2x6 Evaporators

[212Maple]

I am looking to purchase my first "official" evaporator and have been doing a lot of research on various brands of evaporators. I would appreciate any advice or assistance that you can provide. I am looking for something that I can add a blower, preheater, hoods, etc too in the future as my operation grows. I would prefer not to have to physically lift and turn the syrup pan to reverse but ultimately price may be the deciding factor. Thank you in advance for any input!

[TheMapleMoose]

I can't speak much about the wood accessories because we burn oil in our 2x6. Our pans are leader patriot and the only thing we do to reverse flow is move the float from side to side and change a plug in the flue pan. Pretty simple. The revolution pan would be better for reversing flow but it will be more expensive. We also have a max flue pan, and it was worth the money.

[motowbrowne]

If you're in Minnesota, check out smokey lake maple products. Jim makes excellent stuff. He's in eastern Wisconsin. Other than that, they are all good, prices and quality varies, but none of them are cheap. Also, consider a 2x8. They are typically not much more money, but will boil considerably more sap in a day and will be a little more fuel efficient.

[n8hutch]

I would have to agree with motowbrowne, smokeylakes stuff is very nice and localish for youhowever if you don't have the ability to build your own arch or find a used one you may want to look at a lappierre waterloo small, I think for a big manufacturer they have very well built pans.

[jmayerl]

Smoky lake makes pans and arches. He is a one stop shop. If you need to go super cheap he makes a hobby combo flue/finish pan that starts out around $2000 for a 2x6. Then you will also want to get one if his auto draws right away too. I run his stuff and it works good.

[rayi]

Wish I got a 2 by 8

[nymapleguy607]

Consider all manufacturers, I would be looking at who has the most flues in the flue pan. More flues equal more surface area which generally means faster boil. A base 2x6 is capable of 25-30gph, and that is with a 4ft flue pan. As far as reversing flow, a standard reverse flow syrup pan is probably the easiest, move the float to the far side and transfer your sweet and open the valve. The revolution syrup pans are nice but as said before they are going to be pricey. All that being said you should consider what is your maximum operation size going to be. Are you already maxed out for the taps, or do you plan on expanding, do you ever plan to add vacuum, and probably the biggest thing to answer is how much time can you devote to boiling sap. This past year I ran a 2x6 on 230 taps running high vacuum, I also work a full time job so my typical nights were home at 3 pick up sap clean tanks and the evaporator, usually could be boiling by 5. My evaporator could boil 45gph and a typical run was 200 gallons, but toward the end of the season that number was between 250-300 gallons. So time to process sap was about 5 hours on the low end and 7-8 hours on later runs. It doesn't take to many nights like that to realize you need something faster so I have a Steamaway ordered for next year should put me up to 80-90gph. Long story short is look at what you want to do down the road and use that to help make your decision.

[212Maple]

Thanks everyone for the input. At this point I feel the upgrade to a 2x6 will be sufficient to handle my expansion and if I continue to grow I can add the acessories, blower, preheater, steam hood, etc to improve my gph. This is going to be a hobby until I can retire and move north or east to an acerage with established trees, etc. I have been looking at many different brands from Leader to Sunrise, CDL, Dominion & Grimm. It appears that the base units from CDL and Sunrise have the best gph. I have not (but will) check into the Smokey Lake like you guys have suggested. Thanks!!

[treehugger]

I started with a half pint then went to a 2x6, then 2x8. The 2x8 is the way to go. It gives you a lot more flexibility. I run 230 on vacuum and my typical boils would last 5-6 hours. With my 2x6 would have easily taken 10-12 hours with the sap i had to process. Now i also know someone who runs 3000 on a 2x6, but you are going to need an ro for that. Best advice is go one size bigger than what you think you need. Also make sure to get the extras with the purchase otherwise you'll spend more to add on. Trust me you will end with with the extras eventually, mind as well do it up front.

[cjmiller272]

I too am in a similar boat as i work full time. My tap count can very from year to year. If a guys only limit was space what do think the max gph output of a 2x6 operation could be with all the bells and whistles. Has anyone actually done this? From what i gather a 2x6 2ith flue pans on forced air gets about 45gph, then add the steamaway(+65%)=78gph, and preheater (+15%)=89gph then add the appropriate sized ro to 8% or x4= 356gph total capacity?

[handtapper]

Sunrise metals JDL extreme heat 2x6 with sap raider is advertised at 101gph

[cjmiller272]

Does anybody have clue what one of those sunrise extreme heats run for? I emailed them a while ago about some quotes and they wanted all this info about my operation that i couldnt give them due to my operations infancy. So i never got a quote

[chuck]

I got a quote of $8700 for a 2x6 JDL Extreme with full hood a while back. That was with some added options

[handtapper]

Chris at maple guys told me about 8k without fan y options. That was two weeks ago

[nymapleguy607]

Cody,

The when I talked to Leader about my steamaway they said I should see the full 75% increase in evaporation rate, because I am running at that 45gph rate. So thats 90gph, You don't usually run a preheater with a steamaway, the steamaway takes the place of both. If you added an RO, I would say you could easily run over 1000 taps. To me the limiting factor would be the syrup pan size. With only a 2x2 syrup pan you would need to be reversing the flow very often to keep the sugar sand from building up. That being said at Leaders open house they had a 2x10 Vortex, Max pans, and steamaway running a High concentrate RO to 22% could handle 10,000 taps. But that was maxed out.

[cjmiller272]

Ok. So how are these evaps setup? Obviously 2x6 is 2x2 syrup pan with 2x4 flue pan. But what about 2x8 & 2x10. They both must have 2x2 syrup pans right? Whats the best way to setup a 2x8?

[n8hutch]

II think it's a matter of preference, if your only going to boil raw sap a 2'x2' syrup pan is probably ideal, if you think you might run concentrate someday you may want to think about a 2-1/2 or even 3 foot syrup pan.

[cjmiller272]

So some run a 2x3 syrup & 2x5 flue pan, others may run 2x2 & 2x6 flue pan?

[wiam]

So some run a 2x3 syrup & 2x5 flue pan, others may run 2x2 & 2x6 flue pan?

Correct. I have seen them with both pans 4' long. It is preference and what you find for the right price.

[PerryFamily]

Last year leader in Rutland had a 2.5 x12?? That had a short flue pan and lots of flat pan. Said it was for high concentration for good caramelization.

[lpakiz]

And just for more information, I have a 2X10 and it has 8 feet of drop flue and a 2X2 cross-flow flat pan. It will do right around 100 GPH, no pre-heater, just cold, raw sap.
Like has been mentioned, not sure how it would work with higher concentrate.

[palmer4th]

I have a leader wse 2x8.. 2x2 syrup pan and a 2x6 drop flue... I did not get the 50GPH I was hoping for this past year. We ran the pans to deep and we need bone dry wood next year. planning on hitting 50GPH

[nymapleguy607]

I think if I was going to go with a 2x8 unit I would want the 3ft syrup pan. I helped a neighbor one night with his 3x10 I believe it was a 3x3 syrup pan, it just seemed easier to make syrup on. There was no making syrup in the center pans, it was just a constant draw of syrup off the evaporator. I can't tell you if the bigger syrup pan was because reason or because of the bigger pans feeding sweeter sap but it just didn't have the same problems that a 2x2 syrup pan has making syrup. I think the 3ft pan has push to keep the syrup making to the last channel.

[lpakiz]

I would tend to agree with that. My center section boils hardest, and I assume it makes syrup there first. Still, it does eventually level out and syrup does end up in the last channel. It is also not as consistent in draw length each time it draws (auto draw-off). Perhaps a bigger syrup pan would help?

[mike z]

I have a 6 ft. flue pan and 30" syrup pan. My draws are pretty consistent. It does seem to boil harder in the center section, I have occasionally checked the sections with hydrometer and it always checked out fine. I don't have any pre-heater or forced air and boil outside in the open and do 55 gal./hr. I'm going to add some height to the stack and make larger the opening under the back of the flue pan in hope of reaching 60 g./hr.

[nymapleguy607]

Rather than opening up the rear under the flue pan I would just add a blower if possible, that might take you to 65gph rather than 60. Too much space under the flues could also take you in the other direction.