Thats why we own this one: https://amzn.to/2X0X9cM Both are fine choices, depending on what you want. How do you clean this system? I did find this suggestion for the seasonal storage of RO membranes: Storing your membranes in the off season: the gauge reads 120 psi and the needle valve doesnt adjust the pressure at all. Ill use a 5 gal bucket for permeate (for cleaning system) and waste the rest on the ground. Im curious as to whether or not you run the concentrate thru multiple times? I have completed the building of my RO kit and am awaiting sap season here in minnesota. Every detail you need Otherwise, read on. Larry. Bill confuses me sometimes too. For others who are reading through these comments for help, Ill paste your final comment here as well trying to get it working and it came down to the one-way valve and having the needle valve hooked up to the wrong outlet of the 4th membrane. 0; . Pump and transformer,membranes* (you will need 4 but see other links for varying gallons per day),membrane casings(4),filter 4-pack,filter housing,pressure gauge, a straightneedle valve. Hi Dick. Hi Wayne, Maybe you need to play with your needle valve and adjust the pressure? It took about a week of rinsing with water to get the smell from the pvc primer and glue to go away. . . Thank you for all of this; would not have done it without you. Their cleaning regimen seems a bit extreme though. I can see a little of it in the background in you video. Glance at myResource Pageif youd like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more). Me? Sap can be put through the system repeatedly and becomes more concentrated with each pass through the RO membrane. Im making birch syrup in Alaska and it takes about 100-110 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. But I can absolutely answer your second question. Hi Gordie Yes, Christine, the permeate tube is the water that is left after the sugar water has been filtered out. Once you have all the parts in front of you, itll take you a few hours, tops. Large commercial operations use a EZ-FLO 0.170-in ID x 150-ft Polyethylene Tubing Item #879275Model #98632. , Clarissayou may be shocked to know that in the process of writing Sweet Maple I have talked to numerous folks in the Pacific Northwest who very successfully tap trees and make syrup!! just goes to show attention to detail is vital. Recently, new membrane processes have been developed to concentrate maple sap to ultra-high Brix reaching up to 40 Brix. 3. You will need to attach the high pressure Procon pump to your motor.Before you mount the pump, wire the motor for 220V temporarily so you can te Michelle, My first time finding your web page and read thru all of your posts. Every evening during the season, when were done RO-ing for the day, we simply run the RO one more cycle, using permeate instead of sap. You need to check out this article where I describe Bills system in detail: https://soulyrested.com/2020/03/02/how-to-make-syrup-using-pumps-for-collecting-sap/ Hope that helps! As an Amazon Affiliate, we earn commission on qualified purchases. No, reverse osmosis doesnt remove sugar from your sap. Its all Bills work. It seems they both work well, just the way they are plumbed. Knowing our sap has been filtered and is safe to use for longer helps us feel better about waiting until the weekend to boil. Killer Key Lime Pie. By morning I would have 30 40 gallons of sap to boil down. Thank you. Because here our family has started living a more sustainable life, focused on simple joys. Webbiogen senior engineer ii salary. }); Im interested in making an RO machine from the plans you show here. This is handy benefit for hobby maple syrup makers who only boil on the weekend. We run it at 60-70 psi, which we regulate with the needle valve. I will more than likely build it. Im a wife to my high school sweetheart, mom to four daughters, and ardent fan of all things maple-flavored. Hi Adam. The only problem I run into is getting the pump primed and pulling in the sap, but a little elevation does the trick! The Mapel Fever is almost here.. Like Michele said for little cost a refractometer is really fun. Except sugarmakers use the idea in reverse. By concentrating the sugar in the maple sap, a sugarmaker can save as much as 90% in fuel since he or she will have to boil the sap for a much shorter time. Maple syrup is made by boiling maple sap to evaporate most of the water until we are left with 66% sugar. Listing Quality Begins in the Sugarbush The equipment you use will also have a big impact on your final product. Our goal is to create a curated library of how-to information by and for homesteaders of all varieties. Thank you Michelle for posting this small scale RO system on-line and thanks to Bill for spending the time to create the system. I ran a test by dumping some sugar in a 5 gallon bucket and it seemed to work correctly based on the tastes of the concentrate and the permeate since I dont own a refractormeter. I think I figured it out I think actually one of the part numbers you listed isnt correct the 3/8 polyethylene tubing (25 of it) item #879277, model #98634 is too large for that pump. process that can speed up syrup production by removing a significant Nope, thats all my husbands ingenuity. At the end of the season, after flushing them well, we then place the filters in a large ziploc bag in the freezer until the following season. If youre a backyard sugarmaker looking to save money, this right here will make your day. My only question at this time is how do you do a backwash to clean the filters? I had a few doubters when I said I was going to do this. This is really interesting! We use filters intended for 150 gallons per day, and 5 gallons goes through in about 45 minutes. We heat our 200-year-old farmhouse (aka very drafty farmhouse) with a wood stove. Honestly, getting all the pieces is the largest drain on your time. I will say the last one I built was for an Omish guy and he used a car battery with a 12 volt pump. I hear you could pull 50% of the water off. Look up a group called the Vancouver Island Sapsuckers. Maple Tap Farm will also participate in the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival on April 1. Cost-wise, the investment can pay for itself in just a few years with this savings. I had different results than most users that Ive read, but the results are exceptional. How do you adjust the pressure; is that what the needle valve is for? Order Wavey Maple Cheese Board online from Urban Stead Cheese. Thanks so much. To build a reverse osmosis set up of your ownand seriously slash your fuel costsyoull need a piece of plywood, or something similar, for mounting everything, and youll need the following items, which are all pictured below as well, in the order theyre listed. So I asked Bill to walk me through exactly what he did to make this sweet contraption. Ive had this bookmarked for a while and finally made mine. Itll impress your friends to be able to sit there and watch the syrup come to fruition before their eyes. After 3 disconnections, the tubing may be scarred and leak. ), I was wondering if can you drink the permeate. Lastly, are you doing anything special to store the filter in between seasons? Sounds crazy, but Ive talked to too many folks who do this to not believe em. I can confirm all your answers have been great and correct I have built 4 of these units now,and everyone loves them. Sorry if that is confusing. See a 2,100-tap operation using a tubing/vacuum system, reverse osmosis and a wood pellet-fired evaporator. The stuff I order is the same as your part spec. so am excited to get this up and running. One change I am making this year though is to use snap it valves rather than the brass needle valve, as I always had trouble with the brass valve leaking. Happy sugaring! The authors homemade PVC hangers for collecting syrup. The line with the needle valve is the line that carries the ROd sap that then is boiled. If you are still learning how to collect, boil, and bottle maple syrup, head over here to this article about making syrup, step-by-step or, better yet, pick up a copy of Sweet Maple. Ill get it. Out of stock Categories: DIY Maple Syrup Supplies, Packages Maybe Im blind. Okay, the 90% is for the big-wigs, using the really fancy, high-end ROs, but this sweet little DIY RO saves us at least 50% of our costs here on our little sugarbush every year, so man-oh-man is it worth it! thank you I had a great season here in SW Ohio, collecting over 525 gals of sap from 68 taps. After both runs, I have about 55% high sugar content sap and 45% very low sugar permeate. I have run straight hot water thru and the water drain flows freely. Hi Scott. Hi Michelle, I have built your RO and have come across a problem. I and two others donate sap to our county park district to boil down. I love my Nikon; you canread more about my camera and even purchase your own here. Spendy at $30 each. I flushed the system after each run. 0; . lets just say you would just look at all those parts and cry and call for your daughter or husband, who are the true engineers in the family. Mark & Colleen Falardeau, backyard sugarmakers who built this RO system, explain, It cost us roughly $300 to make our RO and it takes sap from 2-3% sugar content to 7-8% in one pass! We collected over 3000 gals of sap this year in 5 weeks. Any thoughts or comments? Ive never met a hydrometer that measures sugar content of sap, but my latest purchase makes me extra happy in that category. We have 110 taps and process roughly 5 gallons of sap through the RO every 45 minutes. Your email address will not be published. Afterall, we all wanna save on fuel, no matter where were get it, can I get an amen? icon below: window.fd('form', { This way I dont have to add another tank. Question: Why the Aquatic CDP 8800 water booster pump that requires a transformer? IS THAT MY PROBLEM? lol. I was in the shade and busy. About - Build Your Own Reverse Osmosis System For Maple Syrup The other item you listed, 1/4 polyethylene tubing (25 of it) item #814305, model #98584, Is correct, but technically it has an OD of 3/8 and the ID is 1/4. Since most backyard sugar makers use wood to boil their syrup, the savings on fuel by cutting your boiling time in half is huge. What I see of it looks like an improvement over mine. Thanks for doing this, we will follow up with some of your cookbooks, etc. The plywood base is roughly 3 foot by 3 foot. Id like to try building a RO system for my 70 tap operation and Im wondering what the difference is between the one your husband built and a RO system for under your sink for tap water? You know the ones that that filter out the impurities and leave you with wonderfully pure drinking water? I have no idea what to expect it to look like while running. It does have an ID of 3/8, but it should have an OD of 3/8. Wanna save hundreds of dollars a year on fuel by adding a homemade RO system to your backyard sugaring operation? After filtering when do I need to process. If I use a cheaper RV pump that can get up to 60 PSI would I run into trouble? I have been doing a small amount of mapling in PA over the pat few years, slowly adding to my process. Wisconsin has won every family taste test (blind of course). So weve actually never tried to run it in an unheated area. Copyright 2023 Souly Rested | Powered by Astra WordPress Theme. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that. I use pruning shears. Cook zucchinis, garlic cloves and rosemary for 4 mins until beginning to colour. Our maple syrup operation manager (aka hubby) built a reverse osmosis (RO) filter system that we run our sap through before boiling. WebConsisting of one sediment filter and two reverse osmosis filters, the Sugar Cube RO Replacement Filter Kit contains everything you need for the annual maintenance of your prototype Sugar Cube RO. Ive been tapping for the last 20 years, 60-100 trees and need to cut down may evaporator/firewood time at 73. Get a $20 E-Bay low scale refractometer and make a, say, 1.5% sugar solution. Hi Lucas, glad you solved your problem before I even saw your comment. The process takes about 30 minutes to transform the syrup into a gorgeous golden, thickened maple cream. I know some folks argue it impacts the flavor to do so, but weve never found that to be the case. Compare to last year where we got about 1 gallons and used 4(!!!) We have never replaced the filters. The inlet and outlet on the aquatec pump connections supplied by manufacture are 1/4 and the 3/8 tubing doesnt fit into the opening. Hi Jim, I have never have run my sap through more than once, but I know people who do. So happy sugaring and thanks for the simple RO. If nothing else, sign up and get all these goodies delivered to your door for free shipping, right away, so you can start saving money on your propane. How do you find the pump? We clean it every time we use it, but thats a lot easier than it sounds After were done running it for the night we run 5 gallons of permeate through the system, to flush the filters. I think it is 33 by 30 to be exact. Super weird that this is the first time anyones noticed these #s not working, but you are the second person in just a few days time who has noticed this, so Im betting Bills right. We only tap 50 trees and burn with wood, but anything that saves time is going to be very much appreciated. And, yes, the refractometer is AMAZING! the system is working flawlessly now. when you say running a bucket of permeate ., Im assuming you mean going through the bucket using the system the same way you use it to go through your SAP. I ended up purchasing an even SMALLER tubing with and OD of 1/4 and an ID of .170 in and this is the correct tubing for the smaller of the two tubing sizes and the fittings you have listed. To test, i just ran tap water through. Im about to build my unit thanks to your posting! I dont have a refractometer, but the difference in taste is dramatic. We have 100 taps and the wood saved and time saved in one season has made it worth every penny!!. Yet it is perfect. Hi, what is Bill using This item for? I think Im removing maybe 10% of the water and am running at 70psi. Im wondering if your system would cope? Do I need to find couplers to change to 3/8 or can I just use 1/4 for that part. Every Hi Jason, I love homesteading and cant wait to get back to it soon, although we wont be making maple syrup since we live in the Pacific Northwest. 8. Before you run valuable maple sap through your unit it is a good idea to test it on 50-100 gallons of clean water. Fill a tank with 50 - 100 gal Hope that helps. When its time to start up the RO again the next year, all we do is take the filters out of the fridge and use them. Thank you so much for sharing this DIY RO set-up. Im a retired guy who has made between 10 and 15 gallons of syrup annually using an open pan and LP gas as a heat source. Thats just the one Bill chose. This system is fantastic! I am using 150 gpd filters. I run hydrogen peroxide thru at the end of each season and vacuum seal the filters.