Author Topic: battery powered milker ?  (Read 3691 times)

jwalker

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battery powered milker ?
« on: April 06, 2013, 02:33:16 PM »
I just ordered one of these for my neighbor , he has two goats and has to go out of town to work for a while.

http://www.danshafarms.com/Goat-Sheep-Cow-Battery-Powered-Vacuum-Milk-Machine-101ele120v.htm

He is hoping his daughter will be able to milk with it , anyone ever seen or tried one?

They look OK in the video.

Cheers , Jim.

Offline Tiarella

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Re: battery powered milker ?
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2013, 11:52:50 AM »
Hi Jim,  it's similar to one I use although mine is a hand pump model.  The one issue with that battery powered one is that as far as I can tell there is no vacuum gauge on it and it's important to not apply too much pressure and to not have continuous pressure for too long.  Watched his video and it doesn't mention anything about that.  damage to tissue of the teat can occur with too much pressure.....best to use just enough pressure and monitor it, give some releases of pressure during the milking so that blood engorgement of the teat can subside.  I'd recommend getting a pressure gauge and putting it inline somewhere close to lid on the airline.  And don't use his hand pump model....that particular brand of brake line vacuum pump is very stiff, hard to pump and has a different sized opening necessitating a fitting to switch it to size needed for tubing....at least, that was my experience. 

I'd also put some valves to XXXX off one tube since many goats milk out one side before the other.  his plug sounds like a pain to use.  hope this helps.  Did you watch the video?  he washed the udder and then she pees and then gets fractious and drops her udder onto the milking stand surface.....not usually a very clean surface...   But this it a good method of collecting clean milk if you keep all the pieces off the ground.  Looks like he makes a good product and stands behind it.  Does he sell small brushes to clean the tubing?  Your neighbor will need that and I'd immediately cut that tubing down to shorter lengths as in the "Henry Milker".  Google that to see it's set up.

jwalker

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Re: battery powered milker ?
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2013, 06:16:41 PM »
Thanks for the info Tia , I know nothing about milking machines , I used to milk mine by hand only.

The one he has that is milking right now is a very good milker , but the next one I'm not so sure of , so We'll see what happens.

Good to know about the vacuum , I will get a vacuum guage for it right away and install in line somewhere.

He did say in the video to turn off the vacuum pump once milk flow starts and turn it on again when milk flow starts to slow , I will make sure they learn to be gentle with it.

Thanks again.

Cheers , Jim.

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Re: battery powered milker ?
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2013, 02:39:24 AM »
Go to www.quikMilker.com to see how they rigged a gauge into the system.  it's just a matter of a fitting or two.  I use about 7-8 pounds as my aim and let it fluctuate a bit between 5 and 9.