Smoky Lake 2x6 on homemade propane-fired arch

[Butch]

11198Good morning fellas (and ladies!) –

So my Smoky Lake high-efficiency 2 x 6 pans arrived a few weeks ago and I had a very talented welder – friend build the new arch (Please see the awesome pics).

As I mentioned in the title to this thread I am using a 10 inch round, cast iron 320,000 BTU propane (variable regulator) burner that I bought online from Tejas Smokers. As near as my brother and I can figure we are getting about 20 GPH.

With great advice from Jim at Smoky Lake Maple, we did some tweaking with the ceramic insulation underneath the flu pan to get to this evaporation rate.

What I'm looking for are more in-depth suggestions for increasing the GPH rate.

I wonder if the burner is undersized?
Should I increase the insulation up even farther? (Jim says to within 1 inch of the flues or less)
You can see that our base stack is simply a piece of 10" x 24" galvanized ductwork – I am wondering if I need to have a "real" base stack built?

Thank you so much for any and all suggestions you may have – this is my fourth year making liquid gold but my first year on the new pans and I am looking for all the help that I can get!

Butch

[n8hutch]

What is the boil like? Does it boil hard in the flues? Is it a raised flue, my raised flue boils so hard in places sap jumps over the sides occasionally. Does the flat pan boil really hard.where is the burner located under the flat pan or flues? 320,000 BTUs sounds sufficient to me but it may be hard to contact the flues with direct flames, how deep are you running the pans? I would think 3/4" to 1" in the flue and 1" to 1-1/4" in the syrup pan? That thing would do 35-40 gph with wood I would tend to think.

[SDdave]

So you have your single burner under the flues? Do you get enough heat to the front syrup pans? I would love to see more pics of the arch with the burner...helping me decide what size of pans to get.

SDdave

[mellondome]

For a 2x6 you will need closer to 550k btu. You will also need to make sure you are not drafting too much air through the arch. How deep are you running the sap?

[Butch]

Here's an attempt to answer the common questions:

1) I am running the flue pan at roughly 1 inch over the flues, and about 1.5 inches in the front pan
2) The burner is under the front pan, somewhat off-center toward the front (centered side to side)
3) I was a little concerned that the burner might be undersized – would you please share your calculations?
4) After a little tweak yesterday at boils REALLY hard in the front pan and pretty good in the back pan.
5) This is a raised flue set of pans.

Thank you for the suggestion so far – I'm sure we will get this thing dialed in!

Butch

[nymapleguy607]

2x6 oil will burn 3-3.5 gallons of oil per hour. 1 gallon of #2 oil will produce 138,000 btu's . 138,000 x 3 = 414,000 btu's per hour. At that rate you should get roughly 35GPH of evaporation.