Anyone ever use CO2 in collection tank to stop bacteria

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

Yes I am green behind the ears when it comes to sugaring (2 seasons old) but here I go thinking again! When I used to brew my own beer i would cover the beer with a layer of CO2 to prevent bacteria from contacting any oxygen. Since CO2 is heavier than air it would sit in the container all season and go up and down with the sap level unless the tank overflowed with sap. My reason for thinking of this is because I collect all week and boil on the weekends. Second Question Is it posible to set up a vacum system and leve it unattended mon-fri ? Any thoughts would be appreciated!! Thanks Rick


101 taps on 3/4 main line adding 200 more

[brookledge]

As for the question about vac.
Yes you can wire the pump to come on and turn off by a temperature switch. The biggest question is what are you going to do about pumping out the tank. Are you also planning on collecting once a week?
While you could do it the issue of making sure nothing goes wrong like running out of oil or coolant, Releaser gets hung up etc.
Keith

[KenWP]

If he used a zero tank then all he needs to worry about is the pump over heating would he not. If the pump was rigged with a heat switch then it would turn off when hot.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I ran my Gast dry vane pump 72 hrs stright using a releaser and no vacuum regulator and over 3 weeks I never had the releaser hang up. They do make inline flow switches that when liquid passes thru them they can shut or open swiches to shut down pumps

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

From what I have seen when you are refering to pumping out the tank. You mean the tank that the releaser dumps into. Why can't i gravity feed into another tank. Also I could set this up to remotely turn off and on via phone line if that would be advantagious. All help is greately appreciated! Rick

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

KenWP what does the term zero tank refer to?

Thanks Rick

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

I ran my Gast dry vane pump 72 hrs stright using a releaser and no vacuum regulator and over 3 weeks I never had the releaser hang up. They do make inline flow switches that when liquid passes thru them they can shut or open swiches to shut down pumps

Question if a releaser hangs up what do you have to do to fix it. could this be done mechanicaly?

[Haynes Forest Products]

Zero tanks are like the term Kleenex its become the term for a tank that holds vacuum. Zero is the manf. name of a vacuum tank that was used in the dairy farms. The open style tanks were used when the milk was dumped in or pumped by a step saver (tank with pump) that was in the barn and it was a non vacuum tank. Then they vacuumed the tank and the lines to the cows and that moved the milk to the bulk tank.
As far as releasers freezing up or hanging up its a matter of being dirty or having low vacuum or in my case having the tank lid fall down and hold the lever down. I never had ice cause a problem so I have no I idea about how to stop that problem.