Oil-fired drop flue?

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Have boiled with wood for the last 20+ years and ran both drop and raised flue. For the last 15 years, we have ran a 5x14 drop flue(wood fired). For the coming year,I am upgrading to a 4x14 DG oil fired arch and pans. Just curious how many of you out there are running drop flues on your oil fired rigs. I ordered unit as a drop flue, but have become a little concerned when I heard these are easier to burn than a raised flue, especially on oil fired. Does anybody know temp inside arch? I will be running an 801 Carlin burner. Also running 18% conc. and have air injectors. Thanks for any info. Neil

[Sunday Rock Maple]

We run a 5 by 14 King with a 9' drop flue pan with two 701 Carlins with 8% sap and no air injection w/o any issues. Not sure how 18% would work but would love to be able to try it some day.......

[BFMF]

We have been using a converted woodfired to oil arch on a 5X14 for quite a few years and as with any just watch the depth same as with wood fired. Niter is our biggest problem and that isn't caused by drop flue. We are planning on new pans, but will keep same arch in case of fuel problems in the future, as if there are not now. We will continue with drop flue system.

[bigtreemaple]

We run a 3x12 oil fired drop flue (8' flue pan) and 501 Carlin with 2 nozzles. No problems burning the pans.

[Brian]

hi, i run a 4 x12 flue pan and con to 18-20% with a carlin 701 and love it, All I can say is have fun!! You will love it, Verry easy, you will love the high & low fire switch.The other thjng is you can turn it off and the fire is out.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Brian,

I'm interested in cutting oil usage if I don't have to spend a lot of extra time boiliing, do you have one 701 for the 4 by 12 or two? Also what size nozzles are you running?

Thanks,

Brian

[Brian]

I have one carlin 701 on a 4X12 I built the arch from scratch, I also built my cousin Thads arch. his is a 6x14 with 2 carlin 801. The trick is to burn hot enough to keep soot from building up on the bottom of the pans,but you dont want to send any extra heat up the stack.I run 2 nozzles 5gph 45deg Hollow(what leader recomans). they work good but I want to try 5gph 80deg hollow for a wider flame. The pump presure is set at 150 psi so that means I burn between 12-14 gph. This means @ 18% About 30-40 gallons of syrup per hour for me.Good Luck

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Thanks for all the comments everybody. I think I will stay with drop flue as I have become used to running one and enjoy just one float box. Hopefully converting to oil will save me alot of time in the sugarhouse, so I can spend more time in the woods chasing leaks and maintaining tubing, as the woods is where the money is made. Brian, you must have to recirc to make 18%? How do you like your CDL RO? Any problems? Just curious. Thanks again, Neil

[Brian]

That is A great machine, that is one thing CDL got right!!(User friendly) I had a seprotec and CDL could not keep that machine running. I have the ro set up so I ro from a 2000 gal tank to a 1000 gal tank (8%) then ro it again to a 550 gal feed tank(18-20%). Neil, I would consider a raised flue because when you are drawing off the first draw, sometimes you draw off 10gal and find the float has not read the drop in sap in the flue pan. Sometimes I lean on the float to make the surge in the pans less.Once you get your radiance in your pan you leave the ball valve open all the time and throttle the ball valve according to the dial gauge on the pan and the float keeps up great. My next pans would be raised flue back pan with cross fiow front.