Pumping maple sap

[Jstpssng]

I got the following message from a young friend. I have no experience with maple sap, so not really sure how to advise her. I'm hoping someone here might have a suggestion -

Hey Barry!
I have a farming/plumbing question for you. I am working with a couple out in Jackson County to make maple syrup this year. We set up a bunch of tubing to collect sap from about 100 trees into a big 325-gallon container at the bottom of the valley. We then hooked up our 3.5 HP pump with some 1"
tubing and tried to pump the sap up to the top of the hill where the boiler is. Alas, the pump wasn't strong enough to get it to the top of the hill.
We were about 15' (vertical) shy of the top.

None of the solutions we came up with seem great but here's what we're thinking.
1. get a bigger pump (maybe 5 HP)
2. try replacing some of the tubing with a smaller diamemter (3/4") to try and increase the pressure 3. pump in stages using a second pump

Steve has already spent a bunch of money on this project and is hesitant to spend any more so we're hoping to find the cheapest solution possible. Any ideas? Have a big pump sitting around you'd be willing to loan or rent out?

thanks
Maggie

Perhaps they could place another holding tank about 15-25 feet (vertical) from the hilltop, and use another pump to bring it the rest of the way to the top? A little more of a pain, but depending on what they already have for equipment it may keep their cost outlay down.


P.S.; sugar content varies, but figure about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

Also, real maple syrup is thinner than the imitation stuff like LogCabin; and the highest grades of syrup are thinnest of all.

 

[alan40]

Hi, we make maple but don't have your solution. MapleTrader.com
is a great site for maple and very friendly. Give them a try. All grades of maple syrup are the same density even though they may not seem it or they should be. Each batch is measured by a hydrometer to ensure the correct density.
Good Luck

 

[Jstpssng]

Hi, we make maple but don't have your solution. MapleTrader.com
is a great site for maple and very friendly. Give them a try. All grades of maple syrup are the same density even though they may not seem it or they should be. Each batch is measured by a hydrometer to ensure the correct density.
Good Luck

They're all the same density but aren't the higher grades more fluid, due to fewer impurities? I used to make it, for fun, and give my highest grades as gifts; then keep the darker syrup for my own use.

I was too cheap to buy a hydrometer, so used a candy thermometer to bring my syrup to 7`F above the boiling point of water. (Which varies slightly depending on the barometric pressure)

 

[Dozernut]

Most pumps will only pull or suction so many vertical feet, which is determined by the size, volume and horse power. A pump will push a lot farther than pull. You might try putting the pump closer to the bottom and push up the hill, I think you will have better results.

 

[JoeL4330]

Could it be that if you are "pulling" the max pressure you can develop in the line is atmospheric pressure? so no matter the horsepower and volume of a suction pump, there is a limit ...23 ft. vertical rise (at sea level, less at higher elevations) comes to mind.

 

[scott_vt]

Perhaps they could place another holding tank about 15-25 feet (vertical) from the hilltop, and use another pump to bring it the rest of the way to the top? A little more of a pain, but depending on what they already have for equipment it may keep their cost outlay down.

Mornin Jstpssng,
I know next to,absolutely nothing about maple syrup making,
but I think that the above suggestion is about as good as its gonna get ! As PhillNH stated earlier in the thread all the sugar shacks up here are in the valleys or at the lowest part of the sugarbush acreage being tapped ! Gravity does the rest. A few of my neighbors make it and their shacks are located on the lower end of their properties.

 

[rox]

If you do use a pump and tubing I would make sure and get Food Grade pumps and tubing. We pump quite a bit of olive oil and are very careful to use only Food Grade pumps and tubes. They cost more...

You might even look at a hand pump. It doesn't take that much to hand pump it into barels, again food grade barrels, and hual it up to the sugar shack. Of course it kind of defeats what I believe is your intended purpose and that is automate the process. I would Google under "Food Grade Pumps" and good luck!

 

[rox]

I had another thought, what about bottling, that must be a PIA. We have a very nice vaccuum bottling machine for quick jobs, Olive Oil Storage- The Olive Oil Source mostly we bottle at our mill. This thing really wroks GREAT! I would bet it would pull maple syrup, it would make bottling much easier.

 

[WayneB]

Barry as normal, I am a bit confused?


1) What type of pump are they using ?
2) Is there electricity near the holding tank?
3) How high is the hill and how long is the pipe run?
4) What is the pump head limit?

At home we do not pump the sap to the sugar-shack, we use a tanker and move it to the sugarhouse. It is pumped into the tanker and then out in to the holding tank. From that point it is gravity flow in to the boiling vat.

Depending upon the time during the sap flow season the sugar content will be close to 2% so the actual weight of the sap is very close to that of normal drinking water. During the boil off some say it is 43 gallons to make one gallon of syrup. So you are boiling off 42 gallons of water and particulates. Bottom line is you are basically moving water.

So I would think a normal jet pump would be able to move the sap up a hill for a couple hundred feet with enough flow to fill a holding tank at the top of the hill. If it is a trash pump I think the ability to pump water up a hill is very limited, little head capabilities.

Doing a hundred tress doesn’t sound like a hobby syrup making project to me. That is a bunch of trees and a lot of sap to boil down. Again nothing is mentioned about the evaporator they are using so it is difficult to guess what is really going to happen.

Here is an interesting site on hobby syrup making.

Hobby Maple Syrup Production, F-36-02


Just my two cents

 

[DAP]

Somehow I think it would be to thick to pump. Like Phil said the building should be lower than the tree's. They will probably have to transport it up the hill.

Sap from sugar maples is basically the same thickness as water. In fact, you must boil away about 32 gallons of sap to get rough a gallon of syrup (32:1)...

The only way in this case would be to add pumping power methinks ...