Originally Posted by
Openwater
If I plan on boiling on a Saturday AM, and RO'ed some "start-up" sap the Friday night before, would I need to do anything with the RO Bucket overnight (flush, clean, etc) if I'm gonna get it running again in 12 hrs or less on Saturday AM? Or could I just shut it down, and let it sit in a cool/cold garage overnight?
Hey Openwater - in the process of RO-ing, you will produce some permeate (the pure clean water). Even though you plan on using the RO the next day, I would still rinse it with the permeate that you produced. It may not be enough to do a “real” rinse, but you would be surprised how fast it gets funky. And even a little funk is not what you want. It doesn’t take long to run the permeate through it while you are waiting for your boil to go down enough so you feel comfortable walking away. No need for a chemical rinse.
Last year, I rinsed with permeate well enough each use, so I only used the RO soap (that comes with the RO bucket and very good instructions) at the end of the season.
Oops - I re-read, you are not boiling fri night - I would still use whatever permeate you produced to rinse fri night, and keep it cold but not freezing to reduce bacteria growth.
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