need adivce on filtering

[hookhill]

Last year we used felt cone filters and prefilters and it was real slow and messy. This year we want to take use a 24"x24x8" deep" stainless pan (with draw off spout) with some sort of screen and then use the larger 36"x36" flat filters. The pan will sit on some sort of propane heater to keep the syrup at 180 deg. Anybody try this or have any comments/ideas. Thanks.

Jim

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

That is similar to what most of the members on here use including myself and it should work great. I would advise using 4 to 6 flat prefilters on top of the felt filter and as one clogs, pull it off and let the syrup go down on the next prefilter. :D

You want the syrup to be boiling hot as the hotter it is, the better it filters. :D

[lew]

When we used flat filters, we would take the 36"x36" felt filter and fold it so if you took a cross section of the fold it would look like a "Z" and the overlap would be about 4 - 6". and put the "Z" in the middle of the filter in the middle of the filter tank. Next, we would do the same "Z" fold with a prefilter and put the prefilter on top of the felt filter. Start filtering syrup. When your prefilter has gotten plugged to the point where you don't like how fast the syrup is going through, you simply grab one edge of the prefilter and pull the "Z" out so the prefilter lays totally flat. Now you have a perfectly clean area for the unfiltered syrup that is laying on top to pass through. Once this syrup is drained through the prefilter, you can easily take that one off and replace with a clean one. If you make enough syrup that day, and you r filter also becomes clogged, you can pull out the "Z" in the filter to the same effect. Worked great fro better than 10 years us, until we purchased filter presses. I can't come up with a better explanation fo the fold at this time, I you understand what I am trying to say, as this was an excellent way to manage your filter. We were filtering about 13 gallons of syrup an hour this way, and rarely did we run into problems.