What are your experiences with a Steam Away?

[Luv2farm]

As our operation expands we are looking at the order of steps to take to increase our syrup making capacity. An RO, Steam Away and Max pans are on the horizon but wanted to see what experience anyone has had w/ the Steam Away.....good or bad and how has it increased your boiling rate? Thanks for any info.

[Rhino]

If you are cooking in a remote area where you will need hot water for washing equipment, they are a nice add on. For the extra money since they are pricey, you might want to just put that money into a bigger r.o and double pass your sap through to speed up your cook time?? We have one and in our situation, we are in the boonies and need the hot water, otherwise i don't think i would get another. just my opinion.

[Sugarmaker]

We like the steam away. It was our first step to increasing the boiling capacity of our older rig. Most of the time it makes 2% sap into 3%+ sap without much fan fare.
Regards,
Chris

[Jim Brown]

Love mine -takes 8% sap and turns it into 10.5% sap feeding the evaporator.

Jim

[TunbridgeDave]

My family invented the original back in '87. It was the piggy-back pan manufactured by Small Bros. Leader improved on the design with the Steam-Away but they work the same. My personal feeling is that you'd be better served by an R/O. The one we have is on a 6' x 18' rig and it is very noisy because of the huge blower. If you get one I would try to place that outside somewhere. It saved a lot of wood over the years though.

[Luv2farm]

Thanks for the info everyone. I believe the RO will be first w/ upgraded Max pans then the steam away...trying to get everything done w/ a 3x10 Leader inferno arch/Revolution pans. Have the ability to get to 8-10K taps but not sure a 3x10 will handle it even w/ all of the other bells and whistles. The guys at Leader said 6-7K would be the max even w/ the RO, SA and max pans.
All the best this season.

[BAP]

I would go for a bigger RO or 2 ROs. We had one of the Small Bros "piggy-back's" and it was a nightmare to clean. You have to take the hood off, clean the top pan, then take the top pan off to clean the bottom pan. Back when we put in '89, it was the latest technology and RO's were in there infancy. It gained a lot in boiling, but like TunbridgeDAve said, the blower is very noisy and with that one you could not see into the bottom pan to see what was going on. We had an RO that was over 15' long with 6 or 8 horizontal membranes that did I believe 250 gallon/hour. Eventually in the early 2000's were upgraded to a 900 gal/hr RO and then added a 1600 beside it and retired the piggyback and fed a 3x10 oil fired waterloo/small.

[hounder]

I can't imagine running without the steam away now. Hot water, really hot water that is endless is an awesome asset to our sugarhouse. Cleaning is so easy with that hot of water especially the press. We put our blower outside and put lots of foamboard around it and it is not too loud that way. We don't have an RO and we have increased our boil rate by 2/3 with the steamaway.

[sapmaple]

We put our first steam-Away on a 4x12 wood fired arch and went from 160 gph to 300 gph and as everyone has noted Hot water way more then you can use, Yes put the blower outside but as close to pan as you can using as little pipe and few elbows as possible I would say go with the steam-Away first then as you build up your tap count add the RO in later. Steam-Away if run right will take any percentage of sap and increase it by half before it hits the flue pan i.e. 2% to 3%
or 8% to 12% etc. If down the road you want to boil high percent concentrate then you still have some good boil time on your syrup for flavor and not increased your time to do it !!

[Greenwich Maple Man]

[QUOTE=Luv2farm;240356]Thanks for the info everyone. I believe the RO will be first w/ upgraded Max pans then the steam away...trying to get everything done w/ a 3x10 Leader inferno arch/Revolution pans. Have the ability to get to 8-10K taps but not sure a 3x10 will handle it even w/ all of the other bells and whistles. The guys at Leader said 6-7K would be the max even w/ the RO, SA and max pans.
All the best this season.[/QUOT



A 3by10 with a proper size RO should handle that many taps without a problem ! RO is the key in that type of situation !

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I would disagree with Leader. If you run sap to 12%, you would be able to make 30 to 35 gallon of syrup per hour and process 1500 gallons of sap boiling with a good arch, Steam away and max flue pan should be pushing 250 gallons per hour. I have a Steamaway and I love it and wouldn't want to boil without it. It is easy to clean and definitely worth the money. I have a Window and light to see the flue pan. It gives me another 30 to 40 gallon per hour on a 2x8. Basically no maintenance other than cleaning 3 or 4 times per year. RO will give you biggest increase no doubt but Steamaway and max flue pan have their benefits too. All 3 cut fuel usage drastically and boil time too.