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Thread: How much would I save by building my own RO?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Southwest Minnesota
    Posts
    64

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    It is hard to quantify all the savings. I know I gained a great deal of satisfaction out of building one. So much so that I did build a second one.
    In terms of savings. I know it trimmed the amount of boiling time to much less than half. Maybe by two thirds and that means much less time cutting wood.
    I also feel it gives me a leg up on quality. I can spend time cleaning and organizing. Getting things ready for the next batch.
    It also gives you time to make more!
    😉


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Upper Valley, NH
    Posts
    146

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    If time is money, I doubt you will save much (there are quite a number of posts on here indicating as such). Many people on here struggle with home built RO systems...and you can see all the people trying to help and answer questions as to why they aren't working properly (which is why I love this site - so many people willing to share knowledge). I'm an engineer, and very handy. I can, and do, build almost everything around my homestead. I purchased an RO from Carl and have worked with him to make changes and upgrades over the past few years. I think that for me, that was a good balance point in investment vs. return. I make 4x the amount of syrup burning the same amount of wood in the same amount of time boiling vs. pre RO. I've said previously, I would invest in RO before investing in a larger evaporator - any day. I can process over 200-gallons of sap while I sleep right now. That's huge for a person with a family, a full time "real" job and a homestead. No matter which way you choose, though, once you have an RO, you will wonder why you didn't do it years ago!
    Last edited by 30AcreWoods; 03-30-2020 at 11:22 PM.
    2023: Award Winning Maple Syrup and Honey!
    2023: 200 Taps on 3/16" "natural vac"
    2022: 150 Taps on 3/16" "natural vac"
    2022: Lapierre Vision 2x6 with Preheater & Marcland Autodraw
    2022: Brand new post and beam sugar house
    2022: 4"x40" RO
    Kubota L4701, Kubota BX2380
    2 Black Rescue Dogs, 2 Livestock Guardian Dogs, Many Bee Hives, A Flock of Icelandic Chickens
    30 Acres of Wooded Bliss
    vikingmadeforge: Artist Blacksmithing & Bladesmithing
    https://blackdogbeesandmapletrees.com

  3. #13
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Grant michigan
    Posts
    27

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    It sounds like we are a similar size operation

    I am an engineer and handy with mechanical projects. I would recommend building a 4x40 RO with a 240gph or 330gph Procon pump. Honestly they are not hard to build. I started with the mattatuck style and quickly out grew it. I usually have 300-400 gallons of sap to run at a time and have a smokeylake full-pint pan boiling 15 gallons an hour. I run it through my RO one day and then boil the next. This saves me 50-70 hours a year in boiling. I can convert 400 gallons down to 70-80 gallons. I can boil this in one night roughly 5 hours of boil time.

    There is also a reduction in amount of wood you consume. I burn less than 1/2 a cord to make 25-30 gallons of syrup. This is a lot less time cutting and splitting.

    If you can find a motor the cost is well worth the reduction in boil time and added sleep.

    Bellow is a quick search for the cost to build an RO. Contact me if you want more information.
    $172 Procon pump
    $67 Procon mount
    $27 Coupler
    $40 Hoses
    $40 Valve
    $60 Feed pump
    $199 RO membrane
    $300 SS housing may be able to find it cheaper.
    2014 15 taps 1 gallon on a turkey burner
    2015 100 taps 10 gallons on a smokey lakes full pint
    2016 188 taps, full pint pan, and a home made RO system

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Hopkinton, MA
    Posts
    1,778

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    There's no argument from anyone about the benefits from having an RO. As for building one or buying one, I based my decision on time (and money), but mostly time. Some things are worth paying the other guy to do and some things are worth doing yourself. How do I decide? I base it on how much I will enjoy the build. I built my sugar house and its additions. It took a long time working weekends, but I loved every minute of it. When I ran into problems, I loved thinking them over and sketching ideas. Slow, but "fun". There are people who hear about what I do for a hobby and tell me that I can go grab a quart of syrup at Stop and Shop for about $20.

    Building an RO from scratch? For me, that would be a task that's not as much fun - especially if I ran into problems mid-season which will definitely happen. That said, I'm a little more familiar with the machine and I'm going to upgrade mine this summer. I'm going to add another membrane. Ray designed this unit to be "EZ" expandable. That is just simple enough that it will be fun for me to do myself - and I save a little money.

    Good luck with your decision. Trust your gut.

    Sean
    Woodville Maples
    www.woodvillemaples.com
    www.facebook.com/woodvillemaples
    Around 300 taps on tubing, 25+ on buckets if I put them out
    Mix of natural and mechanical vac, S3 Controller from Mountain Maple
    2x6 W.F. Mason with Phaneuf pans
    Deer Run 250 RO
    Ford F350
    6+ hives of bees (if they make it through the winters)
    Keeping the day job until I can start living the dream.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Auburn, OH
    Posts
    9

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    Hi Marc - I boil with three friends. We have 99 taps, very close to what you are doing, and boil in a Leader half-pint evaporator. We built a 4x150 RO a couple of years ago for about $400. I think the price of the membranes has come down so you could do it for less. I would suggest going to 400 GPD membranes if I were to build it today and I think the price would be about the same as when we built ours with the 150 GPD’s. I don’t know how much money it saves us since we burn with wood that we get from people who want a downed tree to be taken away so we really don’t have big costs. It does save hours and hours of boiling. I run it in my garage the day before we boil to reduce the sap I collect. We also have it running to feed the warming pan when we boil. It doesn’t keep up with the boiling so we add the concentrated sap I made the day before to keep up. The last time I checked it this year, it made 2.7GPH of concentrate at about 7% and 5.2 GPH of permeate. It is easy to build and a little reading in these forums will give you everything you need to know about operating and cleaning it. Bottom line: As much as we like standing and watching water boil, we are glad to have the RO.
    Last edited by Bainbrook Boiler; 04-08-2020 at 08:50 AM.
    99 Taps with three other guys
    Homemade 4x150 RO
    Leader half-Pint pan on an oil tank arch

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Mapleton Twp, SW Ontario
    Posts
    361

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    Anyone who knows me, would confirm that I'm not a buy it new guy, when it comes to equipment... I like to tinker, learn and build... and I am allergic to spending money...
    But even with used equipment, I tend to over-do it a little bit.... I knew I wanted to build a double 4x40 unit...
    I searched for about a year on Kijiji (canada's version of Craiglist) for some equipment or parts to start with....
    Housings, and pump were high on my list of want to find cheap...., (knowing that Id need to spend some money on Membranes).
    Eventually I lucked out and found a stand-alone commercial unit similar to the photo, very close to home.... that was removed from a factory closure... The guy was thinking about using it for Maple, but just never got around to it, so he passed it on for $700 CDN ($500 USD)
    Basically came ready to use, complete with flow meters, pressure switches, etc...... Just needed to add some hoses, a couple new membranes and a feed pump. I removed up to 80% of my water this year at about 50 GPH... My wife is still not convinced I needed it... but I am very happy with the result. AND learned a ton about RO in the process, which is the fun part for me...
    RO Stands.JPG

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    14

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    I know it's late in the year, but thought I'd chime in as well. I'm a DIY guy as well, and a couple years ago I built my own, first with an aquatec 8800, then moved up to a procon. I'm in Canada and I found it difficult and expensive to get alot of the fittings and parts I needed. I started with a 2.5x21 membrane, added another in parallel, and honestly spent way too much money on my little setup. I'm just a hobbyist but have a couple hundred taps. My little system couldn't keep up and I don't have a heated shack to let it run 24hrs a day. About a month ago I found a used 4x40" RO system (not meant for maple syrup). It's from https://waterguy.com/. Paid CDN$1000 for it. It's been awesome. Even though it's meant for drinking water it works fine for sap, and I'm pulling my sap up to 10%, and it does it quickly.
    I'd keep your eyes open for used unit like this.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Lawrence County Ohio
    Posts
    350

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    If I can do it anyone can. I'm a farmer too, shoe string budget, I bought a 3rd hand Deer Run for $1k 2 years ago., Upgraded it to electric and 2 4x40's last year, just ordered 2 new posts for it today, hope to get it t 400. This year I took out 120 gph water with 2 posts. Made runnin 600 taps on a 40 gph 2x6 a breeze compared to raw sap on a 20 gph hobby rig I started out with 4 yrs ago.
    '12 15 jugs - Steam pans
    '17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
    '18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
    '19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
    '20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
    '21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
    '22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
    '23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
    '24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO

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