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Thread: Clogged pre-filter on a CDL vacuum filter

  1. #71
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    May 2011
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    Chatham NH
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    Hey Bap I have a friend that has the 12" vacuum filter and he hasn't had great luck with it so far. I gave him a 5 gallon pail full of DE to try, I told him to start with 3 cups to 5 gallons of syrup because that's what I use to start on my filter press. What do you think is a good amount of DE to syrup ratio?
    Nate Hutchins
    Nate & Kate's Maple
    2022 1000 taps?
    3x10 Intensofire
    20x36 sugarhouse
    CDL 600gph RO
    A wife and 2 kids.

  2. #72
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    OH
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    Quote Originally Posted by canaanmaple View Post
    Something to add. I have one, and noticed the later season stuff Ive been bottling with that unit, does have more nitre and getting a few gallons through it (ie: filling up the bottler) without having to change the filter is getting harder.

    But, I did just notice something the other day that I would say is a manufacturing flaw. The 3 tabs on the removable ring that you clamp down that holds the syrup, make contact with the flat filters and mesh filter piece BEFORE the entire outside of the ring. Making it impossible for an air-tight connection when clamped down. I plan to grind down the 3 tabs a little so the ring is the first thing to make contact and hopefully make a more air-tight seal. I will report back
    Have you tried adjusting the tabs? All 3 on mine have bolts that can be lengthened to adjust the tension.
    2021: 28 taps. 18"x36" flat pan and dual natural gas burners.
    2020: 31 taps. 3 full size steam table pans on a custom 6x water heater natural gas burner setup.
    2019: 31 taps on silvers. Back porch gas cook top with 2 full size steam table pans. An amazing 14.9 gallons in my backyard!
    2018: 22 taps on 9 silvers. Propane turkey fryer and full size steam table pan on electric stove. I made 4.25 gallons in my backyard!

  3. #73
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    Walpole, NH
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    Quote Originally Posted by n8hutch View Post
    Hey Bap I have a friend that has the 12" vacuum filter and he hasn't had great luck with it so far. I gave him a 5 gallon pail full of DE to try, I told him to start with 3 cups to 5 gallons of syrup because that's what I use to start on my filter press. What do you think is a good amount of DE to syrup ratio?
    Nate, that sounds about like what I am using right now given the amount of niter. Tell him that if it helps but still isn’t great try a little more.
    Sugaring for 45+ years
    New Sugarhouse 14'x32'
    New to Me Algier 2'x8' wood fired evaporator
    2022 added a used RB25 RO Bucket
    250 mostly Sugar Maples, 15% Soft Maples. Currently,(110on 3/16" and 125 on Shurflo 4008 vacuum, 15 gravity), (16,000 before being disabled)
    1947 Farmall H and Wagon with gathering tank
    2012 Kubota with forks to move wood around

  4. #74
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    Chatham NH
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    Thanks Bap, I always figure its easier to use alot of DE and waste some than it is to use too little and fiddle around with syrup that wont go through the filters.
    Nate Hutchins
    Nate & Kate's Maple
    2022 1000 taps?
    3x10 Intensofire
    20x36 sugarhouse
    CDL 600gph RO
    A wife and 2 kids.

  5. #75
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Canaan Valley, WV
    Posts
    220

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    Quote Originally Posted by canaanmaple View Post
    Something to add. I have one, and noticed the later season stuff Ive been bottling with that unit, does have more nitre and getting a few gallons through it (ie: filling up the bottler) without having to change the filter is getting harder.

    But, I did just notice something the other day that I would say is a manufacturing flaw. The 3 tabs on the removable ring that you clamp down that holds the syrup, make contact with the flat filters and mesh filter piece BEFORE the entire outside of the ring. Making it impossible for an air-tight connection when clamped down. I plan to grind down the 3 tabs a little so the ring is the first thing to make contact and hopefully make a more air-tight seal. I will report back
    grinding the tabs helped a little. I do notice the entire ring itself is not perfectly level/flat. Sitting it on a flat surface you can see light coming through in spots. Probably impossible to fix without a wide belt table sander. That being said, I think there are very many variables to using the cdl vacuum filter efficiently. Air tight connections, size of the vacuum, temp of syrup, and -very importantly- the speed of which you pour the syrup in! I found that to be a huge factor. Also, stacking pre-filters in the ring. I just use the orlon and one prefilter under the ring that gets clamped down. Then I pack 3 more pre-filters in. I can easily get 5 gallons through. The first 2.5 that fills it up, goes right through without changing a filter if you do it fast enough. Then I end up pulling out the pre filters one by one to get the next 2.5 gallons through which isnt a big deal. I do not use DE at all, but I do filter off the evaporator in a cone filter very close to syrup first. Then finish and run it through the vac filter.

    very decent unit still. Only problem is that it's too small for me, so I will be selling it and getting the higher capacity one for next season!

  6. #76
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Ashtabula County, Ohio
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    For those using the 12" vac filter, what are your vacuum readings? My vac gauge reads 6-7 hg using a new 5 or 6 hp shop vac. Jus wondering if these are normal vac levels for this unit.
    1000 taps on vac down to 100+ buckets 99% sugars
    2x5 SL Hi-Output Raised Flue Corsair evaporator
    SL Short bank press with CDL diaphragm pump
    Leader Micro 1 RO for 2024
    Constantly changing
    2010:36 gal 2011:126 gal 2012:81 gal 2013:248 gal 2014: 329.5 gal 2015:305 gal 2016:316 gal 2017:258 gal 2018:147 gal 2019:91 gal 2020:30 gal 2021:30 gal 2023:50 gal Total since 2010: 2047.5 gal
    Tapping the same trees my great, great and great grandfathers tapped.

  7. #77
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    Quote Originally Posted by heus View Post
    For those using the 12" vac filter, what are your vacuum readings? My vac gauge reads 6-7 hg using a new 5 or 6 hp shop vac. Jus wondering if these are normal vac levels for this unit.
    Heus, I am using a 5hp shop vac Rigid brand and I get 6-7 on the gauge.
    Sugaring for 45+ years
    New Sugarhouse 14'x32'
    New to Me Algier 2'x8' wood fired evaporator
    2022 added a used RB25 RO Bucket
    250 mostly Sugar Maples, 15% Soft Maples. Currently,(110on 3/16" and 125 on Shurflo 4008 vacuum, 15 gravity), (16,000 before being disabled)
    1947 Farmall H and Wagon with gathering tank
    2012 Kubota with forks to move wood around

  8. #78
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Ashtabula County, Ohio
    Posts
    1,792

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    Thanks BAP
    1000 taps on vac down to 100+ buckets 99% sugars
    2x5 SL Hi-Output Raised Flue Corsair evaporator
    SL Short bank press with CDL diaphragm pump
    Leader Micro 1 RO for 2024
    Constantly changing
    2010:36 gal 2011:126 gal 2012:81 gal 2013:248 gal 2014: 329.5 gal 2015:305 gal 2016:316 gal 2017:258 gal 2018:147 gal 2019:91 gal 2020:30 gal 2021:30 gal 2023:50 gal Total since 2010: 2047.5 gal
    Tapping the same trees my great, great and great grandfathers tapped.

  9. #79
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Mercersburg, PA
    Posts
    40

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    I decided to build my own vacuum filter since last season. We made 9 gallons of syrup last season and that has been in gallon glass jars in a refrigerator since March so Mother Nature did a lot of the filtering for us already. Like some have said in other posts, I’m a hobbyist that hates filtering like the plague. It’s my least favorite part of this whole process. Anyway, I learned a lot from this site and, being a mechanical engineer that designs large scientific spectrometers that incorporate radiation, vacuum and cryogenics for a living I get as much satisfaction from designing and making all my own equipment as I do in using it. I do this with a partner that owns/operates a large 1,200 cow dairy and we discussed purchasing the 9” CDL vacuum filter press. My answer to this was “why should we buy something for $600 when I can design and build something for twice that? And, truth be told, I’ve spent much more than $600 on our unit (luckily my wife doesn’t visit this site and the purchases were spread out enough that she hasn’t noticed). Anyway, we tested my unit this last weekend and it worked great. We poured the syrup off of the bottom layer of sludge and heated it to 185°, saving the last of the dirty stuff for the end where we expected to clog the filters. My system incorporates a vacuum reservoir that is separate from the filter unit and connected with a valved line to the bottom vessel of the filter unit. The vacuum inlet to the bottom vessel has a bent tube inside the vessel terminating near the top to avoid sucking too much syrup into the line. The other vessel penetration is a drain valve with an interior bent tube terminating at the bottom of the vessel and another exterior bent tube on the outside that can be rotated to terminate below the bottom of the vessel for near-complete drainage of the filtered syrup and this worked well for bottling. Anyway, the vacuum reservoir is an old deLaval milk bucket (identical to what my grandfather used before building a milking parlor in the 60’s). The top plate has three penetrations: one is for a vacuum gauge, one has an internal tube running to the bottom and the outside is connected to the valved line running to the filter unit. The third connects to my vacuum source. My preferred vacuum source was the Harbor Freight 2-stage 3CFM vacuum pump that others on this site recommended. I also purchased a 6-HP Wet/Dry vac and fittings to use as a Plan B to the HF pump. With the HF pump I can get close to perfect vacuum (29.92” Hg). I only get 6-7” Hg with the Shop Vac and thought I had an issue somewhere but reading this makes me realize that is all that it’s capable of. The top reservoir of the filter unit is a section of polyethylene tube/pipe (~ 9” ID, .5” wall) that squeezes the main filter against the top grid plate of the filter. I put prefilters inside this that have the same diameter as the ID of the poly tube. We fill the top reservoir to a level that we determined by trial/error to match the volume of the lower vessel (a heavy-walled stainless steel stock pot). The vacuum reservoir is evacuated with the valve to the filter unit closed and the valve to the pump open. Then the valve to the pump is closed. Once the syrup is loaded into the syrup reservoir above the filter, the valve between the reservoir and the filter is opened slowly. It’s amazing how fast it sucks the syrup through the filters and into the lower unit. Once it’s through and the filter is hissing, the valve to the vacuum vessel is closed and the vacuum reservoir usually still has 14-15” Hg of vacuum in it. To bottle, we have to break the seal between the grid plate and the bottom vessel. Once we’ve bottled everything in the lower vessel, we start another cycle. We changed filters twice during the 9-gallon session and, as expected, the last stuff filtered would clog the filter before going through but carefully removing the pre filter and hitting it again with vacuum did the trick. The syrup was crystal clear and the bottling was done with barely a drop of wasted syrup. The only change I plan to make is a larger vessel for bottling from as the bottling was the rate-determining step in the process. In the near future, I will post pictures and a video. To the OP – consider the HF vacuum pump if you want more force pushing your syrup through the filter. Just take precautions against sucking syrup into the pump – it will ruin it. I have two safeguards against this. One is the separate vacuum reservoir/ballast and the second is a water separator in the line to the pump (someone on here pointed me to that on Amazon). Another note – I didn’t use any DE and don’t plan to. Sorry for the long post. I’ll start a new thread on my filter with pictures and video when I figure out how to. I no longer dread filtering and bottling and now have a new toy to play with.

    Conococheague

  10. #80
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
    Location
    OH
    Posts
    174

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    Very nice. Thanks for that information. I look forward to your pictures and video. A few questions:
    -Was your filter setup one orlon + one pre-filter or something else?
    -What kind of gallon jars did you refrigerate the syrup in? I am thinking of giving mine a month before bottling.
    -After you heated it to 185 and sent it through the filter, did you reheat it again to bottle?
    2021: 28 taps. 18"x36" flat pan and dual natural gas burners.
    2020: 31 taps. 3 full size steam table pans on a custom 6x water heater natural gas burner setup.
    2019: 31 taps on silvers. Back porch gas cook top with 2 full size steam table pans. An amazing 14.9 gallons in my backyard!
    2018: 22 taps on 9 silvers. Propane turkey fryer and full size steam table pan on electric stove. I made 4.25 gallons in my backyard!

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