaser. RO could be it when I get one next year based on what I have observed.

Chris

[ennismaple]

Tough one - Without vacuum you get very little sap on days like we had over the weekend. We got better than 1.25 gallons sap per tap Saturday through Monday (total) where people on buckets and gravity got next to nothing. Without the RO machine I wouldn't have slept last night!

[Beans Maple]

Not even a discussion, my vacuum pump. Not me, or any of the rest of us even need other equipment if we don't have SAP. Years like this...no vacuum = no sap. 1300 taps on vacuum, 900+/- on gravity and the gravity/buckets didn't do squat. Vacuum pump gets my vote.

[Woodland Acres]

TUBING after lugging 1000 pails thru 3 feet of snow......

[farmall h]

Vacuum!;) Just dribbles without it and I have very steep slope=natural vacuum (not enough).:)

[Dennis H.]

Man I got so many new things this year it would be hard for me to pick which was the best.

I think I would have to lean toward the SP22 Vac pump. Without it I would have been collecting buckets and with the vac it saved me a ton of time that I used to other things.

But the Wilbur-Curtis RU300 coffee maker/bottler came in a very close 2nd. That thing is awesome when it comes time to bottle syrup.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Dennis H welcome to the what the heck is it? that thing its a monster coffee maker! cool as hell shiny all over how does it work? world of BOTTLING. Did you get that one on a buyit now off ebay for about $350.00?:mad:

[3rdgen.maple]

With a very sad looking face I gotta say it would be the 5th axle housing on the john deere. Real hard to collect sap without a tractor.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gotta love the filter press, ran three batches thru it other day back to back. Reheated all the syrup from cold and within 4 hours, it was all filtered and bottled 36 gallons in quarts and pints. Pressure got about 20 and one time, it was 25. Amazing how little sand and crap in the sap this year. Of course, that comes with boiling all sparkling clear sap.

Filter press also helps you might lighter syrup as it filters it sparkling clear, thus making it lighter.