Latest thinking on 5/16 lateral length and number of taps with diaphragm pump

[Mark B]

I've run 3/4 manline, around 500', on my moderately flat bush (2.5% slope on average). Shurflo 4008 at the low spot in the middle; tee'd with 225' to one side and 250' to the other. My laterals (about 20) pick up 100 taps and are actually fairly short. Best vac I saw this season was mid teens and Im sure the system is tight. Im thinking about taking 50-100' off either end of the Mainline and increasing the 5/16th length and slope in hopes to decrease the area/work the little shurflo has to evacuate air from. Some of my laterals may end up about 50' long to get to my revised mainline and I may combine a couple to cut down on # of saddles.

Need to figure this out, as I may place a new mainline on my inlaws property and run a shurflo there as well (could grow to 200+ taps). Other then the outlay and maintenance the setup on the property, there are no other expenses... just have to give a brother in law some of the sap so he can boil on his set up.

All thoughts are welcome.

[Mark B]

yes I checked my filter screen and other obvious stuff. Just thinking about decreasing the area the shurflo has to evacuate. I also think based on my reading that 3/16th line is not the solution where it is pretty flat, but again any thoughts are welcome.

[VTnewguy]

Are you running a re-circulation line? That made a big difference in my shurflo

[Mead Maple]

My neighbor may chime in if he sees this, but he ran 3/16 line at roughly the same grade you have. His lines were a lot shorter but he recirculated and had less lengths. I think - key word think - you might be asking a lot of that little pump. I do not think they are made to try and accommodate that much suction power. Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk