RO bucket

[fishman]

Anyone try the RO bucket?

[jbutton]

I have not tried the ro bucket but heard on facebook chats that they are very nice. I made my own just like it. Just not in the bucket. Mine works great

[antelope76]

This is the third season for mine and love it. Saves time and firewood. I have anywhere from 75 to 85 buckets and run about half of it thru the ro bucket.

[marlmucker]

I just bought one this week, it has shipped. I’m looking forward to trying it out. I’ve read about DIY options and maybe that’s a cheaper route. However, I haven’t read one bad thing about the RO Bucket or the guys that run it.

[30AcreWoods]

I'm convinced you will be happy. Carl is great to work with if you have questions or any issues at all. Once you use it, you'll be plotting how to add more taps!

[Person25]

I always wanted to do RO, but after many years of seeing even the smallest RO units at places like Bascoms and what they cost i sort of dismissed the idea altogether. It just didnt seem cost effective for the small guy, like me, so i put it out of mind. But a few years ago i found out about the robucket, and looked into it. I didn't act because i felt it was to good to be true and was still not exactly what i would call 'cheap'. I toyed with the idea of building my own, using their schematics but once i priced all the parts out it was basically the same, so i finally pulled the trigger this year. I got a kit from them, which I built into my own bucket and man, i am now kicking myself for not doing this when this thing came out years back. It is so cool to have it pumping out 8% concentrate all day, from 2% sap. I havnt boiled off any concentrate yet, i plan to this weekend, but just knowing im starting off with 8% vs 2% should mean shorter boils and lighter than motoroil colored syrup and I can see how it is worth the money already in time savings.

[GramaCindy]

Just an FYI Person25, I'm under the impression that the concentrate spoils much more rapidly that un RO'ed sap

[TheNamelessPoet]

Just an FYI Person25, I'm under the impression that the concentrate spoils much more rapidly that un RO'ed sap

I am currently freezing my sap since I can only boil in the weekends. it should be ok if you freeze the concentrate correct?

[30AcreWoods]

You should be o.k. freezing concentrate.

Cindy, yes, concentrate spoils much faster because of higher sugar content = faster bacteria growth. This isn't necessarily the case with boiled concentrate because you've killed a lot of the bacteria through boiling.

If you do a search on here, you will find lots of discussion about storing/freezing sap and concentrate.

When you thaw your sap/concentrate, you can consider boiling when 2/3 has melted. The remaining [frozen] 1/3 will be mostly water (it's called freeze concentration). You can look up that on here as well for more details.

[maple flats]

Freezing the concentrate will keep it from spoiling, but it will take quite a while to thaw. Yes, concentrate spoils much faster than sap, because you have not only concentrated the sugar but also the micro-organisms.
Proctor maple research had an article in the Maple News, I believe about how they hold concentrate for a few days, They concentrate to about 35% sugar (for more than any regular RO can get) and they refrigerate a bulk tank to I believe 26 degrees, just short of freezing. They then boil it a day or 2 later.