SmellsLikeSyrup NH 2020 (SMD Maple Syrup)

[raptorfan85]

I think bender releasers have a designed leak to operate properly. They can't handle high vacuum.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Hi Nate,
You can hear it leaking out from under the cap where the rod seats down. I dont see anyway to actually fix it. It sort of is what it is. I do have check valves on the incoming and outgoing ports.

Other issue im struggling with is the float will move up the chamber and as long as it has a good flow to make it trip the seal everything is fine. If the float is raising and its getting a small surge of sap and get only enouugh to raise the float to crack the seal it will get stuck and then nothing moves. Vacuum just leaks out and nothing flows in. I added some weight to see if that would fix it and its still happening. Not sure how to resolve that one yet.

Do you have a check valve in your sap line? How are you loosing 7" how much vac are you pulling? Just trying to figure out the whys

[n8hutch]

How many taps on that thing, just by that short video it appears that it might be undersized. Looked like it was trying to dump quite often. You could probably stick a half horse goulds on your outlet and pump your sap from the releaser. I've got an electric lappiere single vertical releaser that I bought last year, I think it was about 12-1300 all in. Works great. Something maybe for next year, you could even buy an older releaser and retro fit a pump to it, you don't need to spend 2-3 grand to have an electric releaser.

[maple flats]

What is you question about the Honda WX15? I might be able to help. It certainly appears that the Bender is too small. Do I understand correctly, you're using a ShurFlo for vacuum? If yes, why a releaser? Did I miss something?

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Hey Dave, not sure where the Question is about the Honda? That wasnt me.

I have a 12CFM Chinese Vacuum pump attached to the Bender. I have ShurFlos on my other sections. I will get a real good test of how this thing works over the next few days. I plan to be off from work so I can monitor and see if I can adjust if it keeps getting stuck. I changed the angle of the line feeding into it this weekend slightly and now it has a 30+ft section that will flow directly downwards to the releaser. My thought being that if it somehow gets stuck that any flow coming down the line should put enough sap into it to finish the trip of the valve and let it release properly.

Im learning, its my 1st year using a system like this. I will get better at it.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Had 475 gallons of Sap on Thursday night to run through the RO. Took about 3 hours to get it up to 8% and down to about 170 gallons of concentrate to boil. Made 13 gallons and bottled it all on Saturday morning. Looks to be a great week ahead and hopefully I get to see the Bender system finally working as I had hoped it would. I found a leak in one of my laterals that had been stumping me and my Hg is now up to 20. This warm up will really let me see if all the effort I put into setting this thing up was worth it. I am sure it will be.