Upgrade
Well I finally dropped the cash and bought a RO. Had 5 days in a row last year with 100 to 175 gallons of sap waiting to boil. Those long boils get old fast so I bought a R20 kit from The RO Bucket. It should be more then I need but that means I can tap more trees.This is definitely a sickness!
2x3 Patrick Phaneuf Divided Pan
Homemade arch
RB20 RO Bucket
121 taps total
Sugar Shack in future
Wife into it as much as me
Also do homebrew
http://s928.photobucket.com/albums/ad121/ZMANSYRUP/
You'll like having the RO. Just remember once you RO you really need to get it boiled so it does not spoil. What I mean is don't RO one day and then boil the next. Check the past posts get some details on timelines, but you'll still want to boil it that day. The RO is probably the best upgrade to saving time...I mean getting more time in the woods to expand....I mean check your lines...maybe dream about expansion.
Mike
Tapping since 1985 (four generations back to early to mid 1900s). 200-250 taps on buckets and then tubing in the mid 90s. 2013- 275 taps w/sap puller 25 gal. 2014-295 taps w/sap puller 55 ga. (re-tapped to vacuum theory) 2015-330 taps full vac. 65 gal, 2016-400 taps 105 gal, 2017-400 taps 95 gal. 2018-additional 800' mainline and maybe 400 new taps for a total near 800 taps. 2x6 Leader WSE (last year on it) supported by a 250 gph RO.
I don't have many trees but bought one of the RO Buckets last year. I love it since it cuts my boil time down by 2/3.
Steve
SE Pennsylvania
2022 - 13 taps, RO5, 21x24 SS pan with pre-warmer pan, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove - 17.25
2021 - 18 taps, RO5, 21x24 SS pan with pre-warmer pan, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove - 12 pints
2020 - 13 taps, RO5, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove with 2 lg 6 deep pans - 6.75 pints (very warm winter)
2019 Rookie Season - 14 taps, RO5, turkey fryer with 6 deep pan - 16.5 pints
Hey Skeller, Perry County, PA here.
I just bought a RO5 bucket but haven't used it yet. How/when do you use it? Do you collect the permeate and concentrate into different buckets/containers, or do you just put the end of the concentrate output tube into the raw sap tank and just keep recycling/running the sap/concentrate mixture until it reaches your desired SC%? Do you run it overnight before a boiling day? Or do you collect and chill/freeze your concentrate?
Thanks for any tips or advice.
I use it as soon as I get back from collecting. I run out of the collection buckets in to a pure water bucket and concentrated sap buckets until I have run all of my sap. I then run that concentrate in to another set of buckets. At the end I have sap around 7.5-8 percent sugar. As the sugar percentage goes up you need to adjust it. The way I do it you just adjust it twice. If you continued to cycle it I would think you would be playing around with it the entire time. I use 5 gallon buckets but if I had more trees I would use bigger tanks. I then take the end product and freeze it till the weekend when I boil it all off at once.
Steve
SE Pennsylvania
2022 - 13 taps, RO5, 21x24 SS pan with pre-warmer pan, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove - 17.25
2021 - 18 taps, RO5, 21x24 SS pan with pre-warmer pan, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove - 12 pints
2020 - 13 taps, RO5, backyard made wood fired 55gal drum stove with 2 lg 6 deep pans - 6.75 pints (very warm winter)
2019 Rookie Season - 14 taps, RO5, turkey fryer with 6 deep pan - 16.5 pints
Yes, there is a temperature at which you can hold concentrate. Dr Tim posted a chart on that someplace. It all depends on the sugar%. It doesn't need to freeze 1-2 degrees above works well. A friend of mine bought 1150 gal of my sap over a 4 day period, while my wife kept boiling what we had in our sugarhouse tanks (the last year before we had our RO). Those 4 days, were Friday-Monday, he ran it thru his RO each day and sent it to a working tank that cooled it to 30F. The following Sat and Sunday was Open house weekend. He made some nice medium amber with it. He kept half, I got the other half (a 30 gal barrel full).
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
Congrats Zman...long overdue. Have a great season
Mike
CDL 2x8
Around 4000 taps
Polaris ATVs, Ski Doo snowmobiles to get around
Atlas Copco pumps
Lapierre two post RO
http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/j...Sugar%20shack/
Can somebody educate me on a hobby size RO?
Hi Openwater - I have the RO10. When I am going to boil, I start up the OR first and put the concentrate directly into the pan. I get about an inch in the pan, then lite the fire. By the time I get a boil on, I have accumulated 5-10 gal of concentrate, which then trickles down into the pan. I boil off about 10 gph, on a good day, and the RO keeps right up with it. I collect the permeate for cleanup.
2017 - 20ish taps on buckets, boiling outside in two baking pans
2018 - 70+ taps, 14-buckets, 50+ on tubing, homemade arch from oil tank in my barn, 17 gal syrup
2019 - same set up, 20 gal syrup
2020 - less taps, short season, but RO kit was fantastic! 6 gal syrup and a maple cat!
2021/22/23 - expanded into the neighbors yards! 50 taps on buckets and 40 taps on tubing
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