Its the premium between kit you may need to tinker with, and an appliance that just works out of the box. There is a market for people who want to assemble their own from online instructions, also a market for those who aren't comfortable with a soldering iron but don't have 100,000 taps to justify the expense, and the operation that is large enough that manpower is more of a cost that some automation control. I know as the number of taps i put in increases, my available time doesn't increase, lol. Adding a few things here and there allows one guy to manage the whole shebang. At just short of 400 taps, i'm at my limit for what i can maintain, collect, boil, and can. In order to buy some time back I have to put an RO on the shopping list...and the drawoff was a life saver this season....just feed the fire and pump sap.
I'd like to put in two automated 12v pumping stations next season with some LORA radio's that let me know how they are operating, rig a monitoring setup for my main vacuum pump. It would save me hours each day switching on and checking things, time i could be boiling!
2023 - 38 Gallons - RO broke, Buckets didn't run, rebuilt vacuum pump mid-season, still made good syrup!
2022 - 52 Gallons - DIY RO, 50% less fuel, no late nights in the shack!
2021 - 48 Gallons - new pans, new arch, lots of new taps and tubing
2020 - 32 Gallons
2019 - 27 Gallons