What do you think about GMB evaporators?

[Friar_Athanasius]

I am considering buying an arch from GBM in Holcombe, WI. and I wanted to know if anybody here has purchased one from them and what their thoughts are on it.

[whalems]

I don't know about GMB but if you are looking into buying new I would strongly consider Bill Mason evaporators. I bought a replacement pan from him this year and the craftmanship is top knotch. And his prices seem very fair. Hope this helps, Mike

here is his site http://www.wfmasonwelding.com/

[xyz5150]

Whats the price? Did you try sugar bush supply they may even have a used one and you can drive there.

[Friar_Athanasius]

From what I've researched so far the GBM 2x4 I am looking at has 1/4 in. hot roll plate steel for the front, is mostly welded angle iron and weighs about 275 lbs. without the firebrick & evap. pan with the current price is $935. I can also pick this up (fairly) locally at a dealer.

The Mason version is only 1/8 in. plate steel on the front (with a ceramic blanket on the inside), has some angle iron in its construction and weighs all of 75 lbs. for $550. That sounds to me like less steel than GBM.

[Friar_Athanasius]

Whats the price? Did you try sugar bush supply they may even have a used one and you can drive there.

I guess we want something new but Sugarbush is a GBM dealer so we would be getting it from them.

[whalems]

The guys at sugar bush are also great to deal with. Just giving you some options. I know nothing about GBM's Quaility but I do know you would be hard pressed to find anyone that would say a bad word about Bill Masons equipment. Good luck with your decission.:)

[mitchellbob]

i got 2x6 from gbm and i have good luck.very helpful people to deal with.and
the price is right.

[lastwoodsman]

GBM is top quality and heavy duty. Good folks to deal with. A friend of mine just had a new arch built by them. I have purchased thier pans and they are excellent.
Another good retailer.
Woodsman

[markcasper]

I have had experience with this "line". It was the worst experience in my maple career! I lost alot of money and half of my 1997 crop. I would strongly advise against anything to do with this! Good folks to work with you say?? Maybe if the stuff works and they don't already have your money!

http://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetails.do;jsessionid=AB6D33CAD1EDC9BC8B553BA4 075199AE.render6?caseNo=1997SC000937&countyNo=9&cacheId=0D947DDD0B9DEE19763EA40A4D15FA12&recordCount=5&offset=3

[Friar_Athanasius]

I have had experience with this "line". It was the worst experience in my maple career! I lost alot of money and half of my 1997 crop. I would strongly advise against anything to do with this! Good folks to work with you say?? Maybe if the stuff works and they don't already have your money!

http://wcca.wicourts.gov/caseDetails.do;jsessionid=AB6D33CAD1EDC9BC8B553BA4 075199AE.render6?caseNo=1997SC000937&countyNo=9&cacheId=0D947DDD0B9DEE19763EA40A4D15FA12&recordCount=5&offset=3

May I ask what happened?

[markcasper]

They made me a 4x12 "experamental evaporator" consisting of 4x4 flat front pan and 4x8 flat back pan with 28-2" ss pipes in which the fire was to go through and the sap was on the outside of those pipes. The heat and smoke went under the pans and there was a return in the rear into which the smoke and gas was to pass. The smoke stack was in the middle of the pans into which the exhaust from the 28 pipes exited.

The arch was 5" lower for the rear pan, thus making the sap level all the same with 1 inch of sap over the pipes in the back pan. It did not work, there was not enough volume in those pipes to handle the massive fire and smoke, thus the fire was burning slowly, and creosote running down the smoke stack. The ss pipes plugged up like a clogged artery with soot and creosote.

On top of that they did not have the thing ready and it was like March 20th or something that year. Tanks were full of sap, bags running over and I had no full unit yet. A few days later then I found out it didn't work. It also was leaking bad. They were not going to stand behind it no matter how many times I called them and they hung the phone up on me.

I did manage to make some, I turned the forced air all the way up, but then had smoke pouring out of everywhere. My sugar shack resembled a smokehouse! The grates then warped bad because of all the heat not being able to escape.

So I sued them and agreed for them to take the big pan back and they were going to put in square type flues and scrap the pipes. When it was returned in December of that year, I tried it out and it was getting more air flow, thought maybe it'd be ok. Came back out later that evening to drain the water out and the big pan was leeking in multiple locations. That was enough!!!

Back to court and resued and it was granted in my favor. In early January I get a notice in the mail that they were filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and that I was SOL.

[thenewguy]

mark, i agree..ive looked at there evaps online and they seem very cheap. why can't they build a flue pan?? all there pans are flat.

[Haynes Forest Products]

They can do more custom pans as far as I know. I hear there pan quality has improved over the last month.

[twitch]

I have a 2x4 gbm evaporator. I think it works good but it is the only one i have ever had. The only thing that I improved on it was insulating the door was loosing alot of heat out the door put a piece of ceramic insulation inside a tin box and welded it to the inside of the door. I also fabbed up a warming box that sits on top of the pan to warm the sap and feed the pan. other then that i don't have any complaints,.

[Tweegs]

I’m a firm believer in “you get what you pay for”.
With the GMB coming in at 1/5th the price of a Leader, it begs the question…”Why?”

If you can answer why it is so much cheaper, and those cost saving measures aren’t a concern to you or appear to sacrifice quality, then go for it.

I wasn’t impressed with them when I looked a couple of years ago, but things change. Maybe they’ve made significant improvements.

Compare the GMB with another brand, side by side, if at all possible. Look at the welds, frame, material, workmanship etc, and consider how much heat it has to survive through.

Base your decision on those observations.

[xyz5150]

I think he is talking about the arch only. I don't think a leader arch is too far from that price?

[markcasper]

Tweegs, They sell flue pans but they come from Canada. I guess they are not capable.

The other thing you need to look for is if they will gurantee and stand behind their product. For me the answer was......NO!!

[firetech]

There was a leader 1/2 pint for sale in the Lansing farm/garden craigslist today $1200 2/3 yrs old

[Friar_Athanasius]

I called Leader to ask about a similar 2x4. It was $1,565 and 75 lbs. lighter, that means less steel for a higher price.

[Flat47]

I called Leader to ask about a similar 2x4. It was $1,565 and 75 lbs. lighter, that means less steel for a higher price.

I'm wondering if you're looking at the whole weight thing correctly.

I'm old school and stand by cast iron arch fronts and heavy guage sheet metal sides, but I realize that with the various insulation products available, a cast front alone may not be necessary, nor heavy gauge sides. Do a forum search on bricking an evaporator, and you'll learn that many many people have combined products (arch board and brick being very popular) with superior results, even on arch fronts.

Don't get hung up on a rig's weight because it's not a true measure of quality.

Consider the dealer network, the craftsmanship, guage of pans, and the fine details like thermomter ports and corner strength. Have you tried to flex their pans compared to Leader or D&G or Maple Pro? Meathods of construction are subtle but have huge impacts on quality.

[Dennis H.]

Ok I will chime in here.

Dont get stuck on the weight thing. My lapierre 2x5 was light enough that 2 people could easily pick up the entire evap arch. The support structure is only the cast front, the angle iron pan rails and the 2 pipe legs at the rear. The ss sheet metal are just to inclose the arch and hold the arch board and brick.
My thought is that the sheet metal doesn't make a difference because the archboard and brick are what you want in there. They are what gives you the heat to boil sap. They keep the heat in the arch and gives you a more consistant heat thru out the arch.

Just to let you know Lapierre says only to brick the arch in thier instructions, I took it upon myself to add archboard behind the brick. It was well worth it.

If you are looking for a cheap and readily avaible arch that you can pick up close by and save a ton on shipping costs, go for it. I am not sure what you had before but if you are just starting out or had a flat pan on a brick arch then it should be an improvement. If you already had a 1/2 pint evap or similar than I would take a moment and rethink what your future plans are with making maple syrup. It is not just the arch it is the fact that they only come with a flat pan. You will not get very good evap rates with it. Just an example from my own experience The flat pan that I started with was 20x34" and I could get about 5-6 gals/hr with and that was with a really modified froced draft airthight arch, I mean barrel evap. Now the 2'x5' Lapierre that I now have and I am useing this season for the 1st time I am able to get just above 20gals/hr out of it. Big difference.

I know I was a little long winded here but I want you to make a choice with the best info that you can get.

[Friar_Athanasius]

I am thankful to everyone for their thoughts and opinions!

DennisH: This is my first year and I already have a sectioned evap. pan and am simply looking for an arch to fit it. I also do not expect to expand to something bigger in the future, we only have so many maples on our property.

Thanks, though, for telling me about the brick and arch board. The more I look around I see that evaporators are just what you described them to be, basically a frame to hold the bricks and the front. I suppose I expected them to be a bit more than that.

[Jim Schumacher]

It's true that weight shouldn't be such a consideration. If weight of a metal component indicated value then all of the sloppy pans MIG welded out of 16ga and 18 ga stainless that you see all over ebay should be more valuable then the ones made by someone who knew how to fab and weld. On that note, I will assure you that the workmanship currently put forth in GBM'S TIG welded pans is second to nobody's.

GBM is a local family business that has done a lot for the maple industry. I would not hesitate to buy from them.

Jim

[BryanEx]

The GBM web site has been pulled off line.