Will this old vacuum setup work for me?

Hi Everyone,
So my friend and I started a sugaring opperation at our High School, last season we taped 200 trees all on gravity. The other day I was at a yard sale and the guy was selling what he called a suction pump for sugaring. Unfortunatly I don't have any photos, but I can tell you what I know about it. The way it works is you connect your mainline into one side of it, and then you have a hose runing out the other side with the sap its pumping out, then to make sure the pump is not running dry there is another 'line in' that pumps sap out of the tank back through the pump and into the tank again. Right now it is hooked up to an old Wisconsin engine, although I am considering if I get it changing it over to electric. This pump didn't have a releaser or anything like what the new ones look like, it seemed really simple. The setup is really old, and it might even be home made. I'm wondering what you all know about this sort of a setup. The guy want's 25 bucks for it and then I'd probobly put some money into changing it over to electric..Anyway would this be worthwhile? All input is appreciated. Also (just have to throw this out there) we (my school) are still looking for lots of sugaring items, specificity an evaporator or anything really, so if anyone has one they could donate I'd love to hear from you...

Thanks for the help
-Brian

sounds like you may have a sihi vacuum pump hooked up without an extractor? the have an inlet, outlet and waterfeed. sounds like the mainline comes in on the suction side, blows the sap out the exhaust and keeps it prime constantly by having the sap feed in the cold water inlet. Correct me anyone if im wrong. I run a 3404 sihi and it will pull 27.5" in my woods with a cold water feed. However the way you describe it may have been set up i would not consider pratical, due to the fact that they will run warm and will heat up sap if hooked up in this manor. Anyone else?

I say that without pictures or a name plate it is hard to tell what it is.

Need more info, it might be a sap puller. If it is the tubes will need replacing. A sap puller just uses the roller principle. A roller or series of rollers pinch a tube and "walk" the sap from the inlet to the outlet. They need no releaser. Glen Goodrich sells them for smaller operations. Quite effective but the tubes that get pinched need routine replacement.

The Sap Puller that Goodrich sells is not a tube pump. It is a diaphragm pump. The tube pump was called a Sap Sucker. (aka peristaltic pump) Either one can run dry. If it is not one of these it should not have sap going through the pump. I do not think from the description given it is either, but we still need pictures or more info.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maple flats

A sap puller just uses the roller principle. A roller or series of rollers pinch a tube and "walk" the sap from the inlet to the outlet. They need no releaser.

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What you're describing is technically known as a peristaltic pump, AKA a "Sap Sucker." A decent description here

The pump sold by Goodrich is a diaphragm pump, known as the "Sap Puller." General description here. They are different.

Thanks for the correction.
Dave