Thoughts, input, what not.

[SDdave]

Hello,

Well as my second year back in the saddle. I have decided to "upgrade" from the turkey frier to a stainless steel refurbished bulk tank. I had some questions for any willing takers. First the bulk tank is 42" X 42" X 12". It's got a 2" outlet with a nut and stopper. I am still playing around with the heating aspect, and since I can't use wood (too many "worried" neighbors) I'll be using propane agian. Any thoughts for future expansions like an arch?

Thanks,

SD Dave

[TC matt]

not sure what your set up will look like, but when I used a turkey fryer on propane, I built up a fire brick wall all around the base of the fryer up to the bottom of the pan (think lighthouse) and man did it save propane!

Also, tell your neighbors to gth. kidding.

[3rdgen.maple]

Dave I think you should give me a call and place a phony service call so I can come out there and pheasant hunt with my dog and we could talk maple upgrades in the evenings. She who must be obeyed gives me the evil eye when I say this is the year im going to SD and after the eyes roll I get the I cant believe you would go on vacation with your dog instead of me lol.

[fishman]

How many maple trees are there is South Dakota?:)

[SDdave]

Fishman: How many trees in SD? Well, not that many:lol:. But even fewer maple enthusiasts:D

3rd Gen.Maple: Come on over, there's plenty of pheasants to go around! Would you believe I only got out a few times last year?

TCmatt: I think i will buy some concrete blocks this weekend. thanks.

[TF Maple]

If you built an arch for the tank to sit on, you could burn wood or propane. For wood burning you could have a screen on the stack to stop sparks and make the neighbors feel OK about it.

I suppose I have to come out in the fall and pheasant hunt... I mean..... help you build the arch.:lol:

[SDdave]

So I test fired the setup the past couple of days. I had a double and triple burner (camp stove type). And nothing...just bubbles on the bottom. So I figured not enough heat a little more. SO today i put 3 turkey friers on it...they were about an inch or less from the bulk tank. It kinda simmered but no boiling. I don't know the gauge of the stainless, but it is very rigid and about an eighth of an inch or so thick. Anybody want to take a stab? On a positive side note...the wife said i could buy other burners.

Cold and windy in SD.

[sk8heaven]

I do know that not all turkey fryer burners are created equal as that is what I use for my processing. I have one that boils my 2x2 pan with no problem (18 ga stainless). I borrowed one from a friend and it barely gets to a boil - so I was just using it as a preheater for the main pan. So..... this year when I bought a new 16 ga 2x3 pan, when i shopped for burners I bought a 2 burner that puts out 54,000 btu/hr each. I know some are only 38,000 btu .... something you may want to check. It does sound as though your pan is pretty thick though. Where in SD are you? I travel to the Watertown area for work a lot.

[500592]

you may want to put the burners right underneath the pan and let it sit there because the thicker the matal the longer it will hold the heat and wind up being efficent

[BoarsNest]

I would try to get a thinner pan if you can. I made my finishing pan out of 12gauge SS (just under 1/8") and I think it just takes too much heat to keep it up to temp. This year I have a 20 ga SS finishing pan and I am hoping it works better. I finish inside my cabin on a 3 burner propane stove from Cabela's. My guess is the burners are around 35,000 BTU's, I think the higher BTU the better as long as you have good controls.

[BryanEx]

SDdave ... how deep are you running the sap in your pan/tank? If you have much more than 1 1/2" of depth try dropping your levels.

- Bryan

[jputney]

Try dropping the flame on the burners so the tips of the flame just touch the pan that is where you will get the most heat.

[SDdave]

Thanks for the input so far. I should have clarified in my prior posts. I did alot of research on here before i test fired. First I was inside our heated shop, so i could eliminate wind/outsided temp difference. Next I reconfigured the fryers so that the heating orifice was an 1" to 1.5" max from the pan itself. As for levels in the pan, I played around with that a bit. I used water, as i am not tapping yet, to get to 1" then gradually up to 2". I fired the fryers up at 2" and let it go, checking every 10 min. Then after a couple of hours I decided that 2" was to much water, drained off (and measured) to get down to 1.5", continued for 45 min. Drained off (measured) more to get to 1" of water, continued for 45 min. Became disgusted, and measured the remaining water. It did steam off about 4 gallons of water in about 3 hours. But that is not good amount.

The propane burners: 2 of the burners were identical, the 3rd was not. The max BTUs they put out depend on the regulator size, and orifice outlets. The identical ones are 45000 and the third is 55000 I belive. I found some on the internet, a double that could put out 120,000 and a single (that comes with a death may occur warning) of 210,000 BTUs!

I live in Harrisburg, 3 miles south of Sioux Falls.

Sorry for the book reply (it'll be available in paperback soon:lol:). I am really analytical!

SDdave

[mapleack]

South Dakota! Wow. Just looked at Harrisburg on googlemaps. No trees except in town, better keep the neighbors happy! Good luck!

[SDdave]

The neighbors are always happy when I drop off some syrup! The vast majority of the trees have to be farmstead trees, and the farmers love the idea!

I talked to my propane guys and they had an idea I'll bounce it off you kind people. They have a torch a 200K to 500K BTU and he was thinking that would be enough heat. (A bit excessive maybe).

What about covering the vessel up with a sheet of stainless, obviously a hole or two cut out for steam expulsion.

I guess I am bouncing ideas in my head and typing at the same time.

SDdave

[BryanEx]

SDdave... there is certainly something out of wack because at 65,000 BTU I literally have sap jumping out of the pot at 2" of depth with a 16" diameter. Is the steal unusually thick on the bottom by chance?

[SDdave]

Not thicker on the bottom. The tanks weight is easily a 100#'s. the tank is 42" square. I'm going to buy another fryer setup (SS pot w/spigot) and throw that under there as well. One last shot for it. If it don't work I got a heck of a nice sap holder for home. I don't know... I would love for it to work, but the season is here. I think its time to plan for next year.