Another budget barrel build

[wobbletop]

Since everything is frozen outside, I thought I'd put up my first post...

History:
Southern Ontario (north of Milton)
8 taps for the past couple years
Two years ago used turkey fryer and got good coloured sap. It had a bit of sugar "dust" (I forget what its called).
Last year used turkey fryer plus small RO system and larger storage barrel (120 gallons of sap, 2 gallons of syrup)
Syrup was darker and had a burnt flavour. I think the cause was scorching on the sides of the fryer, but didn't really do anything different.
Could also have been stored in barrel too long (since it held more). I don't think it had anything to do with the RO.
I use the fryer to get close to temp (213ish) then bring it inside and finish on the stove. I use felt filter before bottling.

This year decided to budget build a barrel evaporator. Mainly to reduce the amount of propane used (and also cause I mainly do this for fun).
Also, I won't use the RO system as I only use it once a year so I replace the membrane and they are expensive ($80).

Tried a test boil and didn't get a rolling boil. Could be due to some wetness in the wood (although it had been stored since last fall) or I might have to add some forced air somehow. Also, my pans may be sitting too high? I could sink them a bit more into the barrel.

Note I don't have access to a welder, so things can only be cut/bolted together. (I really should get one and learn).

Any other suggestions on how to get a better boil would be appreciated. Thanks.

112631126411265

[Evets]

Maybe remove the bricks from under the grate to allow more air under the fire. Keep your sap level pretty low in the pans.

[brass maple]

Wobble top

If you are close to electricity try a hair dryer directed at the bung hole below the door. I think you will see a remarkable difference. And by the way if you use your wife's hair dryer and she finds out you will probably see a big difference there too. It's called the dog house

Matt

[Sky Ranch Farms]

11302
Here's my homemade rig!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[beaglebriar]

You need to block some of the flow to your stack. Not sure if you have room to build a firewall but you should try stacking brick between the rear pan and the stack. Or just under the back of the rear pan. Stay about 2 inches below the pan with the brick. This will force the flames up to the pan instead of letting them go directly up the stack. Also get the grates raised up about 4 inches and cut a door below so you get air into your fire. Or add a blower but you won't need it. Natural draft is underrated.

[saphound]

Was it a good hot fire and did you watch what it was doing? Was it burning good but getting sucked quickly out the back? I agree you need a little more room under the grate. If all the heat is getting sucked out of the stove too quick, do what beaglebriar said and block it some, or maybe even a damper on the stack would slow it down..would be adjustable too. If the problem was just a weak fire, then it needs more air under it and/or could possibly could be your wood.

[wobbletop]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

For some of your questions...
I was thinking of keeping the sap fairly high in the pans to reduce scorching. Bad idea? Takes longer to boil I guess.
I have a stack of bricks at about the middle of the barrel. A little hard to see in the pictures. I thought this would force the air under the back pan. Do I need to fill the entire back of the barrel to just below the rear pan?
Adding a damper to the stack is a good idea. I'll see what I can find at home depot to add.
The hair dryer is an even better idea. I was thinking of one of those air duct boosting fans, but the hair dryer would be great with a short metal extension and feeding directly under the fire.
I had planned to remove the centre row of bricks from beneath the grate.

The wood is not the best it seems. Maybe it was just a few bad pieces for my test "boil" but there was water oozing out of the ends of the wood. It has been sitting in my wood shed since last summer. Maybe I need more circulation in my wood shed?
Also, it seems there really isn't a large area for a fire once you add the bricks, then a grate and the pan on top. Seems like it wouldn't hold a lot of wood for a fire.

But thanks so much for all the help! I'll let you know what happens once my storage bucket has thawed.

[Tom59]

wobbletop, as stated below, try raising the grate, and definetely block up the back of the stove. Pics of one i built couple years ago.You can see the brick wall and sheet metal piece i used. (after trial runs I built up bricks even higher). And definetely need dry wood. Good luck and have fun.
113321133311331

[beaglebriar]

I'd move your stack of.brick back and go higher. You don't want to restrict flow just make the flames move up before they exit.

[Sam Caruth]

I was running one the same way as you all season. I them found a iron pipe, capped off 1 end of a 2' section. Then cut slits in it with a angle grinder. Then put it in the bottom bung hole under the grate, with the slits face up. I have a old air mattress fan for air. WOW! The thing was up to a FULL boil in less than 10 minutes! I went from around 4GPH to 7+GPH. Its worth looking into.

[MustardSeedMum]

Wobble top

If you are close to electricity try a hair dryer directed at the bung hole below the door. I think you will see a remarkable difference. And by the way if you use your wife's hair dryer and she finds out you will probably see a big difference there too. It's called the dog house

Matt

In my case, it was me using my husband's hair dryer. That didn't go down well.

[brass maple]

Mustardseed mum
Im sorry but that right there is funny

[MustardSeedMum]

Matt,
I'm glad someone found it funny. :lol:

He doesn't understand that when we're making syrup, we use anything that will assist in the process. Anything.

[wobbletop]

An update...

I've used the unit 3 times now boiling sap. I raised the back bricks another level of bricks. I also added a hair dryer to the bottom of the barrel. I rearranged the bricks a little to give an air channel at the bottom where the hair dryer feeds. I used a piece of flat ductwork, rolled into a tube, wrapped around the hair dryer, then stuck in the bottom opening of the barrel. I also made sure to split the wood into wrist size or smaller pieces. Also used tin foil to seal the air gaps between the pans and the barrel.

4 hours Tuesday
4 hours Thursday
6 hours Friday
Made 4L of syrup tonight by finishing on the stove in the house. Estimated 150L of sap which gives about 38:1 ratio (so maybe there was more sap)

150L/14hr = 10.7L/hr = 2.8gal/hr (lets call it 3gph).

So, I'm pretty happy with the evaporator. The hair dryer probably made the most increase in performance, although it disturbed the peacefulness of boiling. I need a quieter air source . :)

Next thoughts were to insulate the barrel with Roxul insulation, or maybe wrap the chimney in copper tube to make a preheater. Also get my small RO system back up and running to improve efficiency.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[Wizbi]

Hi wobbletop,

On the quieter air source, I stopped in at a local appliance repair store and found they had a stack of "over the range microwave air blowers" that they had removed from old microwaves and were storing for possible quick and cheap repairs. I bought all he had for $5.00 a piece (about 10 of them). They have 2 speeds and have double squirrel cages. It was easy to build a wooden frame to hold them and I added a flexible dryer hose for attachment to the evaporator. Boy, they move the air and are quiet. I made a couple of boxes for my use and a few for nearby hobbyists like myself. Since the motors are 2 speed, I use 1 standard electrical switch for on/off and a 3-way switch to facilitate the high-low spreeds. This is useful so that I can temporarily turn the fans off when manipulating pans etc. Every time I flip the turbo-button on and see the flame burst - I get a tickle about how fun it is to mape maple syrup.

The air, blown across the flame certainly does add a blast-furnace effect to the boiling process.

Turbo-on ! :).

[flyyer]

I cut a hole in the back of the barrel and brought an air manifold made from 2 1/2" pipe, with 3 rows of 3/8" holes in it. It's connected to a squirrel cage blower, with an air gate slide to control flow. That's a nice feature because you can reduce the extreme combustion while you reload wood.1167311674

[Boomer]

I cut a hole in the back of the barrel and brought an air manifold made from 2 1/2" pipe, with 3 rows of 3/8" holes in it. It's connected to a squirrel cage blower, with an air gate slide to control flow. That's a nice feature because you can reduce the extreme combustion while you reload wood.1167311674

Hi flyyer

Really liked your blower system. This is my 3rd year with a barrel stove and I need to get a blower on it to increase the evaporation rate. I've been a little worried about putting it out the front of the stove for safety reasons, someone might trip on it, most likely me and it just being in the way. I have my preheater coming off the back and that looks like the spot for a blower for me, under the preheater. Sometimes a guy needs to see a picture of something and the light bulb comes on and you're like duh why didn't I think of that. I've got a few questions: Have you run it yet? How about the holes getting plugged with ash? Or the pipe warping?

Thanks again - Boomer

[wobbletop]

Update to my barrel build this year....

Changed the hairdryer to a bathroom exhaust fan. Fed the fan through the back of the barrel and under the fire and drilled some holes in the tube.
Added Roxul insulation to the sides an top of the barrel. Secured them with self taping screws and large washers.
Experimented with a preheater wrapped around the exhaust stack with metal insulator.

210L sap collected boiled down to 5.5L syrup over 3 boils of 20hrs total (not including kitchen stove time)
gives only about 10L/hr (or roughly 2.5G/hr).

Bathroom fan was much quieter than the hairdryer, so that was an improvement.
Roxul insulation was a pain to deal with (doesn't really stay together) but really cut down on the heat coming out the sides of the barrel. I thought this would have improved my boil rate over last year but based on that data, it really hasn't. I tried to keep the level in the pan lower this year (insulation helped protect the sides of the pan from scorching).
The preheater worked well but I need to create a method to continually circulate the sap through the copper pipe. If the pipe sat without sap in it, the next time you tried to add sap it would instantly turn to vapour in the tube and rocket steam out the end. The 5" diameter stack pipe + 3/8 copper pipe + 6" diameter cover worked very well.

I'm thinking that my wood again was not dry enough. This time of year I'm running out of firewood so having to use stuff that I wanted to keep until next year. The wood is sizzling until I get a hot enough bed of coals in the bottom of the barrel.

Pics attached.
138501385113852

[viperfan1212]

I was running sap fairly deep in my pans (only second year doing syrup so still learning) i was able to get a vicious boil out of both pans. Still seemed to take a while to boil down. Maybe it was the depth that was the issue. Its nice to see other peoples rigs. I will be making another one for next year out of a oil drum.
13858 it was all free and/or stuff we had laying around. It worked.

[wobbletop]

I think an oil drum would be better, but I haven't seen any for under $200 around here. The barrel was free.

Many say the deeper the sap, the slower the boil. Makes sense to me... more surface area on the unheated sides of the pans to cool the sap, and the steam has to travel through the deep sap and can cool down.