Surge BB2 Question?

[Dennis H.]

Ok he goes, what kind of vac level can I expect with a BB2?

I finally had a few free minutes and put a motor onto the BB2 pump head to give it a try.
Run runs good and pulls vac but will only pull 12" of vac, is that all it will pull? I kind of figured that it would just as much as my sp22 but with alot less CFM's.
I have a 1HP 1725RPM motor with a 4 3/4" pulley on it. The large pulley on the pump is 12" so by my math it is running at 646 RPM's is this correct. My SP22 is running at 430 RPM's.

The next question what the heck is the knob thing on top for? I pushed down and gave it a turn and it went from sucking to blowing! I had to take the top off to figure out how to get it back to sucking.

Next thing, the pump head sits on a tank but it has the exhaust going into it not the inlet. So it seems like the tank is a big muffler, I would think that it would be a vac resoviour.

Thanks for any input. I will try and get a pic later today.

[red maples]

Well you might have a leak some where. On my bb2 I have similar setup 1725rpm 1 hp motor. 12" pulley on pump, but I have a 3" pulley on the motor. the button onthe top is a relief valve I think. I never use it. I put one in the line. I don't have a tank on mine. its just connected right to the intake side of the pump.

as for vac I pull 24"-25" vac end to end all last season on 900 ft of 3/4 inch black water pipe and 250 taps.

but as for the exhaust it should have a muffler on it. its a pretty quiet pump I don't have a muffler and its still quiet. I think how its suppose to be set up is the intake goes into the tank. I am gonna go on line to find a picture to see. post a picture when you get a chance something doesn't seem set up right

Here is the picture that I found. you might have it hooked up backwards. the pipe going up is your exhaust. the pipe going into the tank is the intake.
http://www.portablemilkers.com/catalog/item/3383249/4691208.htm

[waysidemaple]

According to my grandfather, the knob on the top changes the BB2 from a vac pump to an air compressor. When he had his small fram way back when he used it as both, used it to run the milk mackine and blow up tires. Not sure if that is the offical use for the knob but he demostrated it to me and it worked. Hope that helps.

Scott

[Dennis H.]

Thanks Guys I got it working right.

Scott once you said about your grandfather using it as an air compressor it all started to make sense to me.
I pushed down on the knob and gave it a 1/2 turn and it was no longer sucking it the outlet
But I still wasn't getting any vac at the tank inlet. I undid the rubber hose coupling between the pump and tank and took off the elbow at the pump and put a gauge directly on the pump head. Went right to 27" of vac.

Now why wasn't I getting any vac at the tank? I thought I might have a clogged tank well I turned it over found there was a few holes. Well there was more holes than metal. It was a little rusted out. I might try and fix the tank, I think I can weld a few patches onto the tank, we'll see. Or I might just use the tank as a nice stand for the pump and motor.

[red maples]

there you go!!! I thought there was something not right there!!! just hook your line to your releaser directly to the intake side. and all the other stuff that goes between, regulator, valve, moisture trap, and anti backflow put on backwards.

[Dennis H.]

I did some body work last evening on the tank, looks good. Not sure if it will implode when I put vac to it but I will find out soon enough.

I know I don't need the tank but I like the idea of having a vac resovior, it will aslo ack as a moisture trap in the rare instant that it may suck sap back to the pump.

I am for sure going to put a check valve before the pump(anti-anti-rotation device). My sp22 doesn't have one and I have to hold the vac regutlator open till the vac level drops when I shut it to keep it from running backward.

[red maples]

I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLYrecommend a moisture trap. sap back ups are not as rare as you think!!!! the traps are very easy to make. you can make one out of a pvc pipe or a whole house water filter which is what I did. just put in a racked ball or large superball remove the filter, and hook it up backwards(so that the side towards the vac is the center hole) as the sap fills the filter container(make sure you get a clear one) the ball floats and closes up the center hole shutting of the vac and preventing the sap from entering the pump. the filter that I found at loews was $25 and I stole a large rainbow superball from my kids. I had back-ups 3 times last season. they were all my fault. but I had no sap in my pump.

[Dennis H.]

Here are pics of the repaired tank. I had to grind the legs off to repair the large hole, then reweld them back on.

As for a moisture trap I am thinking about putting a flapper valve on the lower outlet of the tank and I also have a Delaval debris trap that I can use.

[waysidemaple]

Looks good, hopefully it will work for you.

Scott

[Dennis H.]

I got the BB2 hooked up to the tubing system and I found something interesting out, Those Bender milk receivers need ALOT of CFM's.

I can only pull about 17" of vac with the Bender inline but when I take it out with ball valves the vac shoots up to 24".

I open the ballvalve to put the Bender back in back down to 17".

I am not sure if it will work for me because if it is that bad with one Bender how bad will it be with 2 Benders. I run 2 Benders, one for the upper part of my property and one for the lower part.

This evening I have been working on the Surge Alamo to try that one out.
Last year I was running a SP22 and figured if I could get away with a smaller vac pump I could save alittle on electric. If the Alamo doesn't cut it back in the SP22 goes.

[danno]

Dennis - how many inchs of vacuum can you pull with the SP22? On how many taps?

I looked for one for a couple of years. I found all sorts of Surge's but no 22's.

[Dennis H.]

When I had the SP22 hooked up last year I ran it at 22" of vac with no trouble, I didn't want to kill the thing.

Both the SP and BB2 will pull 24-25" when closed up.

When you put the 2 side by side the BB2 is like 1/3 the size of the SP22.

The number of taps is very small with what this thing can handle but I have alot of mainline to get those few trees. There is something like 2-3000' of 3/4" that I have ran to the upper and lower trees.
Give you an idea the difference between the two pumps the SP will come up to vac, 22", with 2 Benders in about 1 minute. The BB2 takes about 3 minutes to get to 17" with just one Bender and that is as far as it will go.