Mechanical Releaser Question

[hogisland42]

The biggest problem I have with a mechanical releaser is the sap that freezes in the manifold and in the lines entering. one of the elbows is always full of sap which freezes and when things start to run again the next day it is only able to dump the one side, and it looses vacuum until it thaws. sometimes I have to break out the heat gun

[jrgagne99]

I like to be able to see the releaser remotely with my webcam, so an enclosure is not ideal. I'm thinking of trying one of those seed germination mats with a piece of foam-board underneath it and maybe some insulation wrapped around the bottom of the canister. Those heat mats are only about 20 watts, but it would put the heat exactly where I need it to keep the bottom flapper from freezing up.

[blissville maples]

The biggest problem I have with a mechanical releaser is the sap that freezes in the manifold and in the lines entering. one of the elbows is always full of sap which freezes and when things start to run again the next day it is only able to dump the one side, and it looses vacuum until it thaws. sometimes I have to break out the heat gun

At night afyer sap stops running one must go trip the releaser, twice. This will empty both elbows. However if you run High vacuum the flappers inside the releaser may stay closed because your Sugarbush is so tight there is nothing to create a pressure difference and open the flappers. Sometimes I will introduce a very small leak to open the flapper and then this will drain the elbow. Otherwise the elbow may not drain.

[wiam]

I like to be able to see the releaser remotely with my webcam, so an enclosure is not ideal. I'm thinking of trying one of those seed germination mats with a piece of foam-board underneath it and maybe some insulation wrapped around the bottom of the canister. Those heat mats are only about 20 watts, but it would put the heat exactly where I need it to keep the bottom flapper from freezing up.

My enclosure has a window. Also WiFi cam has night vision. If you do a heated box of some sort you will wonder why you waited to do this.

[hogisland42]

Blissville you are 100% right but I need my beauty sleep. Usually doesn't freeze until after I am in bed all cozy, LOL. But yes that is totally what I should do

[blissville maples]

Blissville you are 100% right but I need my beauty sleep. Usually doesn't freeze until after I am in bed all cozy, LOL. But yes that is totally what I should do

Yes I hear you there happened to me night before last it probably was midnight before they froze. The only positive side to this is that usually by the time morning rolls around because it froze so late you can usually still get there and Trigger the dump and get the majority of the liquid sap and slushy ice out before it's solid! So it usually does workout okay, but I prefer like last night to get there about an hour at the sap stops running! Worst case scenario I've had two pop the horizontal chamber off and bring the two vertical Chambers inside for a couple hours. It's a pain but on days like that there's not much to do anyway. We are all living and learning that's for sure!

[hogisland42]

Yes it is definatly a pain. Every time I have to get the ice out of it I tell myself, I really need to enclose this thing and heat it. Well its on the list and just havent got to it yet. Maybe next year

[jrgagne99]

Necro-ing this thread... I wrapped the bottom half of my releaser with two seed germination mats from Amazon, and then a few layers of bubble wrap for insulation. I use the temperature controller that came with the mats. I place the releaser on a piece of 1" foam blue-board. Frozen releaser is now a thing of the past.


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