Of pre heaters, hoods, and float boxes.

[Tweegs]

I’ve been looking at all the photo’s I can find, and it seems like most of you physically attach the pre heater to the hood.

How the heck are you guys plumbing from the pre heater to the float box? I mean, you’ve gotta raise that hood during a boil from time to time, don’t you?

Flex hose would seem to be the answer, but to have enough of it out there to raise the hood a foot or two means you’re going to suffer some heat loss…not enough to worry about?

Maybe I’ve got it twisted and there is no need to raise the hood during a boil?

Having a little trouble getting my mind around this one guys, someone set me straight.

Pics would be a huge help.

Thanks

[RileySugarbush]

My copper preheater is inside the hood over my flue pan. It exits the hod on the syrup pan end and connects to my float valve with a flex hose, so that I can raise the hood. I even have a rope and pulley system to the rafters. But I never raise the hood! Starting over, I wouldn't bother, though it is probably a good idea to have some flex in the line from the hood to the valve, just a little.

[Flat47]

[QUOTE=RileySugarbush;132514 But I ever raise the hood! [/QUOTE]

I think they meant "NEVER raise the hood."

There's no need to lift it, except maybe at the end of the season for cleaning. Most hoods have doors. Otherwise, though, just let it do it's thing.

Is there something you have in mind to need to have to lift it?

[maple flats]

I am mounting my preheater in a 6" tall extension that sets on the flue pan. Then I'm using 1" copper from the head tank on a constant pitch down to just before it enters the extension. Here I have a bypass to the float valve and a flex connector into the extension so I can remove it if needed. Upon entering the extension, everything rises slowly thru the parallel flow preheater until it exits the extension directly above the float valve and I have another flex coupler (short length of vinyl tubing with hose clamps) and the sap drops directly into the float valve. The bypass t's into this verticle drop feed line too. The bypass is just incase anything air locks but on my last preheater built very similar, I never had an air lock. On that one I kept a bucket of sap for emergencies but never needed it.
I can and do raise my hood. It is suspended from the trusses and all lifts with 1 small boat winch. I hardly ever open during a boil, but I do daily to brush the flues. The way I pitched my lines I completely drain my lines by closing the head valve (or running out of sap) and opening the bypass. In my feed line I also have a sight gauge for sap level in the head tank, a tee feeding the system from my UV and a drain with valve just downhill from the drain for when I wash the tank and flush the lines. Everything is 1" until the parallel preheater. That is 1" manifolds with 3/4" lines feeding to the opposite end where that manifold is also 1". Then the bypass is just 3/4" of less than 2' length. Last year my entire feed line was 3/4 and I never had a problem but I just wanted to speed up initial fills so I went to 1".

[Sugarmaker]

I made a support off of the rear pan to hold up the pre heater. It was not attached to the hood. I used unions on both inside and outside where the sap pipe went thru the hood to the float box. I only lifted the hood when I had to clean the pans at the end of the season. I do have 4 doors on the hood to allow you to reach in and do some stuff.
Chris

[Tweegs]

Thanks for the replies.

I can’t really think of a reason to lift that hood during a boil, but then this is only my third year at it and the first year on a real evap as opposed to a block arch, and I’m just trying to avoid any catastrophic mistakes.

We went on tours of a few sugarhouses over the past couple of years. One fellow had the boat winch/cable/pulley system for raising the hood, which I thought was clever and will be a part of my set-up.

No, the only reason I could see raising it would be for an emergency sap dump, but that can be handled other ways, like bypassing the float or just dumping a couple of 5 gal buckets in the syrup pan (since both of my pans are on the same plane). Between boil cleanings aren’t a problem, just disconnect from the float box.

Inlet plumbing was never an issue, a short piece of flex in lieu of an elbow solves that problem, and no heat to worry about either.

I see myself as a rookie here with just enough knowledge to screw things up real good, better to ask.

Sounds like I’ll be safe enough hard plumbing that puppy in with a disconnect to get the hood out of the way when needed.

Thanks

[Flat47]

No harm in asking questions here...we all started out the same.