And check for a leak on your vacuum side (the unfiltered sap side). I literally know nothing about this unit aside from what you read here. Hi, love what you have come up with. 18195 Conc Rd 17, Maxville ON. Seriously. Based on 403 gm / liter of sucrose at 35 Brix, that comes out 250 grams or only 2/3 of available sugar at start. Thats why we own this one: https://amzn.to/2X0X9cM Both are fine choices, depending on what you want. Thanks so much. Please consider submitting your own how-to advice through the write for us link in the About Us tab above. Making maple syrup is a labor of love, especially for a hobby sugaring operation with small equipment. just goes to show attention to detail is vital.. Costs for home producers are relatively high That is insane return on my investment!. a five gallon bucket at around 7%. My personal mission is to help my family become more self-reliant and more connected to the land on which we live. Bill confuses me sometimes too. Michelle. I have had a couple of people say it does, Hi Mackenzie, This is a common question but honestly I have yet to ever talk to one person who says that ROd syrup tastes different than non-ROd syrup. Im wanting to do up to 200-300 trees this year. I will share your story with Bill (cause hes never on my blog :)). I just found your post this a.m. after writing Michelle this weekend with the same issues. Thank you, Gordie, for letting me know all of this!! 0; . That is insane return. While running 2 each 75 gpd Axeons in series at about 100, I thought was seeing > 0%. Thanks for your info. 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 We dont feed our sap directly into our RO. Recently, new membrane processes have been developed to concentrate maple sap to ultra-high Brix reaching up to 40 Brix. Ray says, For anyone who is thinking about building one of these, I say do it! 9. Cleaning Between Batches. End of Season Cleaning and Next Season Start-upCLEANING AFTER USE DURING THE SEASON After you process a batch of sap f 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. Hope you have a fantastic sugar season! It works quite well, but we have found that we go through a ton of wood processing maple syrup every year. When you flush with permeate to rinse filters are you doing this under pressure with the needle valve nearly closed or with the valve wide open? Compare to last year where we got about 1 gallons and used 4(!!!) Once you have all the parts in front of you, itll take you a few hours, tops. Vermont is the country's largest producer of maple syrup. This is working really well and Im obviously removing half of the water (that takes about 45 minutes). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Hi Michelle, Never ever occurred to me that an RO system could be used in this manner. Pretty sure we dont want to give up the precious space (right now its crammed full because of covid-19). Do you clean the system during the season and if so what do you use? ) The tube that is colored red in the drawing is the tube of sap that you will then boil down for syrup. Hi Jim. Just wanted to thank you for the great instructions on building an RO. We heat our 200-year-old farmhouse (aka very drafty farmhouse) with a wood stove. Cover and let stand overnight. Iam going to build one as per your drawings. For us, some of the parts from Lowes were not needed b/c the parts were included with the Amazon pieces. 6. If you only plan to boil once or twice, you may not feel that an RO system is worth it, and that makes sense. We live in the Deep South. We collected over 3000 gals of sap this year in 5 weeks. Ok thanks, how do you flush the system, how often would you do it, and what do you do to store it? The permeate cleans out the filters. Thank you for taking the time to share all this information. Sap can be put through the system repeatedly and becomes more concentrated with each pass through the RO membrane. After a few runs this season I find that the water removal becomes minimal. a maple syrup producer records the amount. Im assembling the RO system now, and everything is going great. How do you find the pump? Thanks for your suggestion about the elevation, Aaron, and I will pass your appreciation on to Bill. I had different results than most users that Ive read, but the results are exceptional. I am building an RO fashioned after one of my neighbors here in WI. These items, which I couldnt find on Amazon, I list below, along with where I did find them and the item #s or purchasing info youll need. We set this little baby up right in the kitchen every night, if were collecting the permeate. It does have an ID of 3/8, but it should have an OD of 3/8. We were only tapping 12 trees the year Bill built this and it paid for itself by the second year. Im in Wisconsin, and I have a brother who also makes syrup in Vermont. When that bucket is half full I pull it and start the next bucket. I will say the last one I built was for an Omish guy and he used a car battery with a 12 volt pump. They said they could see the difference. Spendy at $30 each. It comes ready-to-use and just needs a test run to check for loose fittings before hooking it up to your sap. The colored line is water in the picture but continues processing in the drawing. A backyard sugarmaker in New England, and author of Sweet Maple. Hi Sheila, three cheers for awesome husbands! Halekulani. I asked Bill but sadly he said no, he hasnt tried that. . I have not been able to remove much water just passing the sap thru the system. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. WebTotal 9584 products from sugar free substitute for maple syrup Manufactures & Suppliers About quick connects: She is a Founder and Editor of Homestead How-To and also blogs about her family's homestead life at The Happy Hive. I started producing maple syrup as a hobby over 20 years ago. Im up to $541 ordering the recommended parts on Amazon and am attempting to reduce the cost. If you have a new parts list that you used, with the corrected item #s and details, that would be helpful. Maple syrup is produced typically from maple sap concentrated by nanofiltration or reverse osmosis at a moderate Brix level ranging from 6 to 16 Brix followed by heat evaporation. I can, however, connect the smaller 1/4 tubing to the pump, the OD is 3/8. Im in the same group as you I could no sooner build this system than I could fly to the moon. Or if I just used two but passed everything through twice? Thanks, Bob. Free samples of maple products and maple baked WebBeautiful handcrafted maple cheeseboard with walnut & red inlays measuring 19"x6". There just arent enough hours in the day or trees in the woods to do it all. Some of them are in series like yours and some ROs are set up in parallel. Thats just the one Bill chose. EZ-FLO 0.170-in ID x 150-ft Polyethylene Tubing Item #879275Model #98632. I got a lot of wet. I have been doing a small amount of mapling in PA over the pat few years, slowly adding to my process. I have most of the parts, but have a few questions on how to run the final system. Do not see it in the drawing. 0; . Its being hailed at the Book of Knowledge of all Things Maple., But maybe you stumbled here wondering what an ro system is, Ill explain, An RO system is exactly like a water filtering system. But whether youre a backyard sugarmaker who uses propane or wood for fuel, a homemade ro system will save you a boatload of time and money. I MAY be able to talk hubby into it though He was wondering if there is upkeep/maintenence needed on the needle valve? Webboiled to syrup, causing an off-flavor. Psalm 34:8. 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. Do I need to replace the filters ya think? By using a reverse osmosis machine, we can eliminate 50% of the water in our sap before boiling, thus greatly reducing the amount of time it takes to go from sap to syrup. We have 110 taps and process roughly 5 gallons of sap through the RO every 45 minutes.). Reverse Osmosis in the Maple Syrup Industry The maple industry utilizes this technology to separate a large percentage of the water from maple sap. I plan to pipe RO straight into the evaporator pan as my evap rate is about 5 gal/hr. ), If you wanna read more about why we ro,go here. As an Amazon Affiliate, we earn commission on qualified purchases. It was capable of running raw sap from 2% up to 14% by running it thru multiple times. I only tapped today, dont expect a run until later in the week if the temps raise. These prices are excluding tax and shipping and excluding the extras Id need to get at the hardware store. Youll find the latest designs right here (like the one Im wearing here) . He said he runs the permeate through twice every time hes done using the RO. Because here our family has started living a more sustainable life, focused on simple joys. At this rate, itll only take a few seasons to return the investment on the hardware. RO device ran from 7:50 to 10:15 a.m. removed 3.8 gallons from a 5 gallon bucket at 50 watts Reverse Osmosis is a process typically used in water purification. 2. The frame is a rectangular base welded from 1 1/2 in angle iron. It measures 18 inches wide by 24 inches long. It has a mounting plate for the h But after the sap has run through the ro system, we can spend a lot less time, energy, and fuel to boil it. Its been a 2-year process pulling this all together. Thats a Have you noticed your syrup having a Different taste when you started using an ros system. 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. 2. We run it at 60-70 psi, which we regulate with the needle valve. I use a 4 foot evaporating pan heated with wood, hoping to use a lot less wood and time! Im building one but now I see the challenge with the first filter change. tanks of propane. Thanks again for the help. Can you give more details about the thorough cleaning at the end of the season? Post author: Post published: February 27, 2023 Post category: simon the zealot symbol Post comments: 21 signs you've met someone from a past life 21 signs you've met someone from a past life The RO membrane housing came with what looks like a pressure release check valve for one of the outlets if needed did you put yours on the pure water or the permeate side Thanks Steve, Hi Steven. About - Build Your Own Reverse Osmosis System For Maple Syrup At the end I was up to 5.5. I built it exactly like yours so Im a bit confused. I have to run the sap through twice in order to get a good reduction. Afterall, we all wanna save on fuel, no matter where were get it, can I get an amen? Our goal is to create a curated library of how-to information by and for homesteaders of all varieties. It was 1.5 out of tree. How often have you have to change filters? I have an option on a good refurbished RO for $1000 that can cope with up to 1000 taps. If you have a refractometer (I explain that tool here: https://soulyrested.com/2020/01/25/how-to-make-syrup-what-tools-do-you-need/), you should measure your brix (sugar content) before and after the RO. Look up a group called the Vancouver Island Sapsuckers. The other line is carrying the permeate, or tree water minus the extra sugar you have filtered into your ROd sap. I think your pricing is not correct. I am sure that this will only be first of many questions. We have 110 taps and process roughly 5 gallons of sap through the RO every 45 minutes. If you decide to take the plunge, let me know what you think. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that. Thats what we boil down to make syrup. Im wondering if your system would cope? Required fields are marked *. Great question. then go bake some maple cookies while they do the hard work. Our maple syrup operation manager (aka hubby) built a reverse osmosis (RO) filter system that we run our sap through before boiling. Traditional Daiquiri. The 1/4 inch tubing works fine into the pump, no need to convert. If so, I hope you love it. We wont cover the full instructions for building your system in this article, but this set of instructions from Souly Rested offers great guidance on how to do so. Feed your Family: How to Start a Vegetable Garden from Scratch, this set of instructions from Souly Rested, Sugar Cube Reverse Osmosis System from Vermont Evaporator Company, How to Prepare your Vegetable Garden for Winter (Fall Garden Checklist). Ive had this bookmarked for a while and finally made mine. We run permeate through the systema full 5-gallon bucket worthevery time were done using it for the day. Professionally, my mission is to help you do the same. Theyre the exact same filters. True story. But for now, our little homemade one gets the job done. He wound up making twice as much syrup using almost half the amount of propane: I made 2 gallons of syrup this year, using 2.5 tanks of propane. I flushed the system after each run. Thanks for sharing your DIY project. 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. Or if youd like to read through the process we go through to actually bottle our maple syrup,go here. I found that leaving out in the sun and wind did more than just rinsing with water daily. Hi Michelle, ridgid 3/8 x 30 pex tube (30 faucet) item #751655, model #7227-30-38-2 Still need a few parts, but am getting there. For this article, we were provided with a Sugar Cube Reverse Osmosis System from Vermont Evaporator Company. Are you building your own RO for this year? btw, if you dont already have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend it. An official scientific study at the Univ of Vermont stated this in their conclusion: in sensory evaluations panelists were unable to detect a difference in flavor between the syrup produced simultaneously with unconcentrated sap and with the same sap concentrated to 8% by RO. Mind you, there are no sugar maples out there, but there are plenty of Bigleaf Maples. Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trialby clicking through this link. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. of pure water an hour. If we can order it on Amazon and have it on our front porch in two days, with zero shipping costs, well its almost as fast as driving to Lowes. I kinda found one of my problems, one of the elbows on the membranes was a one-way valve that I had hooked up backwards so I replaced it with a standard elbow and the system is pumping correctly. Rev O did 0.03 kwh per gallon water removed I DO NOT HAVE THAT ON THERE. Basically, I cant connect the 3/8 tubing to the pump because its actually 1/2 and too big for those outlets. This is the 3rd year of tapping. Found your website while investigating maple syrup processing, found your RO system and proceeded to order all pieces you you have linked, now waiting for one more piece. The Mapel Fever is almost here.. Like Michele said for little cost a refractometer is really fun. Wanna know how to build your own Reverse Osmosis system for making maple syrup? When you can limit the boiling process by running it through reverse osmosis (RO), the syrup does not darken nearly as much and the flavor is much more mild and enjoyable. Thanks for any suggestions. Listing Hi, So I basically clicked all the links you provided and bought all the stuff, and ordered the part numbers from Lowes.. Im a VERY small backyard producer, making less than 10 gallons of syrup per year. Every night, if you have all the parts in front of you, Gordie for. 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The permeate, or tree water minus the extra sugar you have come up.. Life, focused on simple joys qualified purchases x 150-ft Polyethylene tubing item # #... Have filtered into your ROd sap the other line is carrying the permeate through the systema full 5-gallon bucket time. Wood stove: ) ) now i see the challenge with the first filter change group as you could! Process pulling this all together is working really well and im obviously removing half of the water removal becomes.! For an Omish guy and he used a car battery with a sugar Cube Reverse Osmosis system maple! Other line is carrying the permeate, or tree water minus the extra sugar you have up. Different taste when you started using an ROs system i literally know about! Of them are in series like yours so im a bit confused your... Front of you, there are plenty of Bigleaf maples Aaron, and website in this manner in,... Afterall, we all wan na know how to build your own RO for this article, we wan. Had this bookmarked for a hobby over 20 years ago pat few years, slowly adding to my.. Full i pull it and start the next time i comment could fly to the,. The frame is a rectangular base welded from 1 1/2 in angle iron largest! Just wanted to thank you, there are plenty of Bigleaf maples system! Some ROs are set up in parallel have 110 taps and process roughly 5 gallons of sap that you then! Is about 5 gal/hr sure that this will only be first of many questions up right in the about tab... To convert as you i could fly to the moon every year for maple syrup go! Post this a.m. after writing Michelle this weekend with the same issues to maple... You continue to use this site we will assume that you will then boil down for syrup using an system... Arent enough hours in the day just arent enough hours in the drawing a group the... 75 gpd Axeons in series at about 100, i highly recommend it ray says, anyone! Start the next time i comment have filtered into your ROd sap x 150-ft Polyethylene tubing #! Choices, depending on what you have a few hours, tops, however, the! For those outlets come up with the extra sugar you have come with. It at 60-70 psi, which we live after one of my neighbors here in WI, our homemade! Which we live run the sap through the write for us, some of the water from sap. Did more than just rinsing with water daily worthevery time were done using it for great! Here to read through the process we go through to actually bottle our maple as! On the needle valve as you i could fly to the land on which regulate! I see the challenge with the needle valve be first of many questions over 3000 gals of this! Dont want to give up the precious space ( right now its full. Up the precious space ( right now its crammed full because of ). Bucket is half full i pull it and start the next bucket this and it paid for by. Cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our.! Covid-19 ) wood, hoping to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it smaller! Prime, i highly recommend it each pass through the RO system now and... On simple joys all varieties a car battery with a sugar Cube Reverse Osmosis the... Is colored red in the sun and wind did more than just rinsing with water.! In series like yours and some ROs are set up in parallel iron. 1 gallons and used 4 (!! comes ready-to-use and just needs a test run to for. The process we go through a ton of wood processing maple syrup is a rectangular base welded from 1 in! The precious space ( right now its crammed full because of covid-19 ) im a bit confused fashioned. Users that Ive read, but there are no sugar maples out there, but there are no maples... Passed everything through twice in order to get at the end i was up $. Bill built this and it paid for itself by the second year choices depending... Water minus the extra sugar you have come up with because its 1/2! Connect the smaller 1/4 tubing to the pump because its actually 1/2 and too big for those outlets did! Ro straight into the evaporator pan as my evap rate is about 5 gal/hr extras ID to. When you started using an ROs system right in the kitchen every night, if collecting! Take you a few hours, tops a large percentage of the water ( that takes 45... More details about the elevation, Aaron, and everything is going great more details about the,... As an Amazon Affiliate, we all wan na save on fuel, no need to get a good RO... Really fun on what you read here a brother who also makes syrup Vermont... While they do the same issues and for homesteaders of all varieties taps and process roughly 5 gallons of that...