Schenectady-Albany-Saratoga Counties

[Aslowrie]

It is nice to hear I'm not alone. Today was disappointing, but not "why don't I give up" disappointing like the last week has been. Still haven't even gotten. 1/2 of one of my frequent good days last year.

@crzypete your in the ballpark of my system which I built custom. It's four 100gpd membrane in series (more efficient membrane flushing so you get more per membrane than just using a single). It's somewhere in the ballpark of an RO10 if I recall, but I can do a throughput test tonight if you want since I'm using it.. I do two passes and take out 75% of the water with a target of 6% sugar. I can easily go through 10 gallons this way in a few hours. Or more like 25gal in the same time if I just do a single pass to 50% water removal.

It's definitely cheeper to build your own, but it will still cost $110 for 4 membranes/housings, $110 for the pump, and conservatively $100 for the valve, filter housing, fittings, pressure gauge, etc. it's also reasonably scalable to a bigger system using 400gpd membranes, but you may need/want a bigger pump.

Let me know if your interested and I can get you the design and bill of materials. It's life changing :-).

[MRFNY]

Filled the 55 gallon collection tank tonight and left probably 30-40 gal. in buckets to collect tomorrow. I'll RO the collection tank in the morning and move that to a holding tank to make room for another collection tomorrow night. Will boil tomorrow as well and get some draw-offs. Long range forecast is not looking good. If it holds true I might not even see double digit finished syrup.

[Aslowrie]

My trees finally woke up. I hope you all had a great day too.

[MRFNY]

My trees finally woke up. I hope you all had a great day too.

Nice! Pretty epic day! Ran the RO this morning and boiled 47 gallons after one pass through the RO. Then collected 130 gallons, which we'll run through the RO tomorrow and boil immediately. Put 3-4 gallons in the finishing tank today so overall a very productive and tiring day!

[ADK_XJ]

I'm late in recapping the insanity of Tuesday...our sugar bush was deluged in sap (and then later rain) and, with the help of my neighbor, I worked until 12:45am Wednesday hauling in loads from the overflowing buckets at the top of our property and two separate IBC totes at the bottom of the property that were actively overflowing from our 3/16 lines.

It was an astonishing amount of sap and strange to be handling it when it was 62F. I had anticipated this somewhat and filled ziplock freezer bags with water and froze them the day before, which I then chucked into our big collection tank in the barn since I won't be able to boil this all down until the weekend.

I also finally admitted to myself that my homemade, four membrane RO system simply can't keep up with our needs and I bought the single-post 4x40 kit from ROBucket (which they managed to ship to me in a single day). I did the drilling and tapping of mounts on the hand cart in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday and finished it last night.

One thing I really like about this system the ROBucket guys developed is that its SO quiet to compared to a vane pump and also it can run dry without burning out...which is helpful when most of your boiling time also involves imbibing with the neighbor!

[MRFNY]

I'm late in recapping the insanity of Tuesday...our sugar bush was deluged in sap (and then later rain) and, with the help of my neighbor, I worked until 12:45am Wednesday hauling in loads from the overflowing buckets at the top of our property and two separate IBC totes at the bottom of the property that were actively overflowing from our 3/16 lines.

It was an astonishing amount of sap and strange to be handling it when it was 62F. I had anticipated this somewhat and filled ziplock freezer bags with water and froze them the day before, which I then chucked into our big collection tank in the barn since I won't be able to boil this all down until the weekend.

I also finally admitted to myself that my homemade, four membrane RO system simply can't keep up with our needs and I bought the single-post 4x40 kit from ROBucket (which they managed to ship to me in a single day). I did the drilling and tapping of mounts on the hand cart in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday and finished it last night.

One thing I really like about this system the ROBucket guys developed is that its SO quiet to compared to a vane pump and also it can run dry without burning out...which is helpful when most of your boiling time also involves imbibing with the neighbor!

That's awesome on all fronts! My little RB15 has been a total game changer. We RO'd 125 gallons yesterday down to 50 gallons and boiled it last night. I was thinking to myself, I would have been completely stressed out if we had to boil all 125 gallons! The time between draw offs has been drastically reduced now too.

[Aslowrie]

I'm late in recapping the insanity of Tuesday...our sugar bush was deluged in sap (and then later rain) and, with the help of my neighbor, I worked until 12:45am Wednesday hauling in loads from the overflowing buckets at the top of our property and two separate IBC totes at the bottom of the property that were actively overflowing from our 3/16 lines.

It was an astonishing amount of sap and strange to be handling it when it was 62F. I had anticipated this somewhat and filled ziplock freezer bags with water and froze them the day before, which I then chucked into our big collection tank in the barn since I won't be able to boil this all down until the weekend.

I also finally admitted to myself that my homemade, four membrane RO system simply can't keep up with our needs and I bought the single-post 4x40 kit from ROBucket (which they managed to ship to me in a single day). I did the drilling and tapping of mounts on the hand cart in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday and finished it last night.

One thing I really like about this system the ROBucket guys developed is that its SO quiet to compared to a vane pump and also it can run dry without burning out...which is helpful when most of your boiling time also involves imbibing with the neighbor!

That's awesome, how is the capacity of the 4x40? My system works quite well for me and my modest setup, but I keep expanding my trail system and finding more maples.

[crzypete]

It is nice to hear I'm not alone. Today was disappointing, but not "why don't I give up" disappointing like the last week has been. Still haven't even gotten. 1/2 of one of my frequent good days last year.

@crzypete your in the ballpark of my system which I built custom. It's four 100gpd membrane in series (more efficient membrane flushing so you get more per membrane than just using a single). It's somewhere in the ballpark of an RO10 if I recall, but I can do a throughput test tonight if you want since I'm using it.. I do two passes and take out 75% of the water with a target of 6% sugar. I can easily go through 10 gallons this way in a few hours. Or more like 25gal in the same time if I just do a single pass to 50% water removal.

It's definitely cheeper to build your own, but it will still cost $110 for 4 membranes/housings, $110 for the pump, and conservatively $100 for the valve, filter housing, fittings, pressure gauge, etc. it's also reasonably scalable to a bigger system using 400gpd membranes, but you may need/want a bigger pump.

Let me know if your interested and I can get you the design and bill of materials. It's life changing :-).

That would be awesome! would love to see what you came up with? I can DM you my email if that works best for you? Where are you located? I'm in Galway. MRFNY and I actually live on the same street which was pretty funny to figure out.

Right now I am pretty much keeping up with production- My OTE is boiling at 15gph which is really crazy. I upgraded my blower and It has added a new level of evaporation- used to only hit 12GPH.

Made my second batch on Tuesday night. Boiled from 4-8 and busted out 5.5 quarts. Hoping to get batch 3 cooking this weekend.

Pete

[ADK_XJ]

That's awesome, how is the capacity of the 4x40? My system works quite well for me and my modest setup, but I keep expanding my trail system and finding more maples.

So, the short answer is this unit processes about 60 gallons per hours of sap at a 50:50 concentrate to permeate ratio.

The longer answer is: the kit I bought is a slightly different version of the 4x40 single post that many DIY-ers have been making...it doesn't have the big, noisy, high capacity ProCon "vane" pump but instead uses two high-flow diaphragm pumps plumbed in parallel. Everything I read explained how sensitive those vane pumps are and the initial cost is a lot more because of the need to buy a large motor to drive them and they also need ANOTHER low-pressure pump to feed the sap in because they don't have suction, only outfeed.

I really like the one I got because it's SO quiet and will have it right next to the evaporator while hanging out with family and friends. Plus, I have small kids and they are SUPER distracting in the sugaring process so I don't have to worry if a tank of sap runs out and the pump runs dry for a minute or two.

It was over $1000 for the kit but I was able to sell my original 4 membrane RO that I made years ago for $500 the day I posted it on FB Marketplace...

[ADK_XJ]

That would be awesome! would love to see what you came up with? I can DM you my email if that works best for you? Where are you located? I'm in Galway. MRFNY and I actually live on the same street which was pretty funny to figure out.

Right now I am pretty much keeping up with production- My OTE is boiling at 15gph which is really crazy. I upgraded my blower and It has added a new level of evaporation- used to only hit 12GPH.

Made my second batch on Tuesday night. Boiled from 4-8 and busted out 5.5 quarts. Hoping to get batch 3 cooking this weekend.

Pete

Once you actually do it, you realize just how easy assembling a DIY reverse osmosis system is...it's literally cutting tubing and pushing it into fittings. And it's a GAME CHANGER for boiling sap. I can also provide some tips and guidance if you like, DM me.