Sucking sap uphill

[Windy Acres]

We have a hedge that is about 350 feet away from the sugar house, and is about 10 feet lower than the sugar house, I'm pondering running the 3 runs up to the sugar house, do you think a shurflo would do this, or would I need a guzzler? I'd like to have the pump on the wall in the RO room, so guests can have a look, as all of our sap needs to be hauled in, what do you guys think?

[maple flats]

Using 3/16 I do essentially that, but with a BB4.

[johnallin]

I too would like to pull sap up-hill.....Dumb question here...

Guessing a BB4 is a pump, but what type and make is it?

I want to rid my operation of the WX10 I use to pump sap from a collection tank on a creek crossing, up to the sugar house. A run of about 110 feet and 20 foot rise.
The aluminum pump housing and impeller have become raw with white powder deposits (oxidation). It's salty tasting and can't be helping my syrup.

I've got 7 runs of 3/16 that I could extend up to the shack if I could pull the sap up there. It sounds like your BB4 is doing just that.
I could then locate a stainless collection tank at the sugar house which would be much simpler to keep clean. Thanks for any replies.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I would want a guzzler for that. I run both and the shurflo will pull up hill but will get surging sap on the inlet hurting vacuum.

[Windy Acres]

Thanks for the replies, looks like there will be a guzzler sucking sap to the sugar house this spring

[Windy Acres]

What would you guys say is the max length for a run of 3/16 with a guzzler pulling on it?

[maple flats]

I too would like to pull sap up-hill.....Dumb question here...

Guessing a BB4 is a pump, but what type and make is it?

I've got 7 runs of 3/16 that I could extend up to the shack if I could pull the sap up there. It sounds like your BB4 is doing just that.
.

The only dumb question is when you don't know something and you do not ask.
A BB4 is a real old piston pump, made by Babson Bros. They later became Surge. My BB4 on my system pulls 26-27". If it drops to 25" I walk the woods looking for the leak(s). That was only just 225 taps last year, for 2019 I plan to get to about 300 with it, all but 7 or 8 of the new taps will be Reds. All of those added taps will be pulling from below the mainline using 3/16. Last year I had about 75 pulling from below the mains. The year before that I had just 26 pulling from below, as an experiment. They performed so well I added 49 more last year (on 2 lines), pulling from about 7-8' below the main, then climbing to a height of 15' (about 11' above the main), crossed a driveway and then down to the mainline.

[n8hutch]

I guess that pulling the sap up to your sugar house is effective enough as far as getting the sap where you want it. My only concern with that technique would be the sap yield. Would you not get much more sap if you used sap Ladders and positive flow if you want your pump in the sugarhouse?

[Windy Acres]

That's the kindof information I'd like to see, the big bonus for us would be not having to gather it with the tractor, it's always full of drifted snow, and it's the wettest field on th he farm, I'd like to think with the pump running till it froze our yields would be better than just gravity

[maple flats]

I might, but collecting from areas that can't be gotten without vacuum is bonus enough. I'm sure I'd get more if I used a mainline and had 3-5 taps on each 5/16 lateral and then run sap ladders but to me the cost to do that does not make it look better to me. The simplicity of having 25 or so taps on a lateral and then running that to a mainline with just 1 saddle is a real bonus. Besides the only ones I have that way all go thru 1 or 2 sap ladders already are those 49 taps across the driveway, and to do those with conventional methods I'd need about 350' of mainline, 10-12 saddles and then a 13-14' sap ladder, 2 ball valves and a 1 x 1 x 3/4 Y in SS, all of my mainline fittings are SS barbed fittings. My way, I get 49 taps at ?% of possible for 1.5 rolls of 3/16 and 2 saddles (plus the taps and Tees which would be there either way).