This is my vacuum releaser. I built it from 12" PVC watermain that I pulled out of the garbage pile at a local construction company, aluminum that I bought at my local metal supply company, lexan that I bought and had machined at a local plastic supply company, and blumbing that I bought on Ebay, Amazon, AliExpress, and at local hardware stores. The large white pipe and the clear check valves are from CDL.
I spent the day today cleaning everything, replacing a couple of o-rings, and putting the machine back together. I had a big vacuum leak that it took me a while to find but I eventually managed to get the main releaser chamber down to 26.5 inhg.
Ohhhh, so it’s part of the sap collection process. That makes sense that you gotta get the sap out of the vacuum side as it fills up, without pressurizing the whole system
Yup. Exactly. It releases about 30 litres of sap at a time.