Looking to upgrade from an old dairy pump run by gas engine to electric high vacuum pump. For those who have used cdls high vacuum pump, how are you guy liking them?
Looking to upgrade from an old dairy pump run by gas engine to electric high vacuum pump. For those who have used cdls high vacuum pump, how are you guy liking them?
I see that nobody has responded, I'll give you my 2 cents. I have the 40cfm 3 phase model with a VFD, running off a generator in a remote bush. I only had 1050 taps on it this season because I'm in the process of expansion. It pulled great vacuum and functioned well. although I had an iced releaser one morning and for some reason the moisture trap didn't prevent it from swallowing gallons of sap. I drained the oil changed the filter, refilled it and it ran fine the rest of the season. It does use more oil than the Atlas Copco 70 cfm that I have in the sugarhouse. That might be because the exhaust filter needs to be changed after the sap went through it.
I have the L25 new this year and think it is great. I had the same thing with a flooded releaser and the vacuum pump sucked in sap. Just changed the oil and filter and was back running in no time. I really have no previous experience with high vacuum until now but based on this season I am sold on these pumps. Well worth the money.
First introduced to making maple syrup in 1969
Making syrup every year since 1979
3 x 10 oil fired
Revolution syrup and max flue pan
Almost 1300 taps total with 900 on high vacuum
Bought first Marcland drawoff in 1997, still going strong.
Moisture traps fail for a whole variety of reasons. Quite often it is related to installation issues. If not kept in a warm space they'll ice up and fail (in a variety of interesting ways). Sometimes takes a while to get it figured out.
Dr. Tim Perkins
UVM Proctor Maple Research Ctr
http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc
https://mapleresearch.org
Timothy.Perkins@uvm.edu
My moisture trap failed when the ball inside collapsed.
First introduced to making maple syrup in 1969
Making syrup every year since 1979
3 x 10 oil fired
Revolution syrup and max flue pan
Almost 1300 taps total with 900 on high vacuum
Bought first Marcland drawoff in 1997, still going strong.
Not to change the subject, but are the smaller air tech pumps such as the L12 suitable for maple? It is only rated at 7cfm but would it be ok for up to 300 taps?
1000 taps on vac down to 100+ buckets 99% sugars
2x5 SL Hi-Output Raised Flue Corsair evaporator
SL Short bank press with CDL diaphragm pump
Leader Micro 1 RO for 2024
Constantly changing
2010:36 gal 2011:126 gal 2012:81 gal 2013:248 gal 2014: 329.5 gal 2015:305 gal 2016:316 gal 2017:258 gal 2018:147 gal 2019:91 gal 2020:30 gal 2021:30 gal 2023:50 gal Total since 2010: 2047.5 gal
Tapping the same trees my great, great and great grandfathers tapped.
Ken & Sherry
Williston, VT
16x34 Sugarhouse
1,500 taps on high vacuum, Electric Releaser & CDL Sap Lifter
Wood-Fired Leader 30"x10' Vortex Arch & Max Raised Flue with Rev Syrup Pan & CDL1200 RO
https://www.facebook.com/pumpkinhillmaple/
My moisture trap is in a separate generator building 280' from the releaser and tank building. When the releaser port plugged, it sucked sap 280 ft. and 18' in elevation up into the other building , through the trap and into the pump. I have a large moisture trap I'm going to install next to the releaser and an electric shut off switch to hopefully prevent this from happening again. It's 1/2 mile out back, so doesn't get checked as often as I'd like.
I installed a float switch into my electric releaser that shuts the vacuum off by closing a ball valve when it is tripped. It runs off air pressure, so I needed to hook it to a mini air compressor but not a big deal. It works awesome. I had to install because on some of the below freezing nights the pump line coming from it would freeze. Best part is when line would thaw and the sap in releaser drops the switch opens and vacuum is returned to the woods on its own. Which is great when I am at work
We have a CDL 3hp oil pump. We installed a water trap at the pump. We had some sap make it's way into the vacuum line at one of our sap shacks (where the releaser and tank is located). The sap shack is 750 feet away and 60 feet below the sugarhouse with the pump. The room where the pump is located is heated to 60 degrees.
We added a water trap and also put on in at our other sap shack when we built it. The water trap worked well when it was tripped and allowed for simple clearing of the line. Whereas before we had to go back to the sugarhouse and shut down the vacuum until the line was completely drained.
At no time have we gotten sap back to the primary water trap or vacuum pump.
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.