The Magic Machine the RO!

[5050racing]

This is 290 gal of sap I added 15gal as it was running!image.jpg All that water on the right over 200gal out in just under 4hrs! It's at about 6-7 sugar I may try to squeeze a little more out while I plow the almost foot of snow. Now I can pile it up to to store what may run this week n so on.

[plabarr]

That’s awesome, what size RO do you have?


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[wnybassman]

I am on the fence about getting a bigger evaporator next year, or trying to figure out the logistics of how to run a RO here with what I got going on here with space and time. I am not all that interested in increasing tap count any more, but rather decreasing boiling time. Just as I begin leaning one way a post like this pulls me back the other way. lol

[5050racing]

Well here it is,I started the RO last night it's a 4x40 membrane (home built with some great help) at 4:30 ran for 4hrs on a tank of sap 290gal ran it for 1 hr this am that broke down to 40 gal then collected another 150gal started the RO on that tank fired the evaporator up at 1pm today and just came in at 8:30 with 7gal of syrup!! the RO is a must for me! Now wait till I go collect Monday I'm sure it ran today. It's a Big time saver for sure! but one of the biggest is the amount of wood not burned! So I had a total of 440 gal of sap into 7gal of syrup in just 30 hrs and I slept last night.So my ratio was 62.85gal/1gal syrup.So what it's able to do is about 5-6gal of water removed/minute or 60gal/hour about!

[Russell Lampron]

I am on the fence about getting a bigger evaporator next year, or trying to figure out the logistics of how to run a RO here with what I got going on here with space and time. I am not all that interested in increasing tap count any more, but rather decreasing boiling time. Just as I begin leaning one way a post like this pulls me back the other way. lol

When I was younger and eager to expand I had to decide between getting an RO which wasn't very popular in 2004 or getting a bigger evaporator. If I was to get a bigger evaporator I would have to rebuild my sugar house so that it would fit and then buy the evaporator. If I went with the RO (which I did) I would have to build a small heated room and add a 30 amp 220 volt circuit to my electrical panel. The RO room, electrical upgrade and new RO cost about $6000. The bigger evaporator, a 3x8, was $10000 and the renovation to the sugar house unknown. As the years have passed my only regret has been that I didn't get a bigger RO. Get an RO you will wonder why you didn't get one sooner.

[5050racing]

So true as I'm learning Russell,I'm very small scale compared to some but with all of the other things I do I'm so pleased to have made the right decision for me.Just the savings in the time to prepare the wood pile is worth it.Now I should have enough wood left to heat the house LOL !!

[adk1]

Just an FYI that as soon as you ro raw sap u need to boil it or it will spoil quickly. Remember you are concentrating everything that is in that sap, from the sugar to the backteria

[5050racing]

Yes on boil ASAP that's a great point and there is some extensive cleaning flushing nothing is that easy there always more to it but not bad

[Potters3]

First year we ran our R/O was mid season when I bought it. My wife's comment, " it is so nice to have a life during sugaring again" While boil all day and go thru a lot of fuel when the R/O does us power but get rid of a lot of water.

Best money we have ever spent. Went to a bigger R/O this year to try to get some life back again. At least until we add more taps.

[John-NJ]

The RO doesn't make syrup but it sure makes it a lot easier to do so. With my small operation, using a flat pan 2x3 evaporator, my max boiling rate is about 7GPM. Especially with my low sugar content sap, I couldn't make reasonable amounts of syrup without the RO. It does take almost as long to wash the RO as it does to run it, but that can be done while I am boiling. It is a capital investment, but so is a larger arch. I priced a new flue pan for my evaporator, which might double or triple my boil rate - it was almost 2x what it cost to build the RO. Its all about spending the money efficiently to get the biggest bang for the buck.

If you tap red maples like I do, and your sugar content is low, the RO especially makes sense. I have to remove 1/2 the water from my sap just to get what most folks start with. That's a lot of time and energy (wood) with an arch. It used to take me a whole day just to process 80 gallons of sap. Now I do 3-4x that amount in less time. This year I am finding that I am wishing for more sap, which usually doesn't happen at this point in the season. Oh well, need to do more taps next year. That's the REAL problem with the RO, makes you want to expand the operation.

Cheers