Test boil and preheater (pics)

[garyp]

Well me and my son tested my evaporator that I have been working on, and thought it did pretty good it started to boil 30 min after lighting it up and boiled off about 8-10 gals in about a hour and I was trying to save on wood And I know I can do better.
So today I built a preheater, lol. I do not know if its going to work or not. but will see let me know what you think and be nice.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Well me and my son tested my evaporator that I have been working on, and thought it did pretty good it started to boil 30 min after lighting it up and boiled off about 8-10 gals in about a hour and I was trying to save on wood And I know I can do better.
So today I built a preheater, lol. I do not know if its going to work or not. but will see let me know what you think and be nice.
looking good, a lot nicer than what I first tried ten years ago, it should work as long as you have a hood keep that steam around those pipes.
I love your pajamas, I'm kinda jealous :)

[acerrubrum]

garyp,
I like your preheater. I was thinking of making something like that for my 2x4. I was wondering, does the condensate that develops on the underside of the catch pan (I think it is made out of white pole barn siding) then drip back into the boil? That's what happens with my preheater that sits atop my flat pan- so I don't think I'm really gaining a whole lot. Also, how well does it heat? Do you know what degree the pre heated sap enters the boil?
Pat.

[325abn]

Looks great and fun!!! Think you need a hood for that preheater to work. You can make one using plastic for cheap.

[garyp]

Sorry acerrubrum but I have not tried it yet still need to put up my head tank first. I am wondering that myself about condensation under my drip pan, I am thinking that since the copper pipe are filled with water that there prone to sweet, and yes its made from steel roof panels

[b116757]

Nice set up love the tin drip pan idea

[garyp]

acerrubrum
Well the preheater I made is a little small for my set up 10-12 gph but something smaller like 4-8 gph might work out better , I was getting about 120 degrees with a small trickle but had to open it up more for my evaporator then dropped down to about 60 degrees.
I did build a hood and seems to help keep the steam in ok and does build up condensation under the drip pan but I think its not that much to make a diferance in killing the boil, the drips just hang there and not drip in a lot.
Heres a few pics of my lol hood
6852685368546855

[DonMcJr]

I like ther copper pre-heater idea. With that hood that garyp has doesn't that slow down the evaporation process by catching the steam and dripping back in the pan?

I would think just the copper manifold above the pan would be good enough...

[garyp]

Don, The hood that I made drips down the sides and out of my pan and the pipe drips off the copper run down the drip pan and runs out a channel and out the pan, there is some drips under the drip pan but does not seem to drip much and does not hurt the boil
The hood is needed to heat the pipes with the steam trap under there and with out it I think its useless I just try it and it does not work with out the hood
6867

[DonMcJr]

Ahh Ok... Makes more sense now...

[acerrubrum]

Garyp,
thanks for the update, sounds like it's definitely worth putting some work into preheating the sap. I've been thinking about this preheating stuff and think for this year i'm going to go the simpler route of the coil wrap around the stack. Maybe next year I'll tackle the manifold style preheater.

[garyp]

Buy the way while I was boiling with out the hood in place, were the sap was going in at( about 35 degrees) it was still boiling about 16'' away.
So you might want to try just running with out rapping your stack and just run your line straight to your pan to see what happens