Half Pint Questions

[Troutman10]

Hey you Half Pint guys, I'm wondering a few things about your rigs. What's your tap count, evap. rate, yearly production etc? I've got 20 taps and a homemade Fuel Oil Tank. Wondering if there would be much of a difference going from that to a Half Pint just to have an actual evaporator. I'm sick of the nasty sugar burn and effort of cleaning steam pans between boils. Maybe I could just put a nice flat pan on my current setup. There's options. Any help is appreciated.

[DonMcJr]

I have 41 taps. Last night I boiled 50 gallons in 8 hours then I flooded the pan and probally have about 5 gallons left in the pan. So I guess that mean I boiled 45 gallons in 8 hours? If so that's about 5.6 Gallons per hour.

The fact that the half Pint has a preheater that drips in and the pan has the flow and drawoff would make it nicer than a batch.

Maybe buy the pan and pre-heater pan and adapt it to your oil drum? Would be cheaper and if doesn't work out then you can just buy the Arch that goes with it.

Also consider if you are going to increase taps above 100 taps. If so then I would go bigger than a Half- Pint...

[wnybassman]

Hey Wes, is your tank rig upright or is it laying on its side?

[Snowy Pass Maple]

I concluded that the WF Mason 2x4 (direct from Bill) was only $100 more than half pint (2xnot quite 3) and went that route based on many reviews from this site. Didn't go 2x6 because I have a RO. Really enjoying the evaporator so far - getting 10 GPH and can see a lot of low cost improvements like blower, preheater, better seasoned wood, that could push it a good bit higher. I figured it would also be a lot easier to find upgraded pans for 2x4, including flue pan options, etc.

It's SO much nicer than the sessions I did on hotel pans on various firepit setups. Of course Bill then talked me into the upgraded arch - which is really solid, large, and I figured better should I upgrade pans later... along with a gas finisher that he just happened to have on display in the shop when we picked up our evaporator... it's a disease...

[DonMcJr]

Ok I wish I had seen the WF Mason Line when I was looking for an evaporator...

I am wondering on all his units I see a small pan at the drawoff outside of the main pan. What is that? Is it auto draw-off with a float or something? Maybe when I finally build my Sugar/Honey Shack I'll be upgrading to a little bit bigger Evaporator and taking a road trip!

I will have to add there's gotta be a few more bricks on the WF Mason Hobby Evaps as the Arches all look bigger than the Half-Pint Arch and that adds some to the final cost...

[sapbrush]

hi ALL, to the first question askedi run around 35 taps and for some days thats all that halfp pint can handel i have had mine for almost 15 years, never had to replace anything, i put a small blower in front of the ash door, i burn pallets split up small, keep feeding it you dont want to lose the boil and im getting almost 9 gallons an hour out it, they there a cool lil unit

[bowtie]

i know i talk alot about the mason evap i have, but for the money and the quality, they just cannot be beat. mine was like $1400 with blower and i realistically never get less than 13 gph and mostly 15-17gp, super dry wood. i think that is about all you can expect from a flat 2x4. i would have got his hobby xl if it was available when i bought mine. i will probably be selling mine after this to upgrade, thought about keeping it for my oldest boy but not sure.
don i think you can tweak your half-pint to get closer to 8-9 gph, try running pre-heater pan shallow, not more than 2", same principle as sap pan. do you have a copper coil around your stack? if not try one and insulate it with a larger diameter piece of pipe and archboard at the ends. i think the best way to increase your gph is to pre-heat the sap as much as possible. once it is in the pan simple laws of thermadynamics take over, less surface area, less heat transfer not much can be done about that.

[Troutman10]

Thanks for the help guys. Just getting different perspectives for the future. Noel, my tank is on the side so it's horizontal instead of standing vertical like you would normally see them.