Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[spud]

Got 1 gallon per tap yesterday. Sap ran until about 1:30 this morning before freezing up. Looks like no more sap for about 10 days or more. I shut the pump down this morning. I am at 53% of where I was last year.

Spud

[rhwells2003]

It pounded at my place yesterday. I took an early lunch, headed home and started the pump at 11. It was just starting to come in. By the time I got home at 4:30 it was pouring in, releaser releasing ever couple minutes. My daughter wanted to get her 13 buckets out so we tapped those at 5, they were dripping really good. I knew we had a week of cold so I didn't want a half gallon of frozen sap sitting in them for a week so we gathered them at 6:30 figuring things would shut off soon. We got 4 gallons in 1.5 hours. at 10 sap was still coming hard so I went and gathered her buckets again and picked up another 6gal. I checked the sap one last time at 11:30 and it was still coming good so I just let it go into the night. This morning I figure I picked up 700gal on my vac system (440 taps), 200gal on my 3/16" (80 taps), All in about 15 hours. Then 10gal on 13 buckets in 5 hours.

Last year I think I picked up around 8500gal. I'm currently at 6300gal, hoping we're only halfway done.

[GeneralStark]

It ran hard here yesterday as well with about 1.5 gpt from about noon until whenever it froze last night. When the lines thawed the sap was exploding into the releaser. I have been having this persistent issue the last week where because of the dramatic shifts between totally frozen and vigorous sap flows, every day I have to go find disconnected drops. Two days ago I had 25 drops come off overnight and the vac was down to 14". The VFD was shutting off the vac. pump on over amperage (which is good as it protects the pump) because the pump was working so hard. I have never seen this problem be so dramatic.... perhaps a drop or two here or there on occasion but not 15-25 every day for several days.

We boiled and made almost 50 gal from about 2500 gal. of sap. Half AR and half GD. Was starting to push it with niter at the very end. Cleaning syrup pans every boil now and will probably try to process less sap an once...

To top off a hectic day dealing with some other equipment and tubing issues, the motor on the filter press pump died. At first it smoked a bit and we thought it was the belt, but then it tripped on thermal protection. We got it going again but then no go after that... My friend had the brilliant idea of using a drill to turn the pump and turns out that works! We got 40 gallons through the press, albeit at about half the usual speed, but it kept us filtering through the boil.

DrillonPress.jpg

[BAP]

It ran hard here yesterday as well with about 1.5 gpt from about noon until whenever it froze last night. When the lines thawed the sap was exploding into the releaser. I have been having this persistent issue the last week where because of the dramatic shifts between totally frozen and vigorous sap flows, every day I have to go find disconnected drops. Two days ago I had 25 drops come off overnight and the vac was down to 14". The VFD was shutting off the vac. pump on over amperage (which is good as it protects the pump) because the pump was working so hard. I have never seen this problem be so dramatic.... perhaps a drop or two here or there on occasion but not 15-25 every day for several days.

We boiled and made almost 50 gal from about 2500 gal. of sap. Half AR and half GD. Was starting to push it with niter at the very end. Cleaning syrup pans every boil now and will probably try to process less sap an once...

To top off a hectic day dealing with some other equipment and tubing issues, the motor on the filter press pump died. At first it smoked a bit and we thought it was the belt, but then it tripped on thermal protection. We got it going again but then no go after that... My friend had the brilliant idea of using a drill to turn the pump and turns out that works! We got 40 gallons through the press, albeit at about half the usual speed, but it kept us filtering through the boil.

Attachment 18113

What are you using for spouts that come out?

[GeneralStark]

What are you using for spouts that come out?

Smart spouts and CV2s both without barbs....and I forgot to mention that this issue has been mostly on 3/16 lines.

[spud]

A few years ago I got some CDL tubing that was extruded a bit to large. The tubing slid on and off the spouts way to easy. I had to replace those drops. On a few of them I cut about 4-6 inches off the drop and then the tubing went on tight.

Spud

[WestfordSugarworks]

General, we have been having issues with spouts pushing off from Leader dropline at our small bush. First year using CV2s and we've never really had this issue before. My theory is that we didn't push the spouts on far enough past the ring, and the ring on CV2s doesn't hold as well as other spouts. We don't seem to be having this issue on our larger bush where we mostly have CDL dropline. Pain in the butt but I think we found most of the hanging drops yesterday.

Really good sap flow yesterday, probably 1.5 gpt. Our Jericho woods really haven't been running as well this year. Usually Westford runs a bit colder but things seem switched now. Hopefully we go well into mid april, who knows though.

[Tmeeeh]

Lots of hanging drop lines here too! The stubby pops off the CV. 15 to 20 every day. A real pain in the legs. We've been using CV1s for years this is first year with some CV2s. Had this problem before but only one or two hanging after a hard freeze.

[GeneralStark]

The worst is when they don't hang and just pop off and from afar it looks like the drop is still connected. And yes for me this has been primarily with the CV2s though a few smart spouts have been culprits.

[BAP]

I had issues last couple years with my 3/16” using 5/16” drops with stubbys and the black cv adapters. When we had a freeze that was below mid 20’s, the stubby would pop off adapter. Last year I tried 25 of the polycarbonate adapters along with the black and they staid put. This year I used all polycarbonate adapters. I think the issue is because the 3/16” stays full of sap when freezing, it takes better fittings to stay together than 5/16” tubing