Freezing Tanks

[Jec]

How does everyone keep thier outside tanks from freezing? Also, how do you keep your head tank from freezing?
Thanks,
Joey

[500592]

I plan to drain my head tank after the evaporate cools down

[christopherh]

I had the same problem last year with my caged tank freezing. I cracked the camlock fitting as a result. I just picked up a cattle stock tank heater at Tractor Supply to drop in my tank near the outlet. Does anyone see a problem doing this?

[whalems]

I don't leave any sap in the head tank. It is to warm inside the sugar house and the sap spoils to quick.

[DrTimPerkins]

How does everyone keep thier outside tanks from freezing?

Boil all the sap before it freezes.

[MilesTeg]

I had the same problem last year with my caged tank freezing. I cracked the camlock fitting as a result. I just picked up a cattle stock tank heater at Tractor Supply to drop in my tank near the outlet. Does anyone see a problem doing this?

We used one last year because we couldn't boil everyday and wanted to ready to go at anytime. It worked ok but had trouble unfreezing once a block of ice had formed. So it caused all sorts of problems because we didnt want run it all the time because we didn't want raise the temp of the sap if there was no need to. Another problem we had is that there only good for one year. We took ours out and hung it on the wall after season and now it's rusted out so bad you couldn't pay me to plug it in.

[maple flats]

Boiling is always best, but if you are caught with sap you can't process, you are usually good for a day, except you must not close a ball valve with liquid in it. Freezing there will burst the valve. If you think you might be in that situation, add a guillotine valve like is used on campers or a gate valve ahead of the ball valve. They are more tolerant of freezing. Then when you think it might freeze, close the guillotine valve, drain the ball valve and then close the ball and open the guillotine again. It will now best handle the freeze. Make sure the valves are real close to the tank for this to work. If you use a bulk milk tank with the original type butterfly valve it won't burst. To use again if still frozen, thaw the valve slowly either with a heat lamp or even a torch, but if using a torch just keep moving the flame and keep about 4-6" away from the valve with the flame. You don't want to heat the o-ring to damage them. I have done this way for 8 yrs without issue. I should now be able to keep up since I'm now using an RO.

[oneoldsap]

Like Dr. Tim said , keep them empty !

[stoweski]

Waterbed heater. Wrap it around the valve and then seal it up with reflectix insulation (aluminum faced bubble wrap). I set mine on a timer to kick on every hour just to keep it warm. The heater has a low temp of 80. With the probe between the valve and the mat it works fine.

I suppose a seedling mat may work the same way.

But again, the best way is to empty the tank completely. That way you're safe.

[smokeyamber]

You could just use a siphon setup if gravity fed and then freezing a bit isn't an issue ? My setup had 60gallon barrels insulated by snow and that seemed to keep the ice down to a minimum ( of course we need some snow for that ). With my "new" 200gallon tank it has a spigot outlet, but I likely will siphon from the top as it will be up the hill from the shack, head tank will get emptied every night ( hopefully by boiling ). Simple is best for me...

I wonder if building a crude structure over your storage tank would moderate the temps a bit ? Still want to keep the sap cold, just not too cold.

[Brent]

we just wrap the tank in bubble wrap. Sometimes the vavle will freeze a little but a gallon of hot water solves that.

If it's that cold it's not likely to spoil much.

If there's a real hard freeze coming, we boil it all. Never saw the sunrise yet but we've come close.

[gmcooper]

My sap storage tank is outside the sugarhouse and the only issue with freezing has been the valve and feed line to the evaporator. I now have a heat tape for water pipes on it during the season. Only comes on below 45 degrees and does just enough to keep from greezing. The tank usually gets emptied but some days there is just enough left there to freeze up the pipe and valve.