What’s Inside The Bucket
Carl is a high school chemistry teacher and began a sugaring club with some of his students a few years back. While this was a lot of fun for Carl and his students, it was also a LOT of time spent at the evaporator…particularly for Carl. He would find himself staying late at night to finish boils long after his students had to go home. Being a chemistry teacher with a Master’s Degree in separations chemistry, Carl knew that reverse osmosis could be the answer to his boiling challenges. However, all the existing commercial systems were far too expensive and, to be fair, far more complex than what was needed for the club’s 50 tap operation. This is when Carl went to work creating a system that was portable and simple, yet highly effective at drawing pure water out of sap to raise the sugar concentration. Carl and his students were amazed with what a difference the first RO Bucket made in the time required to create syrup and their level of enjoyment in the process. Word got around fast and before he knew it, Carl was being asked to build similar systems for others.
At this point, Carl reached out to his brother Dave, a school administrator who also has experience in business administration. Carl taught Dave all about the maple sugaring process and reverse osmosis as Dave went to work setting up their new company, The RO Bucket LLC. Our systems were debuted at several tradeshows in the Northeastern United States and we were overwhelmed by the excitement of small maple producers. Meanwhile, we set up our online ordering site, www.robucket.com, to provide access to our instructional videos and schematics while facilitating extremely fast sales, shipments and service.
We have learned many things over the past few years with respect to the maple equipment industry and we are very happy to be fulfilling a void for small-scale producers. That said, we do things quite differently from most other companies. Every RO Bucket is currently hand-built by the two of us, with occasional help from our father when things are busy! We source the highest quality materials while ensuring industry-leading low prices. At the core of our philosophy is a minimalist approach, with a focus on saving our customers time and money above all else. To that end, our systems are simple to use, without unnecessary components and they have an extremely low likelihood of leakage or failure.
We are educators at heart and continue to work full-time jobs in our respective schools while building buckets and managing the company on nights and weekends. The RO Bucket’s goal is to proliferate the use of reverse osmosis for small-scale purposes and this requires education. Whether for sugaring or clean water, reverse osmosis has a lot to offer! We aim to teach the necessary concepts through our videos, schematics and hands-on practice with our units. Of course, we are always available along the way via phone or email to explain things and answer questions. Where else can you buy something and speak directly with the person who designed and built the product? We are excited to support your passion and whole-heartedly encourage you to reach out to us with questions or ask around about other people’s experiences regarding their RO Buckets!
Carl and Dave
