RB25 Kit

[jrgagne99]

The RO Buckets are great units, no doubt about it. But if you plan to get up to 200 taps, you might want to think about a 4" single-post for faster processing time. Especially if you want to process the day's sap run on the same evening, which i think generally makes a lighter syrup. An RO that can remove 65-75% of the water while producing concentrate fast enough to keep up with your evaporator is needed for this. Having this capability greatly reduced the amount of time I spent processing sap, even relative to my previous homemade RO that I had to run overnight. It is nice to be able to walk into the sugarhouse, hook up the RO to the truck tank, wait five minutes to confirm outputs are good, then light the match and start boiling 8%.

[Aaron Stack]

Is the RB25 something I can grow into? Looking to add RO this coming season and return to 50 taps, but I really have my eye on expanding for the 2025 season with a bigger evaporator and more taps (100+!). It is rated bigger than I will need next year, but is that something I need to think about? Not having “enough” taps?

[DRoseum]

You can definitely scale (down and then back up) with that kit. Just change the number of membranes in series that you use. Get the biggest diaphragm pump they offer no matter what so you can add more membranes and scale up.

I have 2 RO units that are basically the same as the RB25 (with low pressure recirc loop) to support 100 taps on vacuum. I only use 1 most days to boil all the sap on each day (average 100 - 120 gallons per day). On bigger runs (180 - 200+ gallons) I run both in parallel to speed things up and process it all in the same day.

I agree with others, if you go north of 100 or 150 taps, and are on vacuum, you might want to consider a 4x40 single post unit.

I didn't go this route for various reasons but am ultimately still very happy with the smaller DIY ROs I have. I wanted scalability, portability, and insulated membranes in compact form since I didn't have a sugarhouse for years. My tap numbers slowly grew and half aren't guaranteed to be available to tap forever. Took an approach that met objective of same day processing, limited investment/cost and gave me flexibility/scalability. Weigh your options and ultimate plans.

[Aaron Stack]

Thanks D. Good to know the investment will be able to grow with me even if not using the full potential at the start.

Most of this season I was boiling same day and didn't use the tank until late - even ran out of sap 3 times before the trees really opened up. My evaporator does a good 8-10 an hour but wasn't able to keep up with those 50-90 gallon collection days.

[Vtmbz]

I have the ro20 on three hundred taps. It is essential for me. The support is excellent and its easy to use. In my setup it is maxed out.

Daily cleaning takes me about an 1.5 ,hours in the morning while i fire up the evaporator; warm water soap rinse for 45 minutes followed by filter change and 30 gallons permeate flush. I use a tds meter from Carl and flush until the outwash equals the permeate reading.

I have the pressure switch and a timer and run the ro at night when i have to, running the device for as long as needed to have enough concentrate to start up in the morning, about 25 gallons or so.

In operation, I get a doubling of sugar pct. My 2x4 will boil just a bit faster that the ro will produce on cold days, which is roughly 12-16 gallonsof concentrate per hr, depending upon the sap temperature. So the ro processes the same amount of raw sap as the evaporator at a fraction of the purchase cost. I never have time to recirculate, with 300 hundred trees! I usually make about four or five gallons of syrup in about 6 hours of boiling.

The big gain is that I can skip boiling slow days. The other change was that with concentrated sap, cleaning the flue and syrup pans is now a major part of the process.

The ro20 is perfect for 100 taps, especially if weekend boiling is the goal.

[littleTapper]

The ro20 is perfect for 100 taps, especially if weekend boiling is the goal.

Absolutely spot-on. I run ~95 taps with mine. The whole process now is so much easier. Lighter run days when weather says I should boil (warm), I just have it run right into the head tank and set it to match my boil rate. Otherwise, overnight concentrating to about 5-6% is the norm for me. What a great system.

Considering adding a membrane and swapping to 500gpd membranes though. I've got 4 seasons on the original membranes and they were still behaving perfectly at the end of this season...so I'm on the fence with the upgrade at the moment.