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I collect with 100 buckets atop a hill on some tableland.
The buckets are on level ground, but I have to carry the sap down a hill after collecting.
I am not the landowner so tubing is not possible. Besides the evaporator is still 1000 yards away , across a ravine so we use the atv.
If I were to build a dump station. Essentially a bucket fitted with 300 feet of hose down a steep hill to my 55 gallon drums.
What diameter hose could I use to pour the sap down?
1/2"......???
do the dump station, and use big storage totes. and i would got with 3/4" or 1" line.
spencer
Assuming that you're trying to transfer a day's sap at a time, it will take along time to get that amount of sap to gravity through a normal 1/2 or 5/8" hose. If you consider how long a normal garden hose that long would take to fill 100 gallons off your faucet and then think about how much longer it would take with only the standing head pressure of your elevation change, I'd be running 1-1/4 or 1-1/2" plastic tubing for sure. It's all about time but I'd guess that 300' of normal garden hose would take close to 1/2 hour to drain 100 gallon.
If the drop is steady and not up and down I'd run a 3/4" line. As the line becomes filled the natural vacuum will help significantly, far more than the line friction in the tube. The same with your garden hose, if it was just going down hill from the source it will flow great. 40+ years ago I lived where I could only have a garden down a hill, about 500" away and with a drop of about 25'. I was too lazy to carry water so I set up a barrel under the gutters on the apartment, connected a drain, ran a 1/2" hose to drain into a barrel at the garden. As soon as a rain started to water would shoot out the lower end so hard I had to make a deflector to keep it from over shooting the barrel. I had just run it on the ground and then made a forked stick to hold it shoot very slightly upward (maybe 5 degrees). The pressure generated by the drop made it over shoot the barrel. A garden hose without a drop would only have gone part way across the barrel before before dropping it with the pressure we had there (guessing maybe 40-50#).
A 3/4" with good drop will shoot out the end better that a short hose connected to your hose connection on the house.
Good advice on the timing concept.
I guess I have the time, since I am not about to hand bomb the buckets up and down the hill.
Will just be sure to pack a few cold ones for my walk.....
Thanks Dave;
My total drop is approx 80' down over a distance of 275'.
The last 150' accounts for 50' of the drop.
You'll get 1 psi for every 2.37' of elevation so, if you drop say 23.7 feet, you'll have 10 psi at the bottom. Why not borrow some hose from friends since most of it is sitting around this time of year and give that a try. If it's too slow you can then go the more expensive tubing route.
Would I need to vent the line at the top or will the sap push its way down and over come any vacuum effect or friction in the line??
Personally, I'd hook the hose to the bottom of a drum and just fill the drum and let it push. Any air would come up into the drum. Try to avoid substantial dips as it is hard to push air down hill.
I would want more than 5 gallons of tank at the top, because if you are lugging two five gallon pails, you will want to be able to splash both of them in and head back after more sap while they drain through. You also ought to have a screen or filter in the top of your dumping station to catch the ice chunks, the right piece of ice (or bark) could plug up your whole system.
So on the days when it runs well and you gather 2 gallons of sap per tap, you are going to fill one 55 gallon drum at the bottom of the hill long before you collect all 100 taps. I would plan for 250 gallons of storage in that case myself.
Once you drop off that hill, the pipe run nearly level for a good distance at the bottom, perhaps a two percent slope so it would drain and not freeze. I would be tempted to get the sap across the ravine by pipe rather than cross it with that atv if that is possible.
My uncle had the same problem as you but with a shorter distance. He used a deep kitchen sink with a 1.5" hard hose on it that ran straight into his bulk tank. It worked really slick and had no problem draining two pails at a time. Just make sure the hose at the end is strapped into the container to make sure it won't fly out and you loose all that good sap on the ground.
Great point about the screen. I would lose my mind if it clogged.
I will have someone at the bottom of the hill to switch the filled tanks. BUT thats going to be a pain the days I am solo.....
1 250 gal tote is too heavy for my tiny bush buggy trailer and tiny trail.
Good point also Cowby.
I have run A 1/4" BRAIDED line from tree to tree downhill to provide extra support to the rigid 1/2" poly pipe.
I will fasten the last 10' with ties' so it wont wag wild on me.