Lapierre mechanical sap releasers

[nymapleguy607]

My single vertical that has worked well for probably 10 years is doing something different this year. Before I have run low 20's for vacuum. This year I have a different pump and getting over 27". After a dump it takes close to half a minute for upper chamber to open and violent bubbles come back up through. Is this normal for higher vacuum?

I have that happen on my releaser

[DrTimPerkins]

High vacuum is quite difficult for most any mechanical releaser to deal with. The forces involved are quite severe. Regular maintenance and replacement of parts will help, but they will still have trouble more frequently at higher vacuum levels. You need to keep a close eye on them.

[Russell Lampron]

My single vertical that has worked well for probably 10 years is doing something different this year. Before I have run low 20's for vacuum. This year I have a different pump and getting over 27". After a dump it takes close to half a minute for upper chamber to open and violent bubbles come back up through. Is this normal for higher vacuum?

Mine does bubble but not violently. The flapper isn"t completely sealing and the vaccum in the secondary chamber is pulling air up through the seal.

[DrTimPerkins]

Mine does bubble but not violently. The flapper isn"t completely sealing and the vaccum in the secondary chamber is pulling air up through the seal.

New flapper (or cleaning the flapper) and seat might help.

[Maplewalnut]

My single vertical that has worked well for probably 10 years is doing something different this year. Before I have run low 20's for vacuum. This year I have a different pump and getting over 27". After a dump it takes close to half a minute for upper chamber to open and violent bubbles come back up through. Is this normal for higher vacuum?

Wiam- any luck with a fix? My system is super tight now and vacuum at 26 but now have the same problem you mention. It opens eventually to drain but only after top cannister is almost full of incoming sap.

thanks
Mike

[wiam]

No fix last year. This year I did ad an 80 gallon vacuum chamber at the releaser (1600’ from pump). Quicker recovery on vac in releaser. Sap has not run much yet so I don’t know if it helped.

[Amber Gold]

You can buy rebuild kits for them, and the key thing I noticed was keeping them well lubed. Once I started doing that, it was mostly trouble free.

It's been a while since, I had mine, but I do remember when running high vac. the tripping process could get pretty violent.

[woodchuck]

No fix last year. This year I did ad an 80 gallon vacuum chamber at the releaser (1600’ from pump). Quicker recovery on vac in releaser. Sap has not run much yet so I don’t know if it helped.

I would be curious how this works out. I plumbed my releaser so that I can a barrel to act as “capacitor” to smooth the transition. At this point Im small enough that recovery isn’t an issue.