Printable View
We're loosing vacuum due to friction in the line caused by long runs up mainlines. We have a wet/dry line system, 2 releasers. I've seen a little bit on here about expansion tanks before the releaser to help gather the vacuum before you use it again, do these work? Any other ideas would be much appreciated.
This is what I know in my system. There is very little friction in a vacuum line under high vacuum. In reality its the high pressure air rushing in to fill the void that slows down the process. The tank will help by allowing the air to rush into the larger area. Its like a packed hall way full of kids entering a large auditorium.
Yes if your vacuum line to your releaser is undersized the best fix is to have a tank as close to the manifold as possible with a good size transfer line.
What size is your wet/dry lines and how far are you running to your releaser?
Joe
We have 2 releasers, one is maybe 100' from the vacuum with a 2" line. When that releaser is deadheaded we can get 27.5" of vacuum. From that releaser the line runs a long ways, maybe 3000' to the next releaser, we loose .5" by the time the vacuum gets there. We have a lot of mainline and we use manifolds at all the junctions. We were told that a booster wouldn't help the situation. I know we probably need bigger mains but that's obviously not going to happen soon since this system has only been in the woods for a year. Just trying to figure out what we can do in the meantime.
My best suggestion is two-fold. First add a large tank (3-4x the volume of the releaser) close to the second releaser (that way there will be a "stash" of extra vacuum when the releaser trips), then order Steve Childs' Tubing Handbook and read it fully. It will give you all of the answers.
For one thing, regardless of the pump, if the transfer line for that vacuum is under sized you get no more vacuum out 3000' than if you had a much smaller pump. That notebook will give you the sizes you need to get the vacuum out 3000'. That large vacuum tank will help but will not be a cure, the only cure is to use the right size vacuum line.
After the sugar season you could also hire a tubing installer, they will know what size pipe you need, it may be 2.5", maybe 3" maybe more.
All the mains/vacuum lines were run by a tubing installer, both this year and last. . . .Quote:
Originally Posted by maple flats
You could run an additional line to the further releaser to increase the cfm capacity. What size is that line?
That's what we have been told to do, 2".Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneralStark
How many taps at 3,000' and how many CFM is your pump?
Joe
2400 taps, not sure of the cfm honesty. It's a new vacuum that CDL sells. We put in a Y connection before the first relearer today and changed out the union hoping to cause a little less friction. We'll see what happens....