PolyFelt Filters

[Aaron Roy]

I was looking to upgrade filtering process. I have a very small operation and I wanted to move to the next level past cheese cloth.
I have seen wool felt filters in the online stores. I have also seen polyfelt filters. I found polyfelt at the fabric store and I was thinking of doing some testing when I get my next batch of sweetness in the pans. If it works, I have a quilter in the family and we could come up with some designs. Have any of you worked with polyfelt before? How did it go?

[Ryan August]

I am one of the cheapest fella out there and I even think your working to hard to save a few$, 27 taps, 5 qt cone filter, 17$ I think, will serve you well. If you go ahead with your plans, I'd say, get your tray or filter cone made or think of how you will suspend the filter and then fit it from there.. Originally I was the filter rack and just held the filter till syrup ran thru

[gmcooper]

Buy the cone filter made for filtering maple syrup. They are food grade and safe to use. If you take care of them you can easily get several years out of one. Fabric store materials are not likely food grade at all, you never know how the material made, treated, dyed, cleaned or made from recycled products.

[happy thoughts]

You're unlikely to find food grade filtering material at the fabric store. Most dress good fabrics have added surface finishes and sizing. Who knows what they're made from and may be near impossible to remove with washing. A few years ago someone here posted instructions for making polyfelt filters. Thinking I'd try it I went to the store and read bolt ends. All were made from recycled material. It's highly unlikely the source was all food grade but may have included recycled oil and chemical bottles. Not going near my syrup!

That said, I've seen food grade filtering material in flat sheets in several sizes carried by many maple equipment suppliers. You might want to look into that though the pre-made filters may be cheaper in the long run with construction time and material waste considered.

[abbott]

If you want to go cheap, just get the paper prefilter. It will do a pretty good job and you'll lose a lot less syrup in it. They wash out easily, too. The syrup will be a lot clearer than cheesecloth.

[liljohn]

There is a resent picture on this forum of another who tried this with material from a fabric store. His syrup was blue in the end. Not sure I would experiment with it just easier to purchase the food grade.

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