How many taps can a mason 2x4 flat pan handle

[team40]

i am looking to expand and i was wondeing how many taps can my 2x4 flat pan handle?
and does it need a blower?

[bowtie]

it depends on how good the taps are but i can tell you from expereince that anything over 100 equals alot of boiling. if you want to tap more you really need a bigger evap or an r/o. this year i have 300 taps i am way over tapped, by like 200 or more taps. if you like me can get about 15 gph, 100 gallons means about 7 hrs of boiling, not bottled syrup but boiling, not cleaning up evap, but boiling, it sounds fun but a couple days in row and it gets old, now if you can't boil for a couple days it is almost impossible to process all the sap before it starts to go bad. trust me if you can afford to get a bigger evap. i wish someone gave me that advise two years ago. not trying to be jerk but if you can not afford to buy bigger evap what until you can to tap more than 75-100 trees. i am learning that leason the hard way. it can make a fun activity into a less than desirable job into a hurry.

[smokeyamber]

+1 I have a 2x5 setup and around 50 taps, that seems to be good for me, though the mason with a blower may be close to my setup in boil rate. If you are going over your 50 taps and plan for expansion a 2x6, with flues and blower are a must, some guys run them with RO and do a ton of taps. I now say one should count all the tappable trees and sap sources and then buy an evap for that size... I will be maxxing out my taps at around 70, and my setup likely will need upgrades, like AOF, drop-tubes to handle that amount. Also keep in mind finishing, and bottling will get to be more time as you expand. It is an addicting hobby as you know so might as well plan for expansion and make it as easy and fun as possible !

[not_for_sale]

Smokey Lake has a hybrid pan for $1200 that will double your evaporation rate, or build my flux capacitor for $ 500 and quadruple it with less boiling than you currently do.

[Fishgill]

It depends on how much time you have to boil. I've got 150 taps and I've been getting 80 gals per day. And I'm not even collecting everthing. Some buckets I only check everyother day. I may need to go to rehab when the season is over. lol

[team40]

It depends on how much time you have to boil. I've got 150 taps and I've been getting 80 gals per day. And I'm not even collecting everthing. Some buckets I only check everyother day. I may need to go to rehab when the season is over. lol

How many hours does it take you to boil? and do you have a blower?

[Fishgill]

I do 10 gals/hour if I stay on top of it. I feed it wood every 5-7 minutes.

[DrewCP]

We run a 21"x40" divided evap on a block "arch" with a 21x24 divided finish pan We do not use a blower but we do pre heat all of our sap to 100*C before it is added to the evap pan. We never lose our boil. We see rates of 13-15gph. Without pre heated sap we would be lucky to see 7gph. Thought about adding a blower but we seem to be over achieving as is. We run 50-65 taps. Typical boil is over 12 hours......

[jrgagne99]

Or you could build a steam-a-way to increase your evap rate by at least 50%. Plus the added benefit of constant supply of hot water for cleaning filters, counter-tops, etc. A double wide deep steam table pan (20"x24"?) would fit the back half of your 2x4 pretty well.

[silveradomaple]

Team40...you need to do some math......on an average day you'll get 200 gallons of sap on 100 taps. on a REALLY good day that could increase to 300 gallons. A 2x4 with flat pans and NO blower will only do about 8 or 9 GPH. 200 gallons sap divided by 9 GPH evap rate = 22.2 hours boil time. Adding a blower will gain you about 3 to 4 GPH. So...realistically...75 taps is just about max for your set-up without a blower or other enhancements. 75 taps on a REALLY good day will net around 225 gallons of sap, 150 gallons on an average day. 150 gallons divided by 9 GPH = 16.6 hours boil time.

[TerryEspo]

I want some of those trees !!

Really good day 3 gallons of sap per tap ??

I could only wish !!

Terry

[not_for_sale]

These 3 Gallons per tap/day trees must genetically enhanced, or maybe some sap doping?

[TerryEspo]

I say go for it, if a blower is an easy install for you, you can keep up if you have the time. Boil any sap even if you cant finnish it, keep the sweet boiled down stuff cold in buckets, on a day you can finnish, grab the sweet, add any new sap and have a ball.

A lot depends on how much time you have to dedicate to sugaring. A blower is a great easy addition to help when you have a job to do.

My blower gets the arch just rev, ing !! I shut the blower off so I have more time to enjoy the boil, but I am not overwlmed with sap either. Soon, soon I hope !!

Terry

[bowtie]

i have never heard of a group of trees giving that sap consistently, must be some trees.i would like to have half that. most maple guides ie north american guide to mapling, state a big run even on vac is 2 gallons a day, for most buckets 1 1/2 tops. not that some trees will not put out more than that occasionly but not regularly. you could make a gallon per tree, dr. perkins stated last year i believe that a realistic goal for buckets 1/4 gallon syrup per tree, any higher is very good. last night boiled to 2:30 am went through 100-110 gallons,conservatively, down to about 4, started at 7:30 and didn't watch it until 8:30, i was transfering sap and talking to my neighbor.my math puts my around 15 gph.. doubt i could get any higher than 17-18 gph even if i put down the computer and fired when i should but i certainly can get better than 12 gph. the general rule is plan on your biggest run x 2 and then figure out time you have to boil and go from there. second night of going to 2-3 am. not terrible but i would be in big trouble if it were still running.
,

[silveradomaple]

While it is a rare event...I personally have seen a 12 quart bucket be running over in a 24 hour period. I'm just saying on a really good day with perfect conditions, that 100 taps could concievably produce 300 gallons of sap in a 24 hour period.

[Ren]

I have many sugar maples and even a few silvers that regularly put out 2 gal plus of sap on a good run. If they were all like that I would be set. The funny thing is that one tree could give me 2 gal and the tree next to it 2 L, just doesn't make sense.

[maplehillbros7179]

i depends on how long your willing to boil but i would say 150 would be good and you dont need a blower but it would help.

[RyanB]

I just finished my first boil of the season up here in Ontario with my home built 2x4 (flat bottom 24x16 syrup pan and 32x24" tripple divided pan)and the typical half pine pre-heater resivour. Last year I boild 50 taps and took for ever with an average of 6.5 gph with just a little blower shooting air into the ash pan. This year I did a whole revamp of the arch and added some real air to it. I cut a 2" hole thru the back of the ash clean out for AOF, I then rigged up an easy way of adding AOF and have it all valved and running of my 1200cfm blower from my large dust collector from my shop. Today we boiled down 165 gallons in just over 10 hours for an average of 16gpm and we used less than half of what we did in the past for the same amount of volume. Over all I am amazed at the efficiency and wish I had time to have built a better hood/pre heater to really push some numbers! Adding air is deffinatly a big bonus and cost me $150 worth of steel for the new door and channel for the AOF.

Ryan

[JuniperHillSugar]

We are in our fourth year with our 2x4 Mason. We average 150 taps per year, mixed red and sugar maple. Two out of the three past years were a flop, so planning for for the best case ever is probably not needed. If you are able to boil during the day, that 2x4 will be ok. I'd probably plan on wanting to expand, it is sort of the natural progression in the maple bug.

[michiganphil]

From my experience, 2 gph for every sq.ft of pan is the absolute best you can get. (16 gph on a 2x4 flat pan) I get about 1.5 gph per sq.ft of pan with natural draft.
My trees (on buckets) produce just under 1 gal per tap on an average day, 2 on a real good run, and 3 gal/tap once or twice a season.

Personally, I would plan on an average of 12 gph out of your evaporator, and average daily 1.5 gal/tap from your trees. I think that 100-150 taps would make for some long days/nights boiling.