I never tried to flush out a sap line, but I have moved some hogs.... They don't want to go forward without a bit of a fight.... in reverse,. it a brawl...
I digress...
I have a 700 foot run with 1 inch pipe to the sugarhouse. This is how I get sap that I haul in to the sugarhouse. I pump 40 feet up then basically straight a crossed. After pumping I switch valves around it put vac to the line through a releaser. It gets all but 5 gallons out of the line which I then drain into a 5 gallon bucket and carry over.
30x8 Leader revolution, wood fired blower, steamaway/hood. 903 taps all but 54 on pipeline and 3 vacuum systems. Hauling sap this year with a 99 F350 7.3 diesel dump and of course back up is the Honda 450 and trailer.
The pig idea sounds great, but how would you make sure that your compressed air is free of compressor oil? Last I heard, compressed air for scuba diving takes special certified compressors.
CE
44° 41′ 3″ N
2019 -- 44 Red Maples - My home and sugarbush are for sale.
2018 -- 48 Red Maples, 7 gallons
2017 -- 84 Red Maples, 1 Sugar Maple, and 1 Silver Maple , 13 gallons
2016 -- 55 Red Maples, 8 gallons
2015 -- 15 Red Maples, 6 Birches - 3+ gallons maple syrup
An awning over my deck is my sugar shack.
An electrified kitchen sink and an electrified steam table pan are my evaporators.
My pumping situation is quite different, but thought I'd share. I need to run at 25-30' lift but only about 120'. I use 3/4" tube and a Wayne 1HP stainless sprinkler pump that is set up for 1" . It's not a record breaker at about 7 gpm, but I already owned it. The pump is easily switched off and on, plus it has no flow checking. To prime I set it below tank fill level and to drain it I just tip it up on end. I would guess that the little Hondas have some sort of a swing type flapper valve that could be removed to allow easy drain back as well.
2017- 80 taps on 3/16 natural experimenting with Sap Sucking options
The original Homemade XLE 4040 RO http://mapletrader.com/community/sho...RO-suggestions on a dolly
7" short stack filter press w/air diaphragm pump
We pump 1600' with about 40' of total vertical rise. We use a 3/4 HP 10gpm deep well submersible, it has ~100' of 1" 160psi pipe, then the rest of the way is 3/4" 100psi. We ran 3/4 due to the volume of sap compared to all 1". We get 10gpm out of the discharge, and we run around 150-175psi at the pump. Our pump line is tee-ed and we drain the sap in the line back into a 50 gallon tote on a sled and tow it back to the sugarhouse. We always drain it after we are done pumping, unless we have to pump mid-run. Then it gets drained after we have done our final pumping.
-JoeKing
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