Just finished the evaporator, start tapping tomorrow

[thackerymaple]

Hope it works, last year was our first, had a 55 gallon drum with a 4 gallon pan on the top, ended up with about 2 gallon of syrup, got about $200 in this one hope it pays off. Only got about 30 taps so if we end up with about 6 gallon I'll be happy. Added a shelf on one side to set a couple of 20" window fans to speed up the evaporation. Making a stand to put a 5 gallon bucket on the inlet side to feed the level valve, (which is a NEW brass toilet fill valve modified)

[Run Forest Run!]

WOW! Great job! :)

[325abn]

What are the 20" fans going to be used for?

[TerryEspo]

Real nice looking unit. Love the roof and blower !!

Good luck.

Terry

[thackerymaple]

Moving air across the boiling liquid it will evaporate quicker. evaporation is the transfer of moisture from a warmer liquid to a cooler air. with no movement over the evaporator the air is saturated = less transfer, bring in the cooler less saturated air move out the moisture. At least that is what a thermal dynamics engineer told me. Makes sense. We'll see. hopefully I dont find out he has stock in the fans. :)

[not_for_sale]

This physicist here doubts that engineer. You already have rising air because of the heat. You are going to cool the liquid with the fans, and also introduce cold air over the pans. Cold air has significantly less capacity for moisture. I think you are going to get condensation on the sheet metal of the roof.

[not_for_sale]

I looks very nice!

[mapleack]

Looks really nice, have you tried the float action with water? You may need a flat bottom float to exert enough force to work. I agree with not for sale, the fans won't help, and may hinder. I've tried it.

[Pete S]

Looks very nice.

Just thought I'd share that I have a similar rig. (which I hope this is it's last year)

I started out with a 6" stack, but didn't things weren't drafting well enough.

Installed an 8" stack and it 'seemed" to make an appreciable difference.

[thackerymaple]

had about 65 gallons from 27 taps from 5 pm last night to 7 tonight. started boiling at 2:30pm today stopped at 7 Pm took some measurements got about 20 gallon left on cool down. dividers seem to be working good. I figure 45 gallon in 4 1/2 hours is a lot better then I did last year on a 55 gallon drum with a 5 gallon pan on top. Did not notice any condensation on the roof, if I get it i'll take it down, mostly put it up for rain and bird droppings :) Maybe the fan was keeping it away from the roof. The float valve seemed to work good, let me go through the woods and collect without worrying about it. All in All it is a hobby, And I love Pancakes.

[Cameron670]

This physicist here doubts that engineer. You already have rising air because of the heat. You are going to cool the liquid with the fans, and also introduce cold air over the pans. Cold air has significantly less capacity for moisture. I think you are going to get condensation on the sheet metal of the roof.

Well, I am neither (nor would I mention it if I were) But.........speaking from direct experience, a box fan expedites evaporation per hour; period. Our explanation is something like this :)
Gently blowing (removing) the saturated air from directly above the pan, allows new dry air to be introduced wicking the steam off the surface of the sap more rapidly.

We did several experiments, and documented the tests. One large box fan about 6 feet away, (low and medium only) blowing across the pan, will yield a 20-25 % increase in evap per hour,
on an 18x48 pan. This is EXCEPTIONALLY effective on a humid and/or 50 degree day.

peaked @ 12 gal/hr. If you run the numbers on that, you'll find its not too bad :)
just my .02 KJC