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Thread: Gravity Releaser?

  1. #81
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
    Posts
    11,682

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    Ben and Judy's Sugarhouse in West Edmeston, NY had one of these at one time. I was there a few years ago for a Glen Goodrich tubing seminar. After the seminar we walked one of their sugarbushes. Mounted right at the back of a garage, behind the sugarhouse was a PVC contraption, likely 30' or so high. I asked what it was and they said they had used it as a releaser at one time. They explained it, but being so long ago I don't recall details. They did say that the vacuum would pull the sap up in the vertical tube and at some point it would get a slug of air in it, that let the sap all fall out into a barrel on the bottom. The barrel had a drain tube to drain the excess to a sap tank. Then the process would repeat. Sounded neat but sadly I din't even have vacuum at that time and didn't pay close enough attention to what Ben said.
    Dave Klish, I recently bought a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

  2. #82
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Hinesburg, VT
    Posts
    111

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    Quote Originally Posted by Super Sapper View Post
    I'm new at the tubing and will be using teh 3/16" for the first time this spring, but why would you want to drain it during a freeze? When it warms up to thaw the trees for the sap to run the tubing will thaw out also and the lines will be primed and you will have the vacuum right away. Using the 3/16" would also eliminate using a vacuum pump and releaser.
    You don't want to drain the tubing after a freeze. You want to to stay full. If you have a period of several days above freezing when the sap slowly stops running (even with the vacuum) then it will eventually drain itself.

    It takes a bit of time to get a full column of sap. I believe having done form of vacuum would lessen the time to establish the column of sap. I would still set it up for 3/16 gravity (put a bunch of trees on one lateral to get a full column to establish, etc)


    You can do just fine on 3/16 with no pump. I'm just playing around with other things this year.

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