Thinking about adding RO

[markcasper]

So on a smaller run it may be better to not use the ro, that would help clear the evaporator of all that concentrate? And now that you said it, you do get the smaller runs and the lighter grades during the first half of the season it seams. I never get the tank busting runs til later in the season after everything is running good. For me its hard enough to make light syrup with tubing and south side without having ro induced dark syrup

russel- do you run your sap through a uv light? is this necessary? what kind of filtering technique has to be done for sap going to the ro? all i do now is filter through a sock when it gets unloaded from gathering tank. i assume their would have to be more done for sap going to th ro.

[royalmaple]

The Ro's have their own prefilter ahead of the membranes mine is 5 micron that traps alot of the stuff, I didn't filter my sap ahead of that but I could have.

On a smaller run you can always just concentrate less, so say you normally go to 8-10% nothing saying you can't adjust that to 6% and get more concentrate to get a longer boil. But once you start you won't want to go down in concentrate only higher. It is a little funny only boiling for an hour or so but still you get your first big draw then couple normal ones and that's it on some of these smaller runs. I tried to get everything to 10% regardless of the sap I had available, just means you are done quicker. You still push the concentrate out like you do sap, just may not push as much on a small run, you get it the next day.

One other thing you can think of is you thought the 600gph was too much, which I don't think so at all. The performance rates are based on sap at a temperature of 55 degrees. So colder the sap the slower the machine will perform. So don't think you are going to get 150 gallons of concentrate per hour no matter what. Sap quality, bacteria, and temperature all come into play.

[Russell Lampron]

Mark,

Matt is right about the concentrate quantity per the temperature and sap quality etc. I adjust mine so that I get the gallons per minute that I want to run my evaporator and take what I get for a concentrate percentage. It ranges between 7 and 10% depending on the sugar content that I have to start with and other factors.

I filter my sap through a pop sap filter when it goes into the bulk tank and the RO has a 5 micron pre filter on it. You wouldn't have to do anything different than you are doing now.

In another post you were mentioning the savings you would get in just what you spend on slabs now. Also figure in the man hours that you are saving by not having to handle that many more bundles of slabs and the reduced hours of time spent boiling. The RO pays for itself real quick.

On the smaller runs you could wait for a day or 2 for another run before you concentrate it all and boil it. Like you say those runs usually come earlier in the season when the temps are more favorable for sap storage. Once you boil concentrated sap you are not going to want to boil raw sap again. It is that much more fun.

[halfast tapper]

It really doesn't make the syrup an darker than if it was raw sap. The big thing is that you might have one draw off that is darker but you get to the lighter stuff a lot quicker. Also if you boil a run with raw sap and then switch back the time in between the concentrate and raw sap you might make more dark syrup than if you only boiled for an hour with concentrate. Once you have them short boils it's nice, but it also makes you want to put out more and more taps .
Before we went to a bigger rig and an auto draw off , we used to be able to get the valve set just right to have one continuous draw all night long.

[sapman]

Mark,

I got a used 500 or 600 (jury is still out) Airablo (D&G, same as Leader)this year. I only have a 2.5x8, and this machine matches up almost perfectly, or even a little small, depending on how far I want to concentrate. I only ran 700 buckets this year. Twice, I did hold sap over the weekend when I had only collected 4-500 gallons. Both times made light syrup, in fact 3/4 of my crop was light, so the RO didn't hurt. I think it actually must have helped.

I bought this brand of RO because my local dealers are Leader people, and give me great support, along with the guys in Swanton. I'm already thinking expansion (major) if I could get a bush to rent. I have been for years, though I wondered how I would process it all. Now I can. Might even need to get a bigger RO if it happens!

Good luck! I say go for it if you can afford it.

Tim

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Other things to consider with an EE is the wash times daily? You have to get the filtrate up to temp. and then add the soap. Let that run for say 1/2 Hr or more and then do a rinse. Certainly on limited time it's not all glory/ as you do have to babysit it during this time=but the overall time saved is the factor to equate into it all for a deciding factor on rather to get a machine or not?.

[PATheron]

Mark- Ive been on vacation and wasnt able to reply to you guys. The 600 wont be overkill at all. I think it should be a minimum for you with that evap. Mine is brand new and I dont like to run it real hard and if I do roughly 10% stuff which is my preference I run about 90 gallons of concentrate out of it per hour as cold as my sap usually is. I could get more concentrate if I was only running 2% stuff to 8% stuff but the 10 boils fast and it matches my rig nice. I dont run my evap real hard but with that combination it worked well for me and im just learning everything I didnt start this season as any kind of authority on anything. I never ran a filter press till the season started. My experiance was that the small runs were no prob. If it was cold enough it didnt run much it wont spoil either. Id let it wait till I had 1000 to 1200 gals minimum and then boil it. I usually didnt wait long. I could see no darkening of the syrup with the roing except one night I held over some concentrate becouse I was pooped out and it MIGHT of darkened it a little, my neighbor that doesnt like ro's said he could see a difference but I couldnt. If your going to make a lot of syrup do yourself a favor and buy one if you can afford it. I like my cdl becouse its the nicest one ive ever seen as far as the valves go. I have two valves on the machine for everything and thats it. I really like that. I do have shutoff valves and things going to it but to operate it there are only the two. Next year Im going to start recirculating my sap to become even more efficient. Im trying to decide how to process the sap once I do my next expansion and if I concentrate high enough it becomes very obvious that it is a very efficient way to make syrup. As far as taste goes I personally prefer to sell in bulk so if the packers are happy to have it and they are happy to sign some big checks then im happy. If I find that the taste is a problem as far as putting it on my pancakes Ill do my barrell at 8%. If I find that there is no market for the higher concentrated syrup then ill concentrate it to the point that the market demands. Theron