Steam hood

[Jec]

Will a homemade parallel flow preheater work with a homemade barrel evaporator with a steam hood?

[Bucket Head]

Yes, it will work. I don't know how high the temperature will get with it, but it does'nt matter. You will be warming the sap up from whatever it is in the holding tank! Any pre-heating is a good thing. Post some photo's of it when your done. I'm sure some others on here with the smaller rigs will be interested in how you did yours.

Steve

[Jec]

I have a preheater now. Album (In the shack) But will a parallel flow be better than a flat pan?

[Brent]

The parallel flow "might" be a lot better. The biggest problem with flat pan preheaters is that they drip a lot of condensation back into the sap pan. If you make a hood with tubes you can get
1- a condesation trough all around the hood to dump water outside
2- put a tray under the tubes that slopes into the above trough to catch all the condensation from the tubes
3-you retain heat in the pan that improves boiling a bit.

If you've got time, go for it !

oh yeh ... and you get a bucket of hot water ... always useful.

[roybar maple]

i just added a steam away for this year.should i still use a preheater or do you want the sap cold to enter the steam away?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

According to Leader they have tested it both ways and say that they can't see any measurable difference with or without, so if that is the case, I would go without. Not sure as I don't have a steamaway but have researched them some and hope to possibly add one before next season.

[Haynes Forest Products]

The hotter the sap the quicker it gets to steam and thats what its all about. Every thing on the evap is about getting cold sap to hot sap and then steam. Getting use of every BTU before it leaves the flue pipe is the goal.

[Brent]

How were you thinking of preheating, if you've already got a Steam-Away on top.??

A Steam-Away without a blower on it is really a just a super efficient pre-heater.

If you're going to put another level on top of the Steam-Away you'll need an elevator licence to get up there:mrgreen: