Maxing the GPH

[whitetail farms]

I have a old waterloo drop flue evapoartor that is 18inches by 5 1/2 feet,what are the best way to raise the gph other than RO,do they make steamaway for this size flew pan,im also going to try and make the front air tight and put forced draft on it but how many taps do you think this rig can handle with good firewood a steam away(if they make one to fit) a hood and keeping the sap at the right level, im going to be getting more taps next season maybe 600 but i dont want to get another evaporator cause i just wont have the money after all the other upgrades and my sugarhouse is already pretty crowded,thanks nick

[SPILEDRIVER]

i dont think your gonna find a steam away for 18" pan,not from leader or the big boys anyway.....i believe sunrise metal shop in indiana will custom build there version(the sapraider)to fit any pan.air tight arch...pre heater and forced air are the other ways you can boost your gph

[whitetail farms]

okay I have a small fan to mount onto the firebox for roced air,but can I make my arch air tight around the door or do I have to buy a new kit to do that ill wait on a steamaway cause I might be getting a bigger rig in a couple of years

[BreezyHill]

I have a grimm air tight front arch on a 2x6, forced air is a huge leap forward on maxing the GPH. Rheostat controls fan..had to pigback a second fan to get more CFMs. I will be adding Air Over Fire(AOF) from a used dust collector. My dad was an industrial arts teacher. He made his own seem hood and piped the steam to a wood coffin that had 1.5" copper tube down and back to preheat the sap and then it goes outside. I put in some pvc to connect the tank to the preheater and it is bending due to the temp of the sap in the preheater moving back thru the sap. This was my first year back in the sap house since he died. We have a feedmill and farm that takes alot of my time..but.. my three sons 18,16,14 pretty much demanded and I caved to tapping again. we only did 240 on high vac and made 80 gallons and dumped 500 of sap on those 65 degree days. I too am looking to max my GPH as we have 1000 on the farm and another 1000+ on neighbors that had been tapped in the past. I have some stainless flashing that you can have if you would like to make your own hood. You can look at my and steal the idea. The sap comes in around 195 consistently. The pan closed is always rolling to the top edge when the hood is closed. I will be building a stack preheater this summer/fall to preheat the cumbustion air for the AOF and Below Grate Air(BGA). If I have time I have another fan that will be hooked to the steam stack to try and pull a vacuum on the stam hood(s). The front pan will have a plexi glass hood that opens if needed, to allow visitors to see in while maintaining the suction on the front pan. I do have an RO that will be running for next season as we will be laying more mainline this summer to pull in more taps. We are also changing over our old surge stainless steel releaer sytem to a delaval glass system and stainless pump and connecting this to delaval glas milk pipeline to the RO tank. Its all about the tour and teaching kids to respect and revear farmers again. There was a great thread where a sapper talked about: so breezes in the sap house, deepth of pans, consistent draw off stream, clean flues and pan bottom, all affecting the GPH to that clean pans on inside, and hooded pans are also important to keep the heat in.

We played around with GHP records alot to see who boiled the fastest...the youngest won! He fired with small split wood every 4-5 minutes and ;beat the bestGPH by 15%. After that week I started looking as to how to do even better and will be doing the AOF and air heater to get more, dropping pan levels down and tring to do a constant draw off. I have read of guys getting 50 GPH on a 2x6 like min as a raised flue. I may need to go to the Max Flue to keep up and not stay up to the wee hours.

[tmessier79]

Hey there. I just sold my 2x5.5 waterloo drop flu at the end of this year. Boiled on it for 8 years and it worked great, but it only evaporated about 15 gallons per hour. When I finally put a blower on it I was able to get it up to 30 gallons per hour, but I had to watch it carefully, because the entire arch front would glow cherry red. It scared me, so I would shut the blower off for about a half hour every couple of hours or so. Other than that, it was a huge gain for me for very little cost. I just cut a hole in the back of the ash pit, and put an old squirrel cage blower up to it.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

600 on that rig, you will be busy. Insulate, insulate, insulate. If you do an airtight front, blower and insulate all those will make a huge difference.

[maple flats]

I fail to understand why you don't want an RO, as my wife calls it, "the best purchase I ever made". Mine is a Ray Gingerich RO, about 1/3 the cost of the big guys, 2% to 8% in one pass. For the steamaway, an RO from Ray will likely cost less than the steamaway.
But if you want to increase your boil, that is not bad either. Forced draft increases boil but by far the best is to build a high pressure air over fire (AOF) system. It will increase both your boil rate and your fuel efficiency, while forced draft raises boil rate but at considerable fuel cost. The AOF burns the wood gases completely rather than send enough up the stack to give a ball of fire at the top of the stack, where it is wasted fuel. My AOF works very well and I do not have an air tight front. As long as the stack is proper (size and height) you can leave the blower on when you add wood too.
The numbers, a steamaway if you can get one that size will give at best 75% more boil. An RO will give you 400% more in one pass, and I further RO to 10-12% routinely.

[mvh1969]

Nick,
I have the the Waterloo Small 19x66, probably the same as yours. Mine is well insulated, has an air under fire blower & a Smokey Lake Hood & Pre Heater. I can boil about 24 GPH if I push it. Next year I am going from 300 taps to 600. I am ordering one of Rays 125 RO's on Monday, so I can comfortably handle 600 taps.

[BreezyHill]

Do you mean insulate the pans or just the arch? I am designing a stack preheater for the forced air. I am also redesigning the preheater to suck away the steam from the preheater to make a slight vacuum on the hood. This will reduce the boiling temp slightly...the finish pan will be a plexi glass on aluminum frame for visibility.

We need to keep this thread going to get fellow tappers more efficient. I know a guy that as a 4x16 and only boils around 70 gph. Burns a lot of wood doing it.

Ben

[maple flats]

Nick,
I have the the Waterloo Small 19x66, probably the same as yours. Mine is well insulated, has an air under fire blower & a Smokey Lake Hood & Pre Heater. I can boil about 24 GPH if I push it. Next year I am going from 300 taps to 600. I am ordering one of Rays 125 RO's on Monday, so I can comfortably handle 600 taps.
With one of Ray's R.O.'s you believe it or not, could run 1200 taps for the same boil time you had at 300. If you recirculate you could even get more.