Brent
03-05-2012, 07:56 AM
I observed something on our last boil that I have never seen before.
We had a real good boil going and were close to a big draw, when I happened to go around to the back side of the rig. While I was fiddling there 3 of the 4 channels in the syrup pan foamed up with very small bubbles. They all rose about 4 -5 inches and then the contents of the first channel REVERSED FLOW going back into the flue pan. This of coarse lowered the amount of syrup in the syrup pan. The draw off opened wide open and the channel closest to the draw off drained dry. Fortunately I was really watching this and quickly grabbed the bucket and we only got a little bit of scorched sand about 2" in diameter.
THE LESSON:
The folks I bought this rig from gave me a home made item that they had made. They hung it in the draw off box. It was a simple piece of stainless sheet metal, just shorter in length than the depth of the draw off box. It had a couple of simple folds in it that hooked loosely over the top and hung so it covered the port where sap flows from the flue pan into the syrup pan. It just hung there and flapped around. This would have acted as a back- flow preventer, and while not a total solution to the huge foam up, it would certainly buy me some time by keeping the level in the syrup pan deeper.
It was staring me in the face and I didn't figure it out until now.
We had a real good boil going and were close to a big draw, when I happened to go around to the back side of the rig. While I was fiddling there 3 of the 4 channels in the syrup pan foamed up with very small bubbles. They all rose about 4 -5 inches and then the contents of the first channel REVERSED FLOW going back into the flue pan. This of coarse lowered the amount of syrup in the syrup pan. The draw off opened wide open and the channel closest to the draw off drained dry. Fortunately I was really watching this and quickly grabbed the bucket and we only got a little bit of scorched sand about 2" in diameter.
THE LESSON:
The folks I bought this rig from gave me a home made item that they had made. They hung it in the draw off box. It was a simple piece of stainless sheet metal, just shorter in length than the depth of the draw off box. It had a couple of simple folds in it that hooked loosely over the top and hung so it covered the port where sap flows from the flue pan into the syrup pan. It just hung there and flapped around. This would have acted as a back- flow preventer, and while not a total solution to the huge foam up, it would certainly buy me some time by keeping the level in the syrup pan deeper.
It was staring me in the face and I didn't figure it out until now.