Steam Hood or Cupola?

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

If I were to buy a steam hood for my evaporator, should I also put in a cupola in the roof? Or just put the stack out the roof. What do you guys think is better to do, put up a cupola and scratch the steam hood idea, or just get the hood and be done with it?:confused::o

[Maplewalnut]

My wife likes the look of a cupola, I like the look of a steam free sugarhouse so we use both. Pipe the steam inside just short of cupola and watch flow out of the building threw the open doors

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

That's a good idea the only thing is that in my sap house the evap wouldn't be directly under it. It isn't parrelell to the top of the roof where the cupola would be. The only thing I'd worry about is the smoke from the evaporator stack, that is not in the center of the sap house either, rentering the sap house through the cupola because of where the cupola would be. :o:cry::confused:

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have a steam hood that pipes into the coupla. Its cheaper to go with the stack only with flip cover. Mine looks good with the coupla. You do not need a tall stack for steam to leave the sap shack.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

That's good. At one of my friends sap house he put up his stack in the cupola, and had a fan build right into a stack section. That's the perfect set up, because if it's too windy, out and he's having trouble getting steam to rise out, he can flip the switch and the fan will do the rest.:razz:;)8-O

[maple flats]

You can have a hood with or without a cupola. Many do as I do, hood, stack up into cupola. Steam always goes out. I have doors on both sides and usually have both open, but if conditions require I can open just the leeward side. I think I only had to do that 1 maybe 2x over the years.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Ive been looking into a hood, but theyre pretty pricey for a good one. Even an aluminum one is pricey. I should'nt be very hard to put a cupola on. I'd put closing doors on it, and put chicken wire around it so birds and squirrels can't get in when its open. But I'll have to see if I could find a good plan. ;) Either way I gotta cut a hole in my roof.:cry::mad:

[maple flats]

Yea, but a cupola completes the image of a sugarhouse.

[Mike in NY]

Ive been looking into a hood, but theyre pretty pricey for a good one. Even an aluminum one is pricey. I should'nt be very hard to put a cupola on. I'd put closing doors on it, and put chicken wire around it so birds and squirrels can't get in when its open. But I'll have to see if I could find a good plan. ;) Either way I gotta cut a hole in my roof.:cry::mad:

you will be amazed at the difference a hood/preheater will make. I can have a full rolling boil in my back pan in 15 minutes.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Yeah, I know how much of a difference a steam removal system makes on your boiling efficiency. I had a stove pipe out the widow, laying on the side of the evaporator with a fan blowing the steam across into the pipe and out the window. It was a big help in clearing the steam out of the pan, and the sugarhouse.:lol::o

[Haynes Forest Products]

Forget the chickenwire any stupid chicken that tries to fly into the coupla full of steam is aiding in his plucking. Only open after the fire is lit and going. Close right after the fire is out and staem has settled. Pull the trigger and get the hood you will be so proud of the rig you wont go home for a week.

[Father & Son]

I've boiled for six years with a cupola and no hoods. There are some days the steam will clear and some days your sugarhouse is like a turkish sauna. I also have a metal roof and there are certain places you can stand in the sugarhouse and remain dry, the rest you get a shower. Needless to say I have hoods ordered from Smoky Lake Maple Products and can't wait.

Jim

[Brad W Wi]

I have a free standing hood (no sides) with a 16" stack. For me it's great. I do get some steam overflow out from around it, so I installed a attic fan on the roof. I usually don't need it, but it's there for when I do. I have a uninsulated metal roof where I will get some condensation at times. The fan usually takes care or it. If I was to do it over the only thing I would do different is insulate the roof. But it all comes down to personal choice.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

My sap House was a little cabin/shed before 2011. It has siding, shingles, a front porch, but in 2011 when I got the Half Pint it was now a Sap House. I have painted plywood on the walls, and plywood on the ceiling. When I started boiling, the plywood up top was wet with condensation.:o So any steam removal technique, I'll try. I'd really be mad if my ceiling layers started peeling off!:cry::(:emb:

[adk1]

I ahve a floor in my crawspace of the attic in the garage/sugarhouse. I will cut out the area above the evap, a really wide area. Directly above it will be my coupola. I will build sides from the attic floor up to the roof to channel out the steam. that is my plan anyways. Hopeing that it will channel the steam up and out the coupola. I know there are differing opinions, but I also plan on adding a box fan in the coupola to force somekind of draft. I will let you know if it works!

[delta757and767pilot]

I believe a cupola would be better because a steam hood for that small of an evaporator might get in the way unless you lift it up high enough. If you really want a steam hood you can have it suspended about 3 ft above the pan and pipe the steam to the cupola.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I disagree When I boil water on my stove and run the fan on my range hood the steam doesnt flow up and out. Having a hood 3 ft above your pans no matter what size they are will allow cold air to sweep across the boiling surface slowing the boil.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Yeah I noticed that if I shut the door in the Sap House, when it's cold, and I'm boiling, the boil will sometimes get better because of no cold wind blowing in to slow the boil. :o:o:mrgreen:

[Haynes Forest Products]

If your shack is air tight you need to open a door or window for makeup air. Steam is slow moving so it needs all the help it can get to rise up and out the coupla before it cools down and sinks.

[adk1]

So with my exposed metal roof, in order to keep down the raining affect, I should install some sheets of the foam board? Will this really make a difference?

[tomslusher]

I am planning on building a new garage/shed on my property and was hoping to clear the stuff out of half of it in the spring to use it as a cooking shack. If I install a hood will it get rid of enough of the steam so I wont have to worry about the rest of the stuff in the garage getting sticky or rusting/rotting?

Should I plan on using a fan in the hood? My cooker right now is only about 3' x 2' but I plan on going bigger/more efficient in the next few years.

Thanks,

Tomslusher

[adk1]

I would imagine, that is what everyone does when they really dont want to have to deal with steam issues. I will be making up some kind of "hood" to try and channel the steam up and out of the coupola. This will be a trial by error year for me from start to finish!

[Maple Hobo]

I would imagine, that is what everyone does when they really dont want to have to deal with steam issues. I will be making up some kind of "hood" to try and channel the steam up and out of the coupola. This will be a trial by error year for me from start to finish!

Hoods help, heat rising causes an updraft to help draw the steam up and out.
You'll probably be making more steam then the hood itself (not sealed to the back pan but raised over the finish pan) can move out though.

The coupla help too but you might need to design them to updraft without creating a draft over your pan.

Drafting from the eaves to the coupla is ideal but remember its HEAT that rises and helps draw the moisture out. If you have super insulated and efficient evaporator with little heat lost around the pan... you might have some trouble getting it to draft right.

You might be able to help force the updraft with a fan or blower unit? Thats added cost to run that though.

IMHO... lol

[abk]

I built a new sugar house for the 2011 season and installed a new 2X8 Thor evaporator. The sugar house has a steel ceiling and I built a steam hood using wood for a frame and installed plastic sheeting so the wood was not exposed to the steam. Then I installed two 8 inch stacks through the ceiling up to the coupla using adjustable elbows to make the stack follow the slope of the roof. The system works fairly well but I have to devise a better way to devert the condensation into a bucket. This will help keep the floor dry.
Arden K

[English River Maple]

We went through this in our new sugarhouse in the spring. We were using a 2x3, single pan and tried to save on stove pipe by off setting the evaporator from sitting directly under the cupola. Our sugarhouse was designed for our current machine (30x8) so we had to get through one year with the little rig. Anyway, we struggled getting the steam out of the shack. We ended up having to add more stove pipe and center the machine directly under the cupola. This seemed to work well although some days when the wind swirled, we'd get a down-draft on the front potion of the evaporator. We opened each door half way and this seemed to help. we also cracked a windows on each side of the shack to help the draft. My opinion long term would be the steam hood..hands down. This will prevent you from fighting with the cupola to get a good draft. We have a hood with our new machine for 2012, so we are expecting that this will work much better.

[Maple Hobo]

We went through this in our new sugarhouse in the spring. We were using a 2x3, single pan and tried to save on stove pipe by off setting the evaporator from sitting directly under the cupola. Our sugarhouse was designed for our current machine (30x8) so we had to get through one year with the little rig. Anyway, we struggled getting the steam out of the shack. We ended up having to add more stove pipe and center the machine directly under the cupola. This seemed to work well although some days when the wind swirled, we'd get a down-draft on the front potion of the evaporator. We opened each door half way and this seemed to help. we also cracked a windows on each side of the shack to help the draft. My opinion long term would be the steam hood..hands down. This will prevent you from fighting with the cupola to get a good draft. We have a hood with our new machine for 2012, so we are expecting that this will work much better.

Do you have open eves at the edge of your roof or just a normal residential roof with a coupla at the top?
If you don't have open eves it won't draft up and draw the moisture out. If you have to open a door or windows to get the updraft I'd guess you have closed residential eves. Even with a hood you'll have a problem with makeup air comming in to draft up the hood.

Think of it this way, ever have a fan that a curtain or blanket gets behind and sucks flat? It reduces the fan's blow to near nothing. A non-vented building will act similar to that. Older buildings have so many cracks and holes that it wasn't a problem. With modern construction and seals that air is prevented from passing through the walls and up to clear the steam.

If you keep the draft up above your pan, it shouldn't knock your boil down as much. If you time your draw offs you'll see that an open door can really add to your boil time.

[English River Maple]

Do you have open eves at the edge of your roof or just a normal residential roof with a coupla at the top?
If you don't have open eves it won't draft up and draw the moisture out. If you have to open a door or windows to get the updraft I'd guess you have closed residential eves. Even with a hood you'll have a problem with makeup air comming in to draft up the hood.

Think of it this way, ever have a fan that a curtain or blanket gets behind and sucks flat? It reduces the fan's blow to near nothing. A non-vented building will act similar to that. Older buildings have so many cracks and holes that it wasn't a problem. With modern construction and seals that air is prevented from passing through the walls and up to clear the steam.

If you keep the draft up above your pan, it shouldn't knock your boil down as much. If you time your draw offs you'll see that an open door can really add to your boil time.

Good point. The eves on our sugarhouse are enclosed. The whole sugarhouse is pretty tight even though it's all board and baton. From the floor to the bottom of the cupola is all of 14 feet. She's pretty air tight based on the way it acted last year. Closeable vents would probably work great. I would hate to leave the eves open all year, the wind blows out of the west pretty good, especially in blizzards with snow blowing in. The eves are boxed in with 1x8 boards so we can modify them with some sort of vent system. Air from the eves is much better than air from a window at ground level.

Yes, you are right, it will kill the boil when opening a door or window at ground level. My friend has a 6x16 small bros. thunderbolt w/piggyback (oil guzzler, dual guns) and his dad gets pissed when people open the door to enter the sugarhouse, he claims that it kills the boil.

When I mentioned opening doors, I meant the doors on the cupola, not the man doors. If we had draft problems with the 2x3, we will certainly have them with the 30x8. We'll have to probably do a few small mods to the eves.

Great info and examples...totally makes sense, thank you

[LawnSite]

This is all kinda new to me. This fall I put in a 12 x 18 shed with cement floor and drains.
Set up is a new 2 x 4 mason hobby evaporator.

Cupola not installed yet but certainly could be if needed. My thoughts were to add (2) 12" x 18"
vents on each gable end. Eves are also open. Will that create enough circulation to vent steam ?

[GramaCindy]

Hey LawnSite, I use a Mason 2x4 also, last year in a pole building, this year in a new sugar shack, 14x14'. In practicing with a test boil, it was amazing how much steam it produced, nowhere to go as our cupola doors are temporarily screwed shut. (We were totally burnt out after working on the shack and roof all summer) We will make the doors operational very soon. My observation was that the steam went STRAIGHT up and would have LOVED to have the cupola doors open. Not saying that a steam hood is a bad idea, can't say which would be more cost effective for you, just noticed that the cupola looks like it will work AWESOME for us……ask me in 3 months!

[adk1]

I tossed around the idea too before I had my cupola built and added to the shack. I went with the cupola because of the traditional look. The other thing was that if I ever do decide to add a steam hood, I can simply vent the piping straight up to within the cupola and not have the steam stack g othrough the roof to the outside.

[LawnSite]

Thanks everyone. Cupola it is