Bill Mason's XL Hobby Evaporator

[bowhunter]

Has anyone on the forum tried Bill's XL version hobby evaporator. It looks interesting.

NEW IN 2012
HOBBY EVAPORATOR XL
More sections, smaller sections, means the syrup moves farther and is made faster. The preheater box is mounted on the stack collar utilizing the stack heat for actual preheating.
3' Model - $1,100
4' Model - $1,400 (shown)

[silveradomaple]

712371247125I haven't gotten mine yet. Bill is building one for me. He tells me that I should get better than 20GPH boil rate from it. Getting the 2x4 size with raised flue pan (24" x 30") and a 24" x 18" syrup pan.

[bowhunter]

Doesn't sound like you'll have it until next season. I would be interested to hear how it does once you fire it up.

[jstaples]

I just recently bought the Bill Mason 2x4 XL...I'm glad I went "big". The only problem I'm having is that I didn't buy the blower so I have to keep the sap level way down low to get a good boil. I will be getting some type of forced air...hopefully soon.

[gwcutter10]

that whole setup was $1400???

[mapleack]

No that's not the 1,400 model. The 1,400 is just a flat pan. http://www.wfmasonwelding.com/evaporators.html Still, looks great for a 2x4, I'd like to hear the price for it as well.

[Starting Small]

I may be wrong but I think we are talking about 2 different evaporators. The XL hobby 2X4 is a flat pan. Bill also makes a flue pan for a 2X4 but he does not advertise this as the hobby. The 20+gph is for the flues not the flat pan. At least that is the way I understand it. Thanks,
-Dave

[silveradomaple]

You are correct STARTINGSMALL. Bill makes the XL arch the same for either set of pans. Just the pans are different. The flat pan model is around $1400.00, the one shown in my pics, is around $2500.00. It all depends on your options that you want added to it. ( blower, floatboxes, splash guards, etc...) Bill's prices are WAY better than the commercial ones out there, and better quality units too.

[steve J]

I am confused too! I do have Bill's 2x4 with a blower standard flat pan and when I bought mine two years ago I had him modify it so preheat sat over the elbow. At the time he did not have that new pan. Are you saying that pan will produce over 20 gal per hour evaporation without a blower? If so I am going to upgrade my pan. I currently get about 15gal per hour with blower at half throttle if I run it wide open in short burst I can get 17 but if I leave it running wide open the stack starts to melt down.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I am confused too! I do have Bill's 2x4 with a blower standard flat pan and when I bought mine two years ago I had him modify it so preheat sat over the elbow. At the time he did not have that new pan. Are you saying that pan will produce over 20 gal per hour evaporation without a blower? If so I am going to upgrade my pan. I currently get about 15gal per hour with blower at half throttle if I run it wide open in short burst I can get 17 but if I leave it running wide open the stack starts to melt down.

Interesting - I have the 2x4 3-section flat pan with the upgraded arch but normal preheater. Figured my next move would be 2x4 flue pan / blower, which with RO, would take me easily to 300+ taps. Bill only claimed my rig would do 10 GPH; 12 GPH with blower. I think he's quite conservative on this - I can am easily getting 10GPH with no blower or preheating, and I'm not firing it anywhere near what I could. I'm using a lot of ash that was split for larger home stove use in late fall - when I use dry poplar, construction scraps, etc. it can clearly go much higher. Your post suggests that he indeed rates them pretty conservatively! I also run the pans on the lower side which probably helps.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the main arch. The preheater seems to not do much for me though. I had actually wanted to get the preheater over the rear exit collar as on the XL - I really liked that idea for more heat transfer, but he had forgotten that modification request when we picked it up. It seems that one option is just run it over back of pan but then I would think condensation would run back into the pan? The larger arch also has some additional length so that the front of the preheater can suspend on the back of the 2x4 pan and the back can rest against the large triangular vertical stack, which is what I thought Bill was suggesting I do. I thought this would be awesome, but letting it touch was too hot, while using 1/4" ceramic blanket blocks too much of the heat. I'm thinking some sort of finned/accordion metal between the preheater and stack may be a good way to get more heat in the preheater without scorching the pan - if I don't put the preheater over the main pan. But should I really just be putting this over the main pan to get steam heat and not worry about condensation running back into the pan? Wondering how others are placing theirs.

[steve J]

Before I had Bills 2x4 I had his 2x3 and the preheater on that sat over the rear of the pan. That caused condensation which drip back into the pan which than reduces your boil rate. Thats why when I bought the 2x4 I requested he build a frame off the back so that preheaater was over elbow this requires me to run a small length of stove pipe off back of evaporator before the elbow in order to get clearance. It works ok probably does not warm sap quite as much but there is no condensation running into pan. Last year was lost season due to weather but the year before which was my first with this new rig I could not keep up with 200 taps at the peak run so unless these new pan turns some fancy numbers I say there little chance of you handling 300 with a blower. I am hoping that the new pan might solve my peak run problem on 200 taps. I burn mixture of wrist size and smaller hemlock and same size hardwood this produces a ton of heat.

[Snowy Pass Maple]

Before I had Bills 2x4 I had his 2x3 and the preheater on that sat over the rear of the pan. That caused condensation which drip back into the pan which than reduces your boil rate. Thats why when I bought the 2x4 I requested he build a frame off the back so that preheaater was over elbow this requires me to run a small length of stove pipe off back of evaporator before the elbow in order to get clearance. It works ok probably does not warm sap quite as much but there is no condensation running into pan. Last year was lost season due to weather but the year before which was my first with this new rig I could not keep up with 200 taps at the peak run so unless these new pan turns some fancy numbers I say there little chance of you handling 300 with a blower. I am hoping that the new pan might solve my peak run problem on 200 taps. I burn mixture of wrist size and smaller hemlock and same size hardwood this produces a ton of heat.

I say that only because I'm using RO - currently keeping up easily with 127 taps and 2x4 flat, so was thinking 300 would be do-able with his flue pan, blower, and heavy RO use.

How warm do you find your preheater gets if in steady state with evaporator? Mine still seems very cold... to the point that I'm really only able to use the preheater as a reservoir, but doubt it's much over 60-70F when I'm feeding off it. Also wondering if anyone ever sets up some sort of condensate drain system on their preheater maybe tilting it with channels at side, etc? I have to still read up more on ways to tune all this but anything more elaborate will be for next season...

[steve J]

I would say mine gets to about 60 or 70 degrees its not a great preheater set up period.