The Poorer Man's Diaphragm Pump Vacuum System

[Cedar Eater]

Where did you find the cheaper strainer filters?

I got it from Amazon. They are currently unavailable from them, but you might be able to go directly to the manufacturer to find another supplier. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Cedar Eater]

We started using these ebay cheapies last year, still running strong this year. The pumps are all 4L/m and draw about 1.1 amps an hr, which if I understand it right, a 12amh battery should last10 - 11 hours. These pumps will generate more sap at a cheap cost.

I have mostly reds, so I'm counting on vacuum to keep them flowing when they would otherwise be finicky. I have a cluster of three trees with a total of four stems with one of the trees being a double or triple tapper that I want to put one of these rigs on. The trees are in full sun and sit in a creek bed so they have crowns that would make the queen of England blush. I should get a pic of them.

Anyway, the pumps won't draw full Amps the whole time, so I think your estimate on the run time of the batteries is conservative. They have to be pushing against full backpressure to draw full Amps. I anticipate significantly longer run times, especially if the pumps are shut down during freezes using the cheap temperature controllers I also got from Amazon but haven't figured out how to protect from weather yet. I will probably just throw a ziploc bag over them and staple it to a backboard. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is fun.

[wmick]

When I pinched down on the valve that will become the bypass line, the vacuum jumped to 25",

Can you clarify what you meant by this??
Just trying to learn a little bit about these pumps and setups.. Might decide to throw one together at the last minute.
and how are you planning to connect this? ..... just connecting the inlet to the sap line and the outlet to your storage tank??? or ??? What is the "bypass"?

Thanks

[Cedar Eater]

Quote Originally Posted by Cedar Eater
"When I pinched down on the valve that will become the bypass line, the vacuum jumped to 25",

Can you clarify what you meant by this??
Just trying to learn a little bit about these pumps and setups.. Might decide to throw one together at the last minute.
and how are you planning to connect this? ..... just connecting the inlet to the sap line and the outlet to your storage tank??? or ??? What is the "bypass"?

Thanks

The bypass is a line that you drop down from the intake side of the pump into the collection tank or route over to the discharge side of the pump to allow a little liquid to be drawn back into the intake side of the pump to keep the diaphragms wet. The diaphragms suck harder when they are wet. But obviously, you are decreasing the efficiency of the pump by repumping previously pumped sap through it, so you want to minimize that which maximizes the suction. Closing the valve to allow the bare minimum of repump flow does that for you. A needle valve would have been better, but I couldn't find one at the hardware store that had pipe threads or hose barbs, so I used a ball valve. I will insert a 3/16" tee between the valve and the vacuum guage tee and then bring the sap line into the third port of that tee.

[sugarsand]

We also use a bypass by placing a tee in the inline with a piece of 3/16 long enough to reach the bottom of the tank. Below the tee is a cheap little plastic valve that I found on ebay. By opening the valve full, with pump shut off, I get full bypass. You can adjust the valve to get the best performance from your pump.
Hospitals recieve things in thick styrofoam coolers that are usually thrown out, they work great to house the pump and battery against cold and rain.

[Cedar Eater]

We also use a bypass by placing a tee in the inline with a piece of 3/16 long enough to reach the bottom of the tank. Below the tee is a cheap little plastic valve that I found on ebay. By opening the valve full, with pump shut off, I get full bypass. You can adjust the valve to get the best performance from your pump.
Hospitals recieve things in thick styrofoam coolers that are usually thrown out, they work great to house the pump and battery against cold and rain.

Would love to know more about that valve. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a source of styro coolers.

[wmick]

Installed my little pump on Saturday night... It was a bad time of night to do much testing because the temperature was dropping fast and the sap was shutting down... but my initial stopwatch test showed about 100% improvement over the lines just hanging it the barrel.
I should have taken a picture, but I built a little manifold with PVC T's, etc... incl a vacuum gauge, bypass and 4 barbs for the incoming 3/16 lines, with 9-15 taps each. I also added a small ATV battery, permanently, to keep the temperature controller powered up while changing out batteries.
The pump would go to about 25" of mercury when it was moving liquid... and would drop down to about 18" intermittently when air bubbles from the trees accumulated. I do have a bypass line and needle valve... but it didn't seem to be helping much, so I just turned it off...

Went back out yesterday and got it going again..... The temperature controller started it up a little early... but I was there to turn it off for a while. Started it up mid morning on 25 taps... Over the course of the next couple hours, I added an additional 25 taps... by last night, I think I had approximately 70 or 80 gallons. Large Car battery was still pumping after about 9 hours of running.
Quite happy with the first day..

BTW - My buckets in my own bush (more shade) netted very little yesterday.

[littleTapper]

That little controller will work great. Calibrate the temp first. Mine was off a few degrees, but with calibration it's working perfectly for my Shurflo 4008 setup.

[Cedar Eater]

That little controller will work great. Calibrate the temp first. Mine was off a few degrees, but with calibration it's working perfectly for my Shurflo 4008 setup.

Good point, but it came without instructions and I don't see any way to calibrate it. I was going to just determine its bias by setting the probe in slushy water to see what it reads and adjusting my setting accordingly.

[wmick]

Quick question ..... As said - I'm going to assemble one of these mini-vac systems...
One thing I'm wondering about... is whether a small "vacuum reservoir" would be of any benefit?
Diaphragm pump will be sucking/pumping in an intermittent pulsation.. Not sure if that's an issue or not.??..
A small inverted reservoir T'd in would help to dampen the pulsation in the sap lines if anyone sees any benefit??