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Last edited by Maple Hill Sugarhouse; 11-30-2008 at 07:23 PM.
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Last edited by Maple Hill Sugarhouse; 11-30-2008 at 07:24 PM.
Sorry I've been so busy the last few days
Yes Kevin and Mark I have used Bender releaser for many years It works good up to approximately 300 taps but better around 250 max.
When the album was up I had pictures posted of the one I had mounted to the top of my stainless tank.
The reason I'm selling the ones I have is for the fact that I have more taps on the mainline now and needed a new setup.
The way I used mine was to have a 1" check valve on the bottom and had the sap come in the side at the top with my vacuum line coming directly off the top.
Also I had another check valve on the sap line coming in so that when the releaser was dumping the vacuum was not lost out in the mainlines.
That is very important to keep a better vacuum at all times.
I added a weight on top of the float so that I could increase the vacuum. Without the added weight the float would get hung up once in a while. When it runs at maximun cycle time it dumps about 1 gallon per minute. Which is why it is good for a smaller bush.
For anyone looking for a economical releaser it is a good option as other mechanical ones usually run about 500 to 800 bucks for a small one
Hope this helps.
Keith
Kevin, Brookledge, I got a chance to get my photos taken, I have them on the screen, but the album is not working????? I may have to get a pm and i can send them to you to view directly. I am not a computer guru and my wife is in bed, maybe tomorrow.
I am glad to hear from you brookledge, that I was not the only one using these releasers. What would Leader think?? There are getting less and less of these around as they went out with the advent of pipelines and parlors years ago. A few in use yet though. I had a chance at another one last summer but i was too late. A developer bought this old homesite and was going to level it for develpment. A cousin of mine told me about a vacumm pump, releaser, bulk tank and whatever else and that I could get it all for nothing. He knew the developer. Guess what, I didn't get their and the whole barn and contents got buried, ,,what a shame. I sure kicked myself. Anyway, enough rambling.
I have had the same problem with the float getting hung up at too high a vacumm too. Most of this was relieved i think when i strted running 2 releasers from the same pump. It seems that when they dump, there is enough air released from the top which would then let the other one dump. On the best day last year, each one was dumping every 15 seconds and it was working fine. Another problem i encountered was that they don't work at too low of vacumm either. The sap will dump and there would not be enough vacumm to pull the check valve shut. I have noticed that in the morning, it is best to run the pump and motor wide open for a few minutes so that their is ample vacumm quick enough to seat the checkvalves and get the mainlines energized. After that, I slow the engine down to a fast idle and this seems to work. Last year i was having trouble at strt-up and then spent 2 days walking and rechecking and then checking lines again for leaks-fixing these caused the releasers to function much better.
I may have mentioned earlier that towards the end of the season, the sap was foaming up and this caused foam to go right into the air line. Being that i did not have a moisture trap, I did have some in the vacumn tank. That told me I was done for another year. There also got some bacteria/mold growth around the top of the stem where the tiny rubber O-rings are. It was time to hang it up if you know what I mean.
Brookledge, the first year i was using these i had my mainline hooked up to the top as well. I asked the surge dealer and he said that that inlet was for washing only(maybe it makes no difference for sap) Ihave my mainline connected to the T checkvalve, the end that is up goes into the bottom of the releaser via short hose and the other end of the T is connected to a hose that runs into the tank. There is another larger check-valve on the end of that. So the sap coming in actually pushes on the bottom of the float. But Kevin, now you said that there shouldn't be any intereference, so maybe it should come in from the top?? Do you think I could run a dry line from that outlet that is not being used near the top? How far out would i run the dry line and where would i T it in? Does it matter if the dry line is laying on the ground? I don't care to string it up b/c the whole works has to come out in 2007 for thinning/logging/taking out the oaks in07-08.
I do live west of Menomonie and am right into the start of hill country. I do not have any drastic slope on any of my mainlines though, the most is maybe 10% at the most. I have one area about 300 ft that is barely sloping. It is not by choice, its either run it this way or not at all. However, I am still getting sufficient vacumn at the end of this area, as i am on the ends with steeper lines.
brookledge--did you know that my 3rd releaser was made by bender, but it looks nothiung like the tall narrow one, it has a short fat bowl instead, kind of like a fish bowl.
Has there ever been a study done that showed the difference in yield compared to the levels of vacumm?? Example: 5hg =1 quart, 10 hg=2quarts, 3hg=3 qts and so on. Since i have been on this site, i have not seen any mention of such. All i know is that the last two years, I would get between 1/2-3/4 gallons per tap per day on days where my buckets/bags and non-vacumm maybe yielded 5 gallons per 100 taps.
I hope to have pics. available soon. Mark
Kevin, I was reading some of your comments in prior letters and you are so right about maintenance. You can look for leaks till you are blue in the face and still have them. For me anyway, time is lacking and if I added up all of the hours I spent walking and searching for leaks x ???, I don't think I would have enough extra syrup from vacumm to cover this
Brookledge, What did you use for added weight on your releaser? I am afraid to stop at the stainless shop. Any ideas would be welcome! Mark
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Last edited by Maple Hill Sugarhouse; 11-30-2008 at 07:26 PM.
Kevin, Imagine a horseshoe. Point it to the south and that is how my one woods is. The iron on the horseshoe would represent where my trees are.
In the middle of the horseshoe there are no taps. My dad clear-cut this area in 1981, with the intent to break it for cropping. So where the clear cut was, its sloping to the south at maybe 2-6 percent. Where it started to get too steep for cropping, they stopped and that is where my trees are. The horse shoe is broke into 2 parts. The west half is on one releaser, and the east half is on another. The clear-cut area ia about 8-9 acres.
The west half is where I am concerned. Imagine the west half of the horseshoe and imagine the ridge of the hill being in the center of the iron on the west half. Everything west of the center of the top of that ridge has to go down to the mainline that runs south and eventually east to the through line. I would say this to be a good 700-800 feet before it gets to the through line. At this point, the through line is about 400 feet to the tank.
Would it be necessary to have a booster tank? Or would i get by with just t'ing it in?
You are probably throughly confused by now!
The best part about the clear cut is that I have been releasing sugar maples for the past 8 years and some are nearing 5'' dbh.
Theres an awful lot of popple in there and they are up to 12 inches. I have been whacking them off to rot, but now i here pulp is way up.
Any idea what pulp prices for aspen are out your way? Would you continue to cut the popples down to gain 2 years growth on the sugar maples? Or wait out the 2 more years for the planned thinning and get some $$$ for this popple?
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Last edited by Maple Hill Sugarhouse; 11-30-2008 at 07:27 PM.
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