12v potable pump?

[David in MI]

I'm looking for a way to make a portion of our sap collecting a bit easier this season. We started tapping in 2011 with 200 taps, all on bags, and simply emptied the bags into 5-gallon buckets. When the back of our gator was full of buckets we dumped them into a 210 gallon tank on a trailer which was then used to haul the sap to the shack (we have someone boiling for us at this point). Last year we expanded and had around 285 on gravity tubing and probably another 150 on bags. Since I'm handling the collecting duties from our gravity dump stations and my wife & girls are doing the rest, I would like to make their job a little easier and more efficient this year. Here's my plan:

Put a couple of 55-gallon tanks in the back of the gator (older style gator, 6x4) with a small dump station that we can empty the 5-gallon buckets into and are pumped into the tanks in the gator with a 12v pump. I'm running into difficulty finding a potable pump that will cycle the water fast enough and am looking for your input here. I've used the search function and see a lot of references to sump pumps, etc but I'm not comfortable using something like this.

[whalems]

I have seen several producers use these. http://store.waterpumpsupply.com/ru12vodcnobi.html

[325abn]

Bilge pump from wally world has worked well for years.

[David in MI]

Thanks for the recommendations.

[Four D Acre Farms]

Hey dave i have serveral road side trees and haul a 275 gal tank in the back of the truck most of these are buckets, collect into 5 gal buckets and then empty them into a 30 gal plastic tote in the back of the truck i have a bilge pump in the tote that pumps the sap into the 275 gal tote, works great with one exception and that is the pump is to small and freezes up around the screened inlet in colder weather. i would still recommend a new bilge pump to do the job but use one larger than you think you will need and make sure the dump tank is shallow enough to be able to clear any ice build up from the inlet side of the pump if required. I got the idea from a buddy using a new 30 gal garbage can as a dump tank. Remeber you are dealing with food items any plastic containers should be new.

[bowtie]

i understand your problem, i have to empty my buckets into 2- 5 gallons(food grade) buckets then carry them to my ranger and a 210 gallon tank and dump them, then haul off hill and transport home, and then pump up into my 500 gallon ss tank and it takes forever with portable pump, sometime over 1-1/2 hrs. get the biggest pump you can afford and don't rely on the gpm it says it is generally way high(rated under ideal conditions). i am looking into buying another pump and running 2 to get the job done faster. would rather boil than transfer!!

[David in MI]

My biggest obstacle is finding a pump that is potable, or food grade. I've read posts where others are using sump pumps and find this practice...... unhealthy. I see many others who use bilge pumps and I guess I need to research that a bit more but am quite wary of getting any sort of contaminates into the sap. I welcome your thoughts on this topic.

Yesterday I looked into RV water pumps as they fit my 12v and food grade parameters but the volume just isn't there.

[mike z]

I would bet anything that would be 12 v., high vol. and labeled food grade will be v. expensive. Everybody raise thier hand if they use one. This is a good question.

[sg5054]

take a look at the jabsco line of par max water pressure system pumps. I'm looking in a marine supply catalog and see flow rates of up to 5 gpm for a potable water system pump (non submersible) These are 12v diaphragm pumps.

If you don't want to use the trailer plug and need to make a wiring harness to run straight from the battery try this. Take your pos and neg wires and clamp one end of the pair in a vise. Take the other ends and chuck them in a drill. Step back until stretched out and pull the trigger. Keep tension on the wires until they are twisted as tight as you wish. Be sure to add a few extra feet to account for the twist. Voila! Instant harness that is neat and tidy, easy to thread and secure.

[Maple Ridge]

I have the same issue with collection. This year I purchased a 12 V Wayns transfer pump and put together a ATV trailer with a 125 gal tank on it so I can pull up to my collection tanks and pump to my transfer tank in the trailer. I will switch the lines around and pump it to my holding tanks at the sugar house. The pump was around $80. This is my first year with it so I cant say how it works. The pump head is stainless steel. the pump comes with a rebuild kit. I use the same kind of pump last year but the AC model to pump from my holding tanks to my head tank that feeds my evaperator and it worked great.