Vortex owners

[gleaner62]

I bought a 3x12 vortex and it came with basically no instructions on how to fire it and or how to adjust airflow. I emailed leader and they sent me the fire bricking chart I already had.i will start boiling this week it looks like anyone have tips on running it. I have bought a lot of equipment over the years and have never saw a worse set of instructions.

Thanks in advance Tim

[wglenmapler]

You should call your dealer and get them involved. Leader will assist with any technical data you need and I have seen them come down and help get a unit dialed in for a customer that needed help. Don't be afraid to call them to get the ball rolling faster.

[JAMIE]

I just bought and set up my new 2 x8 inferno from leader.Instructions POOR..POOR..POOR.What i did get was even stapled in the wrong order.They sent me five pictures of my pans connect and three of the pictures are so poor you can't tell what it is.No bricking instructions.I called leader and talked to Bruce and got some verbal help and went for it.I plan to test boil this week and i think im on my own!Sometime i learn best under fire i just hope to keep the damage to a min.

[Stone]

I have a 3x12 vortex with max flue pan, revolution front pan, and a steamaway. This will be my third year with this rig. I agree that the manuals supplied are not sufficient. I made several calls to Leader as I tried to set up everything the first time. My local dealer (Goodrich) came and helped me through my first boil. Now I have it down to a routine.

I have the over-fire blower wired to a switch right next to the arch door. I have the under-fire blower wired to a rheostat (also mounted near the arch door). When I first start a fire, I use full under-fire air and as soon as the fire is going well I also turn on the over-fire air. When I fire it I turn the rheostat (under-fire) to about 1/4 speed and switch off the over-fire air. As soon as I close the door I switch on the over-fire air and increase the under-fire air. Over about 45min, as the rig warms up, I slowly decrease the under-fire air until it is down to about 1/4 speed and after that I only have to switch the over-fire off and on when I fire. I fire every 7-8min throughout the boil. The rig easily does 300gph and if I fire it a little harder (and if I have good wood) I can get it up to 360gph (as read on a flow meter).

Overall, it's been a great rig for me. My complaints: 1) the firebrick/mortar can't stand the heat. As I head into my 3rd season I'm on my 3rd bricking of the walls of the firebox. 2) My original floatbox for the front pan was of poor design causing the front pan to flood occasionally mid-boil but that has been corrected by a replacement float of improved design. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it. It boils at the rate they advertised. I like the ease of reversing flow in the front pan. It seems to burn cleanly. With raw sap, 1 cord of wood could produce approx 50gal syrup. With 8% sap from the R.O., 1 cord of wood produces approx 170-180gal syrup (ideally it would be 200gal but there is some loss due to start up and cool down)

Good Luck!

[JAMIE]

Thanks Stone great info!!!

[Bruce L]

I have a 3x14 vortex,but only got to use it 5 days last season.Bruce from Leader came to boil with me the first day,as I am first one in the area and he wanted to make sure I was happy.I have the 2 blower controls mounted beside each other on a beam right in front of the arch.I turn off the air over fire blower just before I crack open the door,and turn down the air under fire to about 1/3-1/4 depending on how the fire is going.I have a poker,give the wood a quick shake from underneath,then throw in a "layer" of wood,sometimes only 6-7 sticks,Bruce told me to fire this way,your arch isn't cooling down from the door being open,and the fire doesn't have to work it's way up through a lot of wood,just has fresh fuel on top and still lots of heat underneath. I fire every 4-5 minutes,soon as I close the door I turn on the air over fire blower,then turn up the air under fire blower and watch the pans shake!!This rig boils so hard the pans are shaking.I set my timer to know when to fire again and immediately drop defoamer in the flue pan.I didn't find it was boiling all the way back in the flue pan like I wanted,so Bruce adjusted the cones on the door so that they were set back in the ceramic blanket more to send the air further back under the flue pan,this was after the season when he was walking through the bush,so I cannot yet comment on the difference it will make.As stated earlier,talk to your dealer,if you buy a GM truck and are having troubles with it or need info,your dealer will help you more than GM will

[ToadHill]

Two more things, only fill the fire box half way up to the pans. You need to leave room for the over air to mix with the unburned flue gasses. That is where the Vortex gets it's efficiency. Also, you should install a stack thermometer and try to keep the stack temp at least 900 degrees F.

[Bruce L]

Yes Randy,forgot to mention that,Bruce said to only fill to the transition line from full brick to half brick

[stewardsdairy]

Glad I read this. Got a vortex last year but only got in a couple of boils with it. Was doing some things wrong according to your posts. Keep the hints coming. Hope to be boiling soon. Leader does need to make a manual that is more informative. But they are very helpful over the phone or in person.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

iv heard of other manufacturers not doing things with brand new units but Leader has always been there for a few guys I know around me.

[gleaner62]

Thanks for all the info

Tim

[gleaner62]

First day of boiling with the vortex overall it worked very well. I made 34 gal. Starting from raw sap got syrup in 2.5 hours I need to get a flow meter installed to get my per hour evap. Rate but it seemed to do what is advertised or at least close.I can't get my stack temp. Over 900 that is as high as I could get it ran most of the time between 800-875 it is amazing to see how fast it recovers after firing my wood may be a little big as I cut and split it for what worked best In my old arch to many people around to really play with the air over fire jets maybe today once again thanks for the info earlier it sure helped yesterday. Also how deep are you guys running your sap?

Tim

[Potters3]

I have a 30x12 Vortex, Revolution max Raised flue pan, I look into the pipes going from the syrup pan to the draw off box when I was boiling raw sap I ran the sap so the pipe where 1/2 full on the syrup side. This is my second year with the Vortex I love it, Fast up , fast down and it eats up sap. With raw sap 40 minutes from lighting the fire to first draw, about a hour from last fire to walking out the door with no coals left in arch. When I bought it I went up to Leader and talked with Brad and Bruce got a lot of how to info, and called up 1 day and talked to Brad again. He said they are working on better instructions, I liked the phone call info the best must of been a slow day he spent a hour and a half on the phone with me. Covered the arch, vac set up , tubing,

[JAMIE]

Bruce was here from Leader and we test fired my inferno,i no its not a vortex but i run the same pans.Max flue pan and a rev syrup pan.Bruce set the float in the sap box to the top of the pipe that monitors the sap in the flue pan.He then set the float in the syrup float box to half way up the pipe and the levels where set perfect for my rig.When we first fired it up i thought i was going to go through a pile of wood(dry maple) but as the evap came up to temp the wood consumtion dropped way off!.We had no problem getting are stack temp to go to 1050 deg F...to hot,we found that a good temp was between 800 to 950.I would say try to keep at around 900 deg.I was just amazed at how fast the rig recovered after firing.As far as the blower (AUF) i believe that he has me running at about 2/3 to 3/4 speed with the bottom end very slow.We are also firing every six minutes.If your vortex is anything like this inferno and i am sure its even more aggressive don't turn your back on that thing.I hope this was of some help.A BIG THANKS TO BRUCE!!:)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have a modified inferno with a custom refractory cement grate and high pressure air over fire and behind and under fire air that are both dampered separate and I try to run my stack temps about 1200 to 1400 and it does best at these temps. I can keep under air shut way down and it won't blow a spark out of the top and wood usage is way less but I lose about 40% gph. I have access to more wood than I could burn if I make syrup for 6 months a year, so I would rather cut more wood. Nice to be able to run it with under air fire shut down low when we have field trips and open houses to keep any sparks from coming out.

[Bruce L]

Biggest amount of sap to hit the Vortex in a day so far,1000 gallons through in just under 4 hours of boiling,no hood,preheater or ro.Had trouble filtering though as the syrup kept coming off so quickly.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I was up at my dealer Henry Brenneman's last week and he is running a 5x16 with a Vortex and it was very impressive. He gained about 25% more evaporation rate switching to a Vortex arch. It sure was boiling even. The entire syrup pan was boiling about exactly the same as far as I could see and he was firing every 10 minutes and running stack temps about 650 and he had very high quality wood.