I am curious as to the cost of a used vacuum setup would be. I am guessing all i would need (besides lines and fittings) is the releaser and vac pump? Is a moisture trap needed? If anyone in connecticut is growing out of their smaller vac setup please let me know i may be interested. Thanks!
-dave
you could build or buy one like a bender, then get a small pump for around $100, or you could spend the money up front and buy a pump like the maple guys guzzler, so you wouldnt need a releaser or moister trap(which are cheaply made), but that pump is around $600 where a releaser and pump would cost around $3-400
I have also been thinking about vacuum for the last two years on around 50-75 trees on flat land but not sure it would be worth it, can be done, and what exactly I would need as far as pump, releaser, etc. I'm kinda of lost when it comes to the terminology of the items needed for a vacuum system.
Guys - I'm just finishing a 120 tap 1/2" gravity system on a new bush. Ran the numbers for putting a "guzzler" system in. The numbers say, that the gravity system, averaging .25 g of syrup per tap per season over a 5 year period has a lower unit (sap) cost than the "guzzler" averaging .45 g of syrup per tap per season. I'm pretty confident my gravity system will average over .25 per season. No idea if a guzzler would increase the average yield to .45 per season over 5 years. Happy to send you the spreadsheet. Bruce
Last year my gravity system on 400 foot of 1/2 inch mainline 30 taps gave me around 25 to 30 gallons a day. The catch was the season was only about 3-4 days long. So not much to judge by.
It worked very well and at least gave me someting to measure by for a normal year, which I hope this year is.
Woodsman
also a gravity system is quite a bit different that a vac system, you use about the same amount of tubing etc. but like last year, when it was very bad most people on gravity got a quarter of sap they usually did, while people on vacuum got half of what they usually did. ive heard several people say several people say that vac saved there season, and one the really good years you will get even more
We struggled with this for many years ! There is NO way were going to suck the sap out of the tree, but as times change so does the demand for more maple products ! There is no more trees to tap then guess what you'll be doing adding vacuum system and managing your woods a lot better , and yes vacuum saved our season last year. We now have 3 systems set up on vacuum. We only run 18 -20 inches and the return last year was .4 gallons syrup per tap. We still had syrup to sell all year:-)
So is it feasable to get a used pump, releaser, new 500 feet of mainline, new fittings etc for less than $500? $750? Where do i find used setups? I have heard dairy farms but i am uneasy (perhaps without cause) of merging used equipment from different places and make thd system up myself. Is this an unjustified concern? Where did you all get your firstvac systems?
We bought the released from Leader ($ 900.00) a new CONDE vac pump and new tubing had about 8.00 a tap invested. I know that is more than you want to spend,but you,ll be glad you did in the end when you have product to sell year round. This equipment should last at least 10 years so 5000.00 would only be 500.00 a year. Or about 12 gallons syrup a year.
Curious as to why a releaser would.not be necessary for the guzzler. Just checked it out online. What makes it unique?Quote:
Originally Posted by spencer11