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Parker--I would think if you concentrated to 8%---4000 gallons would be turned into 1000 gallons of concentrate. It would leave you 3-4 hrs of boiling. There are a couple of positives here
1. More time for the woods
2. less wood consumption
3. more sleep
Negatives:
1. Beer to syrup ratio goes down
That old Osmonics machine does not have much recirc flow so the fewer membranes you can get by with the better.
As you add membranes the recirc flow you do have is lessened for all the membranes in the machine. If you ever try to make very high concentrate your permeate flow will be very low and the membranes will foul quick and without good recirc flow will be hard to even get clean again.
I would suggest you single pass and at most remove about half of the water. 3% or 4% concentrate will cut your boiling in half and still keep Marvin happy.
The best money you will ever spend will be on some good multi stage (sand, 5 micron, 1 micron) filtering equipment ahead of that RO. If grungy slimy sap gets in that RO it will all but ruin the membranes and your flow.
Parker- I was using two 40 by 8" membranes in the seprotech. That guy probly knows what hes talking about single passing. The seprotech is older too but it has a seperate recirculation pump that is plumbed into the system. That passes for what the modern ro's use on the bottom of each tower. They are recirculation pumps. As I understand it on a 4" membrane the high pressure pump provides the recirculation for the membrane. You can do like he said and single pass it and try not to get greedy. That will still make you do way more with the evaperator. So say you take 2% and single pass it to 6% thats still way better than raw. I would still think that if you ran it open flow with your concentrate and recirced it it would be pretty easy on the membranes and you could do that while your gathering but maybe once it gets a bit high it would plug it up faster Im not sure. I know that that is not the case with either one of my machines. Its easier on mine to recirc it open flow to 18% and will plug it less than trying to single pass it anything over 8%. I think it may be easier on it than even single passing it to 8% but Im not sure becouse Ive had to recirc it to high concentrate as long as Ive been doing it becouse of my small evaperator. You have to filter it good. You need to at the very least have some of the small filters on the front of the machine and you can buy socks to put over them too. Thats a minimum. Thats all Ive ever done before but this year Im plumbing in a lapierre two foot filter in front of each ro. Im doing it becouse every year we get a lot of crappy sap down here and it does slow the ro down a lot. What sucks it they are 500$ apiece. Ive decided this year it has to be done. You need a big tank to capture permeate water. If its a thousand gallon unit you should keep a thousand gallons of perm. You run the unit concentrating a max of 4 hours do a rinse, conc four more hours do a rinse, four more hours complete wash and then rinse the unit with all the perm. If you want I have some real good books that came with the seprotech. Ill make a copy and send you one. It explains in real good detail how your supposed to wash that unit and probly would be a pretty good guideline for yours. One other thing Im doing this year to mine is Im incorperating a hot water rinse. Roughly 90 degree rinse water Im going to rinse the units with every four hours or if they decline very much in output. Ive put a seperate tank in the shed just for that. Ive never gone to that kind of trouble in the past but the book it pretty big on that and Im going to try it. Anyway hope some of that helps. 802 maple really knows a lot about ro's and the other guys on here do to so shoot the questions out as your going and everybody will chip in and youll be all set. Theron
Patheron, The warm rinse works real well even on the old machines like I have.
Its surprising to see how murky the water gets when you do a daily warm rinse even on a machine that is flowing well. We go to 115 F degrees, the pumps will heat the water for you as it runs.
Parker, don't get discouraged thinking you will spend all the time the RO saves you --- fiddling with the RO. When you see that stream of water going down the drain and you can go to the woods instead of boil it will be worth it.
been bricking up my 3x10 arch. coming good. ill take a few pics and post them in the next few days. Sugarhouse is looking great. just waiting on barndoor rails for our big door we put in the front. hope everyone is doing well. i been cutting wood out of the new sugarbush everyday after school. we got a 50 foot wide path 900ft cleared. were getting there. have to go about 500 feet wide though and about 1500ft long alot more to do
NATE
P.S ITS TIME TO GET INTO MAPLE SUGARING GEAR GUYS!:D
all it,s done here is rain and it sure has put the damper on everything.i was hoping to have my little sugarhouse inclosed by now..but!! i think tonight after work i,ll go out in the garage and work on my arch.i,am also building my own syrup strainer..it,ll be the flat filter type.
yesterday,i got my corny type keg and i,ve been looking that over..i,am going to try and make a releaser out of it.
delbert
My fabricator came today and installed my new replacement door that the oil burner will go into. He did a beautiful job, and it fit perfectly! Just need to install the oil burner and insulation around it. Will post pictures soon.
I got to meet Daryl form NW PA Weds. He brought down my new filter press!!
That is one cool little filter press! Very nicely made. Honestly I didn't know what to expect I just wanted to get a look at it. Once I took a look at it I had to have it, almost couldn't right the check fast enough!!:D That thing is very well made and the machining work is awesome!:cool:
It was nice to chat with Daryl for awhile I just wish I didn't have to goto work that evening.
My part for my mig welder finally came in I will have to pick it up in the morning. Now I get a few welding projects done.
It is amazing how fast time is flying now! Just under 3 months to go and with holidays and maple seminars that I wish to go to, there is just not much time left!
Jim Brown and his wife Darlene were out this way this past week and My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting up with them Thursday evening. We had a couple of boiling sodas and a nice meal at the local Olive Garden and were able to talk maple for a while.
Jim was surprised at how many maple producers there are in and around Loudon. Where he comes from in NW PA he is one of only 3 producers in the whole county. I can think of almost 20 producers within 10 miles of my house.
Sometime in the future when my wife and I have a chance to go on tour we plan to visit Jim and Darlene. We had a good time although the time we spent together was much too short.
Got 2" of snow yesterday, First of the year. I am not ready for it to really start pileing up. I need about 6 more months to get all my projects done for this season.:o