Only Hardwood?

[jlemieux]

A guy I work with hammer460, says his evaporator will only achieve a boil when burning hardwood. He says softwood is not good sugarwood. I feel bad for him, he is buying hardwood to feed his unbricked 2 by 6 55 gallon drum evaporator. Any idea what is problem is?

[steve J]

I am just guessing but I bet a ton of heat is going thru the sides and only once he has a good amount of coals does he get hot enought to get a good boil

[PerryW]

Hardwood is nice because it last longer in the firebox but...

I burn almost exclusively white pine slabs and they throw up a heck of a cloud of steam.

[500592]

Hard wood burns slow and pretty hot but soft wood burn HOT and fast.

[Dennis H.]

My 2 cents is you should mix the type of wood used.
I throw in 4 pieces each time firing and 2 will be hardwood and 2 will be pine.

I actually love using the pine, after cut and split for a year that stuff is rocket fuel! It really gets the sap boiling.

I agree with the previous statment that he needs to insulate the sides to keep the heat UNDER the pan. Another question is if the area below the pan is all open or did he ramp it up to the pan in the back? You need to get the heat up close and personal with the pan.

[cpmaple]

I would have to agree the the guys on this one. Better insulation and things will turn around. I had a 2x3 when i first started without a wall wouldnt boil for s**t. Put a wall in it at 16" back and i was getting 6gph out of it then. I myself use white pine,white cedar, and mix it with hardhack have a ton of all three so thats what i use. Always good success with that.

[Kev]

how much room do you run between the bottom of a drop flue pan and the ramp? Also wouldn't it be the same for wood of oil?

[Bruce L]

I burn pretty much white pine slabs exclusively.After the ice storm we cleaned up tons of maple limbs to burn,while they were good and hot,the arch filled up with coals as the hardwood didn't dissolve like softwood.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

key word"unbricked" I burn hemlock and pine slabs with an occasional piece of hardwood for the wood stove when wife not looking. 99% soft.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e234/poultneyfiredog18/IMG_1894.jpg

[PerryW]

when the wife's not looking

My wife will pick through my sugarhouse woodshed and steal any hardwood I have hidden there.

[briduhunt]

I was always a believer that hard wood burns better. Then after two years at Verona and hearing from different more experienced sugar makers I tried the mixxing of hard and soft woods for each fire. I can not believe what a difference my evaporation has changes from last year. I can actually see the soft wood catching fire before I close the doors up. I am sold on this and will be doing this from know on.
I have two different slab wood suppliers, 1 that has only soft woods and he charges $15.00 per truck load you fill and stack as high as you want and my other supplier of hard wood loads my truck with a bobcat for $10.00 per load. I think I have found the mother load. No more cutting chain sharpining and bull work. I am geting older so working smarter is always my goal. If the price of oil was not so high I would consider switching. So cheap dry wood will be my best choice for now.
Just my 2 cents.

[jlemieux]

Thanks for all the ideas. I hope that Mr. Mason will listen to you all better than he does me and try to improve his operation.

[TF Maple]

Any dry wood is going to burn hot, but hard wood will last a little longer and provide more heat per piece of wood burned. While some heat will go through the uninsulated sides, more is probably going up the stack without hitting the bottom of the pans. So a wall or ramp is needed to make the heat go close to the pan bottoms.

[hammer460]

i decided to get rid of wood altogether and go to oil.