I built this releaser from PVC pipe that I bought at Lowe’s in Ogdensburg, NY, check valves and solenoids that I bought on Ebay, and fence T-bars that I bought at TSC. The controller was an Arduino Nano in the grey box on the side of the releaser. This one was vertical and sat on top of the IBC draining into the port on the top. It worked quite well and didn’t cost a lot to build. I can’t remember how much it released per dump but it was under 4 L.
I appreciate all the detail you provided - I wasn’t expecting that. What do you call the group(?) of trees you collect from? A farm is the only term that comes to mind but doesn’t sound right. I’ve seen this setup while skidooing in northern NB but just assumed gravity did most of the work.
How many lateral lines can you have on a main line? I’m guessing you only need one of these releasers per main line?
We call the trees, “the trees”. I guess would could call them the stand or a maple wood or forest. We’re a homestead of 16.5 acres so they’re just the trees on our property. We don’t really call them anything.
There are some rules of thumb. You should only have a maximum of 20 taps per lateral line and 250 taps per 3/4" main line. Those numbers are based on sugar maples which give the most sap. I’ve got just over 300 taps on my 3/4" mainline in sugars, silvers, and Manitobas and it doesn’t feel like it’s maxed out. I’m actually planning to put in another 200 taps on another branch of 3/4" mainline and may switch out the near section of the mainline (where the second line will branch off) to 1" mainline. That’s a run of 500’.