New Vacuum Pumps

Last year we had a vacuum pump and motor go bad, our backup became our dedicated system halfway through the season. This summer we found two great deals on slightly used Busch pumps. The model 1144 was actually brand new, but its motor was only 3HP/1800RPM. We swapped it out with a new 5.5HP/3600RPM motor and it runs great. Both 1320 models were configured with integrated drives, setup for 480V/three-phase/4200RPM. We found that by using our own drive at 240V they can safely run at 3000RPM without overloading the motor, we’ll use these as-is.

Instead of leaving these pumps in storage for later use, we’re going to hook them up in three of our four sugar bushes. The additional pumping capacity will raise our vacuum levels during heavy sap runs where the trees outgas too much air. The pumps can then be turned off during freeze ups to save power. If any of our pumps fail in the future then the second pump will get us through the season at the same vacuum level we’ve had each of the past eight seasons.