Need evaporator plansand opinions

[rookie]

does anyone have evaporator plans for a 55 gallon drum evaporator or 275 oil tank evap. I can get my mother in laws old oil tank (and get it out of her yard) or use a drum i have. what do you guys think. I've always thought bigger is better:D

[TimJ]

does anyone have evaporator plans for a 55 gallon drum evaporator or 275 oil tank evap. I can get my mother in laws old oil tank (and get it out of her yard) or use a drum i have. what do you guys think. I've always thought bigger is better:D

I can send pics of the home made 275 gallon evaporator we bought from someone.

Not really sure I can help with plans or fabrication questions, but pic might help?

[bushmoose]

I'm new on this site and this is my first post, however I've been surfing it thoroughly and there are literally dozens of pics/plans for evaporators on here. Spend some time and have a good look-see.

[rookie]

a picture would be great. i've got a lot of plans in my head, and every time I talk to someone i get more idea and define plans in my head

[CBOYER]

go see this tread:http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=9753
This guy show you step by step how to build a nice barrel evaporator

[rookie]

thanks, I think i'm gonna go with the 275 oil drum arch, i picked up a barrel drum kit today from the local hardware store. i mostly just want the door, and might be able to use the stack collar (not sure if its called that). not gonna get started on it till later this summer anyway, just picking up a little here and there and gathering pics and ideas

[backyard sugaring]

I'll try to post a picture of my oil tank evaporator. I made mine with bed rails, high temp. silicone, stainless steel bolts and nuts, no welding. It is making some sweet syrup right now. Good Luck

[rookie]

that would be great, what do you get for gph?

[TimJ]

We've only boiled 3 times so far - and got just about 8gph. We think we should be able to get 10gph.

I plan to build a hood and add a copper tube preheater in it.

Not the greatest pics. Hope they help a little. I did not build it - we bought it used.

[TimJ]

If you are interested in coming to look at it some time let me know. We can show it to you. We bought it from someone in NH - it is near Burlington VT now.


One or two more pics

It has a blower on it - which helps. Not sure why the builder made the syrup pan larger than the flue pan, but we got a good deal on it.

Made 4.25 gallons so far in 3 days. Not the speediest or most efficient, but it can work well. We're still getting used to it and learning. The previous owner claimed 20gph but never explained how he did it/what preheater he had hooked up.

We estimate 10gph to 14gph is the max upper limit. (5x2 surface area) To get 14 gph we'd have to change our little piggy back pan set up to a hood and preheater to use all 5x2 area for evaporation. We only get about 3 or 3.5 x 2 evaporating consistently.

[rookie]

that looks great, thanks a lot. the wheels are turning already