Coal for fuel?

[325abn]

This year I have 59 taps and I am using 2 turkey frier burner frames with 3 burners (I added the 3rd burner yesturday) and a 20 x 22 x 6 aluminum pan and 2 10 x 14 pre-heat pans. I have the burners suspended about 1.75 inches below the pan.Yesturday with this set up I was managing to get almost 8gal/hour untill one of the rubber hoses burnt though. Now with the 2 burners Iam getting about 6.5 gal/hr. I have cinder blocks and bricks built up around this whole thing. I think I am about at the max output for this setup. Although I am going to try and get third burner going again today.

I have big plans to expand to hundreds of taps over the next few years, but not quite ready to buy a prebuilt commercial evaporator anytime soon.

I have an old coal / wood furnace down cellar that I am thinking of using as an evaporator next year. I also have big pile of coal in the same basement probley about 200 cubic feet. I would like to get this pile out of the cellar.

What are some of you thoughts on using this coal as fuel? Would it be OK or flat out dont use it because it will ruin the syrup?


This is a great forum! :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Would work great if you could lift the pans off at the end of the boil. My parents heated with coal for years and it will hold heat for hours and sometimes 2 or 3 days. Coal puts out a ton of heat. :?

[brookledge]

It might work for a small set up like you have with pots but I don't think coal will work that good on a larger setup. Not sure on how you are looking to build your furnace into an evaporator but with comercial evaporators you need flame contact. Where as in a wood stove or furnace the area is more confined to a smaller area so a firebox of hot coals will put off heat. In an evaporator a fire box full of coals won't give you much boiling in the flue pan
Keith

[PF]

325abn,

I'm using a similar set up with propane. How many hours are you getting out of a 20lb tank?

PF

[325abn]

325abn,

I'm using a similar set up with propane. How many hours are you getting out of a 20lb tank?

PF

I am getting about 11.5 hours per tank. What are you getting?