Leaky Lapierre hot box float question

[dbcriss]

I just bought a new Lapierre Waterloo Small. The float is supposed to lift a cone up into a flared tube to stop the sap from moving from the sap pan into the syrup pan. But my flare has a bunch of machining marks on it and the seal isn't tight and the sap just trickles in without stopping. The only way to control the flow is by constantly opening and closing the shutoff valve. So I called my distributor who called Lapierre and they sent me a new valve. Same exact thing; lots of tooling marks on the flare. Zero chance this will stop water. Is this how it's supposed to be? Anyone with the Lapierre Small that has a hot float valve that will shut off the flow?

[Dennis H.]

I have a 2x5' lapierre and yes the float does work on the side of the syrup pan.

Now the only time that it acks up is after a lot of boiling and there is a lot of sugar sand. Then the sugarsand tends to collect in the belled out part and allows sap to trickle by.
I give the float rod a couple of twists back and forth and everything is ok.

I never had any problems with sap trickle by while boiling. I ran into it mainly after I was done and forgot to shut the valve off from the flue pan.
So now when I am done boiling for the day and the evap is close to be cooled down I will shut the valve off.

Can you get into the belled part with some sand paper or a fine file and smooth it out? I would try a round file or one of those flat on one side curved on the otherside type files. Then hit it with emory coth or a scotchbrite pad to make it nice and smooth.

[Jec]

Mine leaks but it still keeps the level. You just need to remember at the end of the day to shut the ball valve off.

[wiam]

Most floats that are more than a few years old leak anyway. They do not need to shut all the way off to maintain level when boiling. It is good practice to turn the valve off when not boiling.

[jmayerl]

I guessing you spent quite a bit of your hard earned money on it, right? For the amount of money it costs, it should work right. I would take pictures of the original and replacement and email them to lappiere until they send you a good one. Good companys always stand behind there products and want you to be happy.

[dbcriss]

Sounds like we have the same evaporator. If you are getting sugarsand up in the belled out part, than I wonder if I am not keeping a deep enough level in the syrup pan. How deep do you keep the syrup pan? I'm trying to keep it about 1-1/2" and my float is inches higher than the syrup level in the pan. My float is clearly up and out of the syrup. Am I keeping the syrup level too shallow ?

[dbcriss]

It may be I don't know a good one from a bad one. The first valve would overflow the box. I'm hoping this 2nd valve works better but just from a looking at it, does not look any different than valve #1. Maybe its supposed to leak some and the evaporation rate just keeps up with it.

[CPlace]

Has anyone figured out the remedy to the leaky float box issue? I have a new 2X5 Lapierre and did a test boil today and experiend the same problems mentioned. My leak was constant with the syrup pan reaching 4" level. I partially closed the valve to the float box, thinking there might be too much pressure for the float to handle. This seemed to work, but didnt know if this was the norm.

[Dave Y]

I am not familiar with the small 2x5 floats but I do know the one on the larger rig do work. Does your float have a cone that rides up into a stainless tube.? If so there should be an O-ring in the tube that the cone should seat against. This will give you a positive seal and shut the flow off. As for throttling back your valve this will help, I had to do this on my old Grimm rig, and it work very well. You just need to figure out how much is enough depending on your rate of boil.

[village idiot]

Is your float getting submerged or does it stay on top of the liquid? If the float is still "floating" then the leak isn't the problem, its just a depth adjustment problem. My old Grimm had float "arms" that would kind of bend a little when the level started to come up but they would eventually seal off the flow (well, at least seal it down to the evaporation rate). It was a pain to adjust, but I could get pretty close after 3-4 tries.

I only had a submerged float/flooded pan once and that was when I forgot to shut the valve off at the end of a boil. When I came back the next day I had about 4" in the front and my float was totally under.

[CPlace]

Probably some of my issues may be operater error as Im still learning how to make all the adjustments on my new rig. The float does have a cone up into a flared tube. When I spoke with distributor he immediately identified it as an o-ring issue and is sending a replacement. Hopefully this will solve the leak issue, if not I will use the valve to help regulate the sap flow.

[YAZER]

Purchased the 18 x 60 this summer, Had the same issue on a test boil, played with the o-ring, tried some food grade grease no luck. Called Maple guys and they sent me a new oring, going to wait till sugaring time to test it out! Hope it works for both of us!