Hobby Evaporator Considerations

[sugarin' in the hood]

Dad got sick of driving almost every day spending 8-9 hours to boil off sap on our homemade evaporator with an 18" x22" pan and has offered to help finance (buy) a hobby evap. He was at my uncles shack that has a Leader 2x4 WSE and took a liking to his operation. We are currently around 65 taps and may get up to 100 taps. He brought the catalogs from Leader and CDL and wants to go to the open houses next weekend, he heard Leader discounts the equipment so they do not sit on it for a year. I would love to hear what people like and dislike about the Leader 2x4 WSE and the CDL 18x 48 with a flue pans, possibly the CDL 18x60 or other manufacturers of similar models. Thanks in advance for any comments. Hoping for another run the next couple of days.

[KevinS]

you really need to decide how many taps you are REALLY going to add over the next several years.
and base your buying on the how many taps it will handle, otherwise if you go too big you will be sitting on sap too long trying to get enough to boil. ( not enough taps for the evaporator)
You know what happens when you have more taps than the set up you have will boil...
just my opine...
I have an older leader 2x4 drop flue. 100~120 buckets were not too bad for 2 or 3 of us. Now that it is just me, it is brutal hours on a big run.

[silveradomaple]

All I can say is take the time to do the math and the research before you buy. I was in the same situation a couple years ago. I eventually went with a W.F.Mason 2x4. For the $$$ and the quality of fabriction, I felt it was a better deal. I am VERY pleased with my unit. At 25 + GPH, it will easily handle 100 taps for you. 96609661

[Loch Muller]

Yeah, I'd call WF Mason and see what he can do for you. There are a couple other small manufacturers that are spoken of well on this site, but I've never seen their equipment in person. Personally I could do 100 taps on the 2x4 flat pan I have from him (I did 205 this year), but it would take some time so I see the value of the flue pan. For the price of the 2x4 flue pan setups like the Leader WSE it seems like you may as well buck up the extra $300-400 for a 2x6. That should have you covered for a bit. Add an RO to one of those evaps and you could really process quite a bit of sap.

[Biz]

I have used a Leader half pint (24x30") for years, up to 30 taps. Just upgraded to a CDL 18x48" drop flue and 80 taps. It boils so much faster! Good value for the money. I can boil 10-12 gal/ hr compared to 5 on a good day with the half pint. On the negatives, it needs wood every 10-12 minutes, and won't take down syrup far enough, you need to finish off elsewhere. And no floats. But anything with a flue pan will be a tremendous improvement.

[wnybassman]

and won't take down syrup far enough

Why is that? Seems odd.

[tendermason]

I have a 2x4 mason reverse flow for sale. New this season.Going bigger.

[LawnSite]

Can't speak highly enough about my Mason 2 x 4 reverse flow. I run 150 taps.