R/O Questions

[steve J]

I have questions about R/O's. I have a 2x4 Mason with a leader supreme pan and because I am always boiling when sap runs I have never seen a small R/O run. I have no heat in my sugar house so if I had a portable type R/o that I could wheel into sugarhouse can I run it if temps in sugar house where below freezing? ie 9 in morning 28 degrees. It appears my evaporator will evaporate about 18 gallons an hour. so the bucket ro's appear to be to small. Does anyone have experience with the units sold by Homestead Maple in Chazy Ny under the Next Generation Maple Products? I see people mentioning washing or flushing these units at end of day what is that all about? I have a wood floor so cant be flushing out inside shack.

[full moon maple]

No problem below freezing while it's running, just need to wheel it somewhere above freezing when your all done. I built a RO on a dolly with an XLE-2540 membrane that I use with my 2x4 smokey lake hybrid and with recirculation I feed my evaporator perfectly while taking 1/2 the water out. To wash I do a quick warm wash with about 10 of warm permeate them run whatever permeate I made thru the RO. wood floors are not an issue as you just run your hose to wherever you want the water to do.

[Cedar Eater]

The sap temp has to stay above freezing or the RO will not work because the sap or permeate will stop flowing through it. ROs work better with sap warmer than 40F, but can work with lower efficiency when the sap is below that. At the end of the batch or whenever the efficiency drops low enough, the biologicals have to be removed from the membranes to prevent them from spoiling inside. This takes a caustic wash or at least a flush with permeate or well water. At some point, minerals will also get deposited in the membranes and they have to be dissolved with acid and flushed out. The caustic or acid solution needs to be neutralized when you're done with it, so flushing it out on your floor isn't a good idea.

[steve J]

I have another question how long can you hold concentrate before boiling? I ask this as it seems as I have read post over the last few days that some people are holding concentrate for a few days until they have enough to fire up.

[MISugarDaddy]

You should boil concentrate as soon as possible to minimize the loss of sugar from bacteria. I have also read of people holding their concentrate for a day before boiling it, but I know they recommend not doing that.
Gary

[Cedar Eater]

How long you can hold it without spoiling depends on how cold you can keep it. The closer to freezing that you get, the slower it will spoil. If you set it up to concentrate overnight, you should be boiling it that next morning unless you keep it close to frozen.

[dark mountain maple]

Has anyone used NGMP's small RO unit code GEN-45stdro sold by h20 innovation, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on how it preforms.

[wnybassman]

Has anyone used NGMP's small RO unit code GEN-45stdro sold by h20 innovation, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on how it preforms.

Mid way through the season last year I bought the next one bigger, the 100STDRO. I thought it performed very well, and averaged the 50 gph water removal it was rated for. I am slightly concerned about the longevity of the pump motor seeing there are no feeder pumps on these two units. I have nothing to base this concern on other than the fact that many other RO's have feeders. I bought from Next Gen directly, and talked with the owner for a while the day we picked it up, and he said they have sold lots of these RO's with nearly zero problems.

[Sugarbush Ridge]

In Maple News ?????? Dr Tim ??? wrote about them going to hi Brix and using milk cooling tanks and turning cooling way down. Their hi Brix turned to shush at 22 or 23 degrees so they kept consecrate 1 degree above shush for over the weekend and were cooking Monday. I can't quote exacty as I don't have the article right in front of me. The higher the brix the cooler you have to keep it.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Doc do you use agitation/gear motor with paddle to get an even chilling?