Impressed with Shurflo vacuum

[ndtempel]

Are you using the 12V D/C or 110V A/C pump?

[heus]

12v on an automatic battery charger

[heus]

Just a simple setup copied from some others on the site. This is an unfinished setup. 20210130_121640.jpg

[heus]

Screenshot_20210312-072135_Gallery.jpg
Here is my simple manifold.

[heus]

In working order. This is in the old pumphouse that used to contain my electric releaser.
Screenshot_20210312-074035_Gallery.jpg

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible? We have zero vacuum in one of our bushes. After playing with the pump, it appears to be pulling OK. I thought about walking the laterals and clamping each one with vise grips while a buddy watches the gauge but the lines are all full of sap so not sure I would get anywhere with that. Can't really listen for leaks or see what the sap is doing when I have no vacuum. I'm planning to walk each lateral/tap again this week but it's only year 2 of a new install. I walked everything and fixed some damage in February before tapping, wasn't much to fix. It's about 900' of 1" mainline on good pitch with 120 taps on 20- 5/16" laterals. Shurflo 4048. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Biz]

Could be leaking at a saddle or mainline fitting maybe. One way to isolate the leaks is to insert ball valves in the mainline to isolate sections so you can narrow down where the leak is coming from. Not sure if it is easy to do at this late stage but it should help a lot in finding which section is leaking.

Dave

[DrTimPerkins]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible?

Leak checking can be challenging with diaphragm pumps because they pull so little CFM. If you have multiple lines, close them off with valves (if mainline) or vise grips (lateral lines) so you can isolate each line individually. Then open them one-by-one to see the movement in the lines. Once you can isolate it one line, you can walk that line to watch/listen for sap movement and air in the lines.

[wmick]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good way to check leaks with a shurflo or is it even possible? We have zero vacuum in one of our bushes. After playing with the pump, it appears to be pulling OK. I thought about walking the laterals and clamping each one with vise grips while a buddy watches the gauge but the lines are all full of sap so not sure I would get anywhere with that. Can't really listen for leaks or see what the sap is doing when I have no vacuum. I'm planning to walk each lateral/tap again this week but it's only year 2 of a new install. I walked everything and fixed some damage in February before tapping, wasn't much to fix. It's about 900' of 1" mainline on good pitch with 120 taps on 20- 5/16" laterals. Shurflo 4048. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Not sure what type of saddles you have... I have the ones that they recommended tying on with rebar twist ties... I had to replace the ties with gear clamps on year 2.... as I was getting a lot of leaking...
PS - if your lateral is "full of sap", then that is probably not where your leak is.... If you have a leak in a lateral, it will likely be running empty or a lot of bubbles moving very quickly...

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Thanks all for the suggestions. The saddles are spin seal saddles. While we only have them in 2 bushes, they should be leak free. We pulled good vacuum on this bush last year with the same pump. And I had the same thought on the laterals. I was glad to see them all full but it didn't help because we didn't find any that appeared to be passing air. So we are truly stumped. Would the vise grip trick work even if the lines are full? I do have a new diaphragm coming just to try but when we closed the bypass valve and the valve to the pump to let the sap back up then opened the valve it pulled the sap hard. Do the diaphragms on these pump wear over time or is it 0% or 100% because it definitely is pumping good? We don't have a recirc. line but we still had 0 vac when the sap was running good and the strainer always had sap in it.
Maybe we'll have to put some valves in next year to isolate but I hate the idea of extra fittings.