Anyone using this system? Pros/Cons. thanks in advance
Anyone using this system? Pros/Cons. thanks in advance
Ian McDonald
2000 on vacuum
1000gph cdl ro
2.5'x12' intensofire
This will be my third year using it . I have a tank monitor and vacuum monitors on my mains . The system has helped me find a lot of leaks I would have missed. A very small leak will freeze a main at 34 degrees! I can also monitor my releaser from the system which has also gained a lot of sap, overall I am very pleased with the system.
30x8 leader inferno
1800 on a liquid ring pump
250 on a guzzler
100 on a shurflo
Initially the sap in the lines with strong vacuum near a small leak will boil, which "removes" heat. If no heat is added, the removal of energy will lead to rapid freezing in the line. This plugs the leak, the line slowly thaws, which exposes the leak again, and the process starts again. This intermittent nature is one reason very small leaks such as this are very hard to find and fix. With monitoring systems you can go back and look at the data trace and see which lines this sort of thing is happening in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IOyJa8NSk0
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
We used the system last year. We have two tank sensors (only used one last year), six vacuum sensors, and the sniffer (old one). We had one tank sensor fail, inconsistent readings, and they replaced it without question. The system was easy to install. The section we used it on last year covered an area about 2000' x 1000'. We probably have a couple extra vacuum senors primarily to build out the mesh network.
We learned a little bit more about temps than we did with a simple weather station. The tank sensors saved a few trips for my Dad when I was working.
I would recommend it.
Mike
Tapping since 1985 (four generations back to early to mid 1900s). 200-250 taps on buckets and then tubing in the mid 90s. 2013- 275 taps w/sap puller 25 gal. 2014-295 taps w/sap puller 55 ga. (re-tapped to vacuum theory) 2015-330 taps full vac. 65 gal, 2016-400 taps 105 gal, 2017-400 taps 95 gal. 2018-additional 800' mainline and maybe 400 new taps for a total near 800 taps. 2x6 Leader WSE (last year on it) supported by a 250 gph RO.