Pumping from RO to sugar house

Is there anyone here who pumps their concentrate a distance from the RO to their sugar house overhead?

I have just purchased an MES 300gph RO and my situation requires me to run the RO from the Barn across the street from the sugar house. I would like to pump around 14' vertical and then 150' horizontal overhead and slightly downhill into my concentrate tank in the sugar house. Looking for ideas on how to get the concentrate line suspended over the road and what type of hose to use for protection from the sun.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Hope everyone had a good year.

Ed

First problem I see is that depending on the line size, that distance will leave5-10 gallons on concentrate in the line. Depending on the %, that could mean +\- a gallon of syrup.

I wouldn't rely on the RO's pump for the transferring You will sacrifice performance of the RO for a simple task. Lets say you have a simple ice clog in the line and blow the plumbing or strain the pump. I know you can do diversion valves and multi task but I think its risky. Go with a simple pump that will pump 20ft of head and use the slope to your advantage.

Black poly will thaw quickly but heat the sap. Blue maple pipe is best it want hurt if sun hits it for a short time just like sap in the woods. stretch it tight and a slight downward bag wont hurt a thing. The best rule to follow is concentrate quick and cook quicker so I like your plan just use a different pump. Trust me if you invest in a good pump system with good transfer plumbing options you will be so happy I will see the smile from here.

I used to pump to a head tank with my dolly 300 and that was about 12 feet with no problem what so ever. And didn’t effect my GPH at all. You will enjoy the dolly I loved mine. And I still have it but ordered a big unit do to expanding. And the company is very willing to work with you.

While the RO can likely pump to the height you want, as mentioned if the height is over a distance and looking at line friction it could accelerate wear depending on the pump's design.

Crossing the road should be done at a proper height to meet current road design rules. There is a sugarhouse not far from me which used telephone poles to suspend the line across the roadway. It looks like they put the the lines inside a PVC pipe.

Are you able to transport the concentrate in another tank for the time being and then run power/heat or adjust your sugar house to handle the RO in the future?

Mike

The added friction of pumping up and for a distance should not affect the high pressure pump at all. It will add backpressure but a very small amount and you may have to leave your concentrate valve open a tiny bit more but the pump is still seeing the same pressure through the membrane. You would have to pump extremely high and far to equal the pressure used on the RO.

It should do alright providing the distance isn't all uphill.

My RO is the house basement and it pumps concentrate up and out of the basement to about the height of the house roof eve (single story home). Then it goes 300 feet down to the sugarhouse. There is a slight downhill grade from the house to sugarhouse. We put up rapi-tube across the lawn for the season and take it down at the end.

It might be a different story if you can't get a lot of slope worked into it and allow gravity to do some of the work. It certainly is worth trying. We tried it and it has worked well for us.

Steve

I don’t have anything to offer on pumps or friction or efficiency and I have no comment whether pumping concentrate like this is the right thing to do.

What I can tell you is that I use the CDL Rapitube to get sap over the driveway.
It is UV protected, made to be outdoors, made to be stretched and made to handle sap.
I use a hand crank boat winch and the Chinese fingers to pull it taught and a banjo quick disconnect is installed on the winch side should I ever need to drop the line.

The Rapitube will sag if it is both full and warm, so I have the low side at 14 feet above grade and run a 5% slope across the drive. This is high enough to let the UPS or Fedex trucks get underneath without issue.

Would be wise to have a chat with the authorities about clearances and legalities if you’re planning to cross a public road.

This is awesome information. I plan to have the Bulk tank and concentrate tank in the barn where there is a suitable floor with drains for washing and rinsing. Also close to my water supply at the outside hydrant. I simply don't have room for the RO and all the other stuff in the sugar house. My plan for is to run the line from my 3 story barn peak down hill and anchor to a 50 yr old maple next to the sugar house. I was thinking of adding a valve with an air fitting on it to simply blow the line out when im done pumping.

I do like the idea of adding a transfer sump pump to the tank. That way I could run my concentrate line back in to the bulk tank and get my concentrate up higher as well. Then simply pump it across the road to the head tank. I wonder if a sump pump would pump up the 16' of head to the peak of the barn?

The boat winch idea is great, I can mount that right to the side of the barn and suspend the sap line on maybe 1/4" galvy cable?

Find the specs on the pump, some may not pump that high or may be far too little flow at that lift with the line friction added. There are however many pumps that will do the job well.

In theory this should work, we pump almost 14ft up to our feed tank and I would think with pumping concentrate you're less likely to freeze because of the heightened sugar content. Obviously making sure the line has slope is going to be a big deal because if it does freeze you'll have 1 or 2 issues...

1. The line will blow apart at the fittings

2. If the RO has a high pressure sensor it will just kick off and you don't be able to process the sap until the line is thawed.