What small evaporator to buy?

[Sugar]

I want to buy a small evaporator in the next couple of days. I have been looking at the "Half Pint," but "TheMapleGuys" have several others. I will probably put in 60-70 taps, but we are in Southern Kentucky, so won't get a steady flow, although the predicted temps, for the rest of the month, are looking far more promising than last year.

It's just myself and 4 children, two are autistic. I want something we can manage.

Also, is there a way or rather is it safe, for me to just stick the stove pipe out a window, in a sunroom, we rarely use in the winter, and use the evaporator inside. I know these smaller evaporators are...SMALL!

Thanks for your help.

[ericjeeper]

making me nervous about the stove pipe out the window..
It needs to go out, and up and clear any combustibles.
As for a hobby set up. I would buy whichever one you can afford and offers the most surface area to the fire.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

I second the worry about putting it through a window and in a sun room. But, id you plan to have 60-70 taps , do not buy a Half Pint. I ran 101 on one last year, and that was horrible; they are rated for 4-5gph of evaporation. I would look at the Lapierre Mini Pro evaporator on the Maple Guys's Site. Like the bigger evaps, it has a flue pan and is good to expand with the number of taps you plan and may add in the future. It is good for about 100 taps I think. If you can expand, go for a bigger one, like the 18'' by 60''.

[killingworthmaple]

If your going to do more than 50 taps its going to take forever and the kids will loose interest. If the budget allows go with one step bigger as already suggested. As for the stove in the house I won't do it, if someting goes wrong you could burn down the house.

Nathan

[lakeview maple]

If you do it in the house ,or attached to the house the steam will take the wallpaper off the the walls unless you vent,lol and then you have wood ash and bark from the fire wood and splashed syrup and everything else that makes a sugarhouse so awesome.If you can swing a small shed or carport or something outside it would be alot better,God Bless ,Al

[adk1]

Yeah, you do not want to do this in the house that is for sure. Do you know of another local producer out your way?? If you are doing this for the kids, maybe you could just supply a producer with your sap that you collect each day? I am assuming that you have your own maples and it sounds as though you will be doing either sap sacks or buckets?? I would think that the kids will get the most out of the collection process, and maybe watching a local producer do the boiling part...I would imagine you can work out a deal for a sap to syrup trade so at least you would get some syrup??? just a thought

[Ed R]

Like everyone else has said, put the evaporator in some type of out building not attached to your house. As for evaporators look for something with a flue pan,you will be much happier. Look used first, maybe find a used arch and buy new pans to fit. Check out smokey lake maples full pint pan option on ebay or sbi and buying just the half pint arch from leader. Also see what A A metal shop,Sunrise metal shop, or Bill Mason have on hand. Buying from the little guy is always cheaper.

[Sugar]

Thanks everybody! This is our third year of maple tapping and out of desperation, we have done all the wrong things, such as cook inside. NO more! I have an outside stainless steel water bath canner and we used that, three kero cookers, with stockpots, in the garage, and three stockpots inside.

I called Maple Guys yesterday and they referred me to Sunrise Metal Shop. I spoke to Lee. I have called numerous other evaporator sales people and received not even a call back, nor e-mails answered. Lee called and spent a lot of time discussing his evaporators and also giving me tips on maple tapping and cooking. He guided me on how to make my outdoor canner burn more efficiently and checked to see if fire bricking my outdoor wood boiler, would make it more efficient and if it could be done. (It can't, since it has a 300 gallon water jacket.) Lee wasn't pushy or arrogant, just very, very nice. My children and I are buying Lee's 2x4 evaporator. We are getting the warming pan and also a book Lee recommended, that was comprehensive. He said this evaporator would evaporate 12-15 gallons an hour, so much more efficient than the "Half Pint."

All I have to do is find a way to transfer money off of my Visa debit, to Sunrise Metal Shops bank, and this thing will be here in 2-3 days. We plan to put our taps in next Tuesday....

Thank you for all of your help! I won't put the thing inside. I am putting it outside the garage and we can huddle in the garage and still keep an eye on the liquid gold. Maybe next year we can build a little shack.

[Ed R]

Congrats on the purchase. Keep us northerners updated on how things are going in the southern maple belt. Have a blessed maple season.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

We plan to put our taps in next Tuesday...
Just curious, why are you tapping this early? Are you going to try to make fall syrup?

[heus]

Clark he's in southern Kentucky.

[Sugar]

Just curious, why are you tapping this early? Are you going to try to make fall syrup?

The Mennonites here are already tapping. We have three weeks of good temps coming and we are ready go. I think when most tappers are just starting, our season is ending. I'll let you know how this mom and her flock do!

[Sugar]

Congrats on the purchase. Keep us northerners updated on how things are going in the southern maple belt. Have a blessed maple season.

Thanks for the blessing! We are so excited. I have a 14 year old that will loving bricking the evaporator. Lee said it would only take a couple of days to ship the evaporator. This is such a big deal for us! Now that we have winter gardens, seems that maple tapping, gardening, and canning have all run together. That is a blessing too!

[Ed R]

Last year was the first year I made syrup at my place. I found that the front of the evaporator became a focal point during syrup season, not the tv. Thats a very good thing. Making syrup has a way of drawing the family together like no other activity.

[Sugar]

I did end up buying the 2x4 from Sun Rise Metal. It was here in 3 days. The book that I bought is wonderful and has just about anything one would want to know about maple tapping. I love the filters and the stainless steal taps I bought also. The people at Sun Rise are very nice, very helpful. We are still trying to figure the evaporator out. We haven't mortared the bricks in yet. I boil the sap inside, then put it in the evaporator. Since it is just myself and my chicks, we need to speed things along. We started tapping on Dec. 23 and tonight we finished our 60 twelve oz. jar of maple syrup. So far, all but out first batch of syrup, has been very light.
We are happy! We are very tired, and once the sap in the evaporator is done, we have a break until next Tuesday, due to NO freezing temps. Thanks to everyone for all of your help and advice.

[SPILEDRIVER]

any chance you could post a pic of your evap?? ive been thinking of buying one of theres

[heus]

I was impressed with the quality of the Sunrise evaporators at the Lake Erie Maple Expedition. They have a real nice catalog, too.

[Sugar]

any chance you could post a pic of your evap?? ive been thinking of buying one of theres

I'd be happy too. It is dark now, but I will see what we can get. We have 93 jars of syrup, since Dec. 23, with 50 taps. We are happy!

[Sugar]

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[Sugar]

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A couple more and of course some piks. of what this little evaporator has given so far. We started December 23, this year....

Now....We are just a little mommy and kids...We had no clue what to do with the thing. You notice the step stool...Yeap...even I need that to fill the warmer.

We had trouble with the stack and had no idea how to mount the thing. We have it wired up, for now, but have some caulking we are going to use to hold the bottom in place. We have another section of stack to go on. We are screwing them together. The fire brick are just set inside the arch, but hope to try mortaring them tomorrow, before the next freeze comes. I love Sun Rise Metal and the people are so nice and helpful, but one thing I wished came with the evaporator, was some directions and piks....We don't live in maple tapping country, so don't really have any mentors....

The evaporator is heavy and sturdy. It looks built to last generations. The company is easy to work with and even shipped the evaporator, before they received my payment. I call them for advice and they very patiently answer my questions.

This is just the best project for my family. However, no one can understand that we aren't doing this for money. We will share some, but I want this wonderful syrup, straight from the trees for my children. No GMO in it, healthier than sugar, and so much better tasting. Our goal is to replace as much of our white sugar as possible, with maple syrup.

I am assuming my neighbors think we are making moonshine!

[CampHamp]

I am expecting delivery this month on a Sunrise Metal 2x6 evaporator through the Maple Guys and glad to hear of a good experience from another customer!

Chris (one of the Guys) said that he had been setup next to Sunrise at maple shows and was impressed with their evaporators, so he decided to distribute them this year. That was a enough endorsement for me to call Sunrise. I was also impressed with Lee during the configuration and pricing discussions and pulled the trigger after comparing prices/features against the mainstream products.

In your first pictures, it seems like your pre-heater pan is flowing into the wrong channel (same one where you are drawing off). I would have expected the valves and placement to look like in the photo in the link below. However, in the last set of photos you're now drawing off the front left, so you may have figured this out.

http://www.cottagecraftworks.com/images/Hobby-farm-syrup-cooker.jpg

Hope you and your kids are having fun with your new toy! Also a bit jealous to see you boiling when I need to wait another month up here in NH!

[Sugar]

I am expecting delivery this month on a Sunrise Metal 2x6 evaporator through the Maple Guys and glad to hear of a good experience from another customer!

Chris (one of the Guys) said that he had been setup next to Sunrise at maple shows and was impressed with their evaporators, so he decided to distribute them this year. That was a enough endorsement for me to call Sunrise. I was also impressed with Lee during the configuration and pricing discussions and pulled the trigger after comparing prices/features against the mainstream products.





In your first pictures, it seems like your pre-heater pan is flowing into the wrong channel (same one where you are drawing off). I would have expected the valves and placement to look like in the photo in the link below. However, in the last set of photos you're now drawing off the front left, so you may have figured this out.

http://www.cottagecraftworks.com/images/Hobby-farm-syrup-cooker.jpg

Hope you and your kids are having fun with your new toy! Also a bit jealous to see you boiling when I need to wait another month up here in NH!

I ordered from Lee and he just seems like a very nice person. I have had lots of questions...Truthfully...I have only seen one evaporator.....OURS! I contacted "Maple Guys" first and they referred me to Lee. They were trying to save me money on shipping.

I think we had moved the pre-heater. Mostly, we aren't using it now. The piks, actually show water in the pan, since I thought since it has been warm, I would soak and see if I could clean the minerals off of the side and bottom. I do like that there is a draw-off valve on each side of the pan. The pre-heater is easy to move around. We are boiling the sap and then dumping it in. It has been so windy, rainy....It has been difficult to keep a hot fire going and we also heat our house and hot water with an outside wood boiler. Keeping both fire-pits going has been a struggle. I figured if I boil the sap first, it won't take so long to
evaporate. Thankfully...At the present time, we are not canning in the outside, wood-fired canner! Have fun with your new toy too!

[heus]

I would scrub that niter (minerals) off with a copper scrub pad. Although it doesnt look very thick.

[Sweet Shady Lane]

I see in the pics of your close-up syrup jars you have the same thing i got last year, That cloud of stuff on the bottom, I use a pre fillter and a wool fillter off of my syrup pan and fillter it when i can it, So i am asking the others who read this is the way it should be

[Sugar]

I would scrub that niter (minerals) off with a copper scrub pad. Although it doesnt look very thick.

No it's not very thick, but thought since we have a 4 day warm-up, I might take care of it, before it is too bad. Thanks...I will get copper.

[Sugar]

I see in the pics of your close-up syrup jars you have the same thing i got last year, That cloud of stuff on the bottom, I use a pre fillter and a wool fillter off of my syrup pan and fillter it when i can it, So i am asking the others who read this is the way it should be

I guess that is sugar sand and it seems to vary. I am currently using pre-filters and white flannel. I contacted Lee, at Sunrise Metal and he gave me the name of another business, that might have some suggestions. He sold me some 36"x36" inch filters. They should come today. Not sure of the business name, but they are in MI. I will post that for you when I get the filters, that hopefully may come today. I hope they are good. I bought enough to share with the few friends that tap here. I don't know if they are different than what you are already using. He said it is all in the filtering. I don't know if it was here or not, but I read that someone layers the pre-filters and then pulls out the top, dirtiest one and that helps alot. The guy also told me, that it was OK for me to open the jars, heat the syrup to 180 degrees, and filter again. He said you always have to filter the syrup while it is hot. I used the felt cones last year,with cloth pre-filters, but honestly I still had sugar sand. My Mennonite friend has actual sugar sand, that looks like grains of sand or bigger. She cooks down in a big, stainless steal water-bath canner. I thought maybe that is why, since she is doing more caramelizing. My sugar sand is like a very, very fine dusting. I also read that the sugar sand is the minerals in the sap, and with too much, you could have high lead. We aren't selling our sap, still, I do want to play around and see how clear I can get our syrup. Since the syrup is for us, and a chosen few, we will just drain off the top, if this problem doesn't get solved. Good luck to you!

[Sugar]

No it's not very thick, but thought since we have a 4 day warm-up, I might take care of it, before it is too bad. Thanks...I will get copper.

I went and bought some copper pads and my son and I cleaned our new toy tonight. Those pads worked great. After I swished everything out the valves, I poured boiling water through, to make sure everything was clean and sterile for the next run. Thanks for the tip!

[heus]

Congratulations on a real nice setup.

[Sugar]

Congratulations on a real nice setup.

Thank you! We are so excited, but have much to learn! Right now...How to keep that stack from blowing off, in the storms we are having, as I type. THUNDERSTORMS today, temps in the 60's, and tonight in the 20's! Hope those trees blast tomorrow. We are armed and ready! 20 new buckets...Have found that the round ones are easier for us to open, then the square ones, and I can buy them for 50 cents each. Drills are charged, so we can add some more taps, evaporator sparkling clean...Jars are sterilized, kids are rested.....Well as rested as any of us get around here. Two of my chicks are special needs, so have doc. appts. tomorrow, so hoping to collect sap right before dark....Those little lights should guide us...Right from the bottom of the bags. If we get to those precious trees after dark...We are very grateful for 300 lumen headlamps!