New Airtight Wood Arches /Evaporaters

[Ranger93]

I am looking at purchasing a new rig after the end of the season. Planning for 6000 taps and we are going to employ an RO in our new set up. Leeder Evaporator and Lapierre are both giving me sizes and quotes. I was wondering if anyone has any experience to share either way. Currently boiling on a 6x16 and have for several years. Would like to cut down on wood consumption and time spent on the wood pile. I realize that the RO will assist in shrinking down the size of evaporator necessary as well. All this going int o a new sugar house, 40' x 60'.

[bowtie]

you are a much larger producer than I am but from what I have seen d+g's new air tight wood evaporators are supposed to be one of the most efficient ones on the market. they have forced draft systems and the arch is double walled and insulated. even though I would not use one, because I like using wood, an oil fired evaporator makes life a lot easier and depending how much you spend on either buying wood or gathering can save you money also. just what I have read and seen in my limited experience. if you run your concentrate at at a modest 8% and have 1 gallon per tap run, you would have 1500 gallons of concentrate to boil, I am guessing you do want to spend 8-10 hours a day boiling, at 6 hours you would be in the 250-300 gph range, an efficent 4x14 with pre-heater or would satisfy your needs, with a piggyback or steam-a-way you can go even smaller. leader's 3x12 max flue with steam-a-way is rated at about 270gph.

[tuckermtn]

Go with bigger Ro than you think you need. Best upgrade out there, in my humble opinion.

Also might suggest looking in to a CDL pellet evaporator if you want to spend less time on your woodpile. drawback is you are relying on somebody else to produce your fuel.

[Bruce L]

I would suggest taking your time and going to see the evaporators you are contemplating working at real sugarhouses.Anyone on here is going to tell you their evaporator is the best(myself included ), unless they are totally disappointed with their rig. I was looking to upgrade to a newer high efficiency evaporator back in 2010, took 2 years to decide. Eliminated one since company couldn't back up claims, and quit emailing or calling me when I said I would like to see one in action, next company was getting a lot of bad raps on here and producers that I talked to about quality and performance. Came down to two, went to see one boiling that I was sure I was going to purchase, walked away totally disappointed in the performance, company said it wasn't set up right, so I went to the open houses and was still disappointed in the boil.By my signature you can see what company and model I went with, would do the same thing again tomorrow if I had to.
Don't go by just what producers say on here, I made that mistake on another forum when researching for a new outdoor furnace, went with one that was really hyped up as being most efficient,least amount of wood,etc.etc.etc.Gonna lose thousands getting rid of it before another winter as it can't handle the load it was supposed to easily.

[Ranger93]

I have looked at several in operation and I am down to the Vortex or Lapierres version. Like what I have seen of both just really trying to do as much research as possible and get user feed back. I appreciate the assistance.

[GeneralStark]

In addition to the performance and overall design of the rig, I would suggest considering the service support you will receive. I looked at all the options and went with the company that kept calling me back. I really like the LaPierre Force 5 but they wouldn't call me back.

[Bruce L]

It all "boils" down to, pardon the pun, do you want to conserve wood or boil fast to get back out in the bush? Here is a short video my son did two years ago of our evaporator running, no preheater, no hood, raw cold sap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93mg7ubYPs0