Fan assisted hood

[Pete S]

We have made 2 boils on our 2 x 6 Badgerland. This AM was a bit trying as the temps outside were 25*ish. Until the wood cook stove and the evaporator got things warmed up is was real "thick" in there and everything was dripping.

I really really do NOT want to listen to a fan, BUT I am thinking a "fan-assist" on the 12" pipe may be in order to SUCK the steam away.

Has anyone tried something that really worked well? I even considered using a smaller blower and inducting a draft via a smaller pipe into the 12" steam duct.

Appreciate thoughts,... and what worked for you.

Thanks!

[BreezyHill]

Last season I run a Chicago style fan to suck away the steam so I did not need to pressurize the sugar house. It work well in getting the steam from the room but the steam condensated a lot in the fan. Off a 2x6 running 10% sugar and boiling in the area of 35-42 gallons an hour I had atleast a 5/16 line of water flowing out of the fan. No problem for the fan but it made a mess.

I had to steal the fans motor for an emergency heater repair for my moms house and have not replaced it so I am back to pressureizing the room. No real difference either way.

I am think of trying an in duct fan as hey are way cheaper than the fan and is more inline with the cfms that are needed. The fan is over sized and pulls to much air causing the condensation issue.

[West Sumner Sugar]

We have a FanTech inline fan in our hood. I don't know what size it is...Id have to guess its a 12" or 14". That thing will pull every bit of steam through the hood. When the power goes out (we run on generator) it instantly starts raining under the hood. It has had an incredible amount of water through it and it keeps running without issue. Its not loud at all either.

[Pete S]

11281

This is as good as it gets. I have an old CATI Grease hood with a 12" outlet.

I lope along at 25gph as of this photo.

[maple flats]

I have a hood (3' x 5') tight over the flues pan, and a second hood, attached to the first is elevated over the syrup pan (3' x 3'). each has a 12" stack, and the flues hood even has a damper partially closed in it. Both hoods draw the steam off without steaming up the sugarhouse, with no blower in the stacks. I see no need for such a fan. If needed, just extend the stack a little higher. When warm, it will draw.

[tcross]

I have a fan that goes out through the wall of my sugar house because I do not want it to go through my roof at this point in time! it will in a year or two, but for now it is what I have and it works really well! I have a plastic makeshift hood with a standard cheap box fan with high/med/low settings. It has no problem sucking out 90% of the steam on high and if I want to warm up the preheater a little more I just turn it down to med or low. I usually run it on medium! sort of nice to have the adjustability!

[johnallin]

I have a hood (3' x 5') tight over the flues pan, and a second hood, attached to the first is elevated over the syrup pan (3' x 3'). each has a 12" stack, and the flues hood even has a damper partially closed in it. Both hoods draw the steam off without steaming up the sugarhouse, with no blower in the stacks. I see no need for such a fan. If needed, just extend the stack a little higher. When warm, it will draw.

Dave,
I also have a flue pan (2x4) steam hood with a damper,and a 2x2 syrup pan hood. What does partially closing the damper on the flue hood do? I had it put in when ordered from Leader, but have yet to do anything with it.
Thank you. John

[Super Sapper]

The damper helps hold the heat in for the preheater. I have a homemade preheater with about 8 inches of 8 inch pipe and a Chinese cap on it. I took the cap off yesterday to see what affect it would have on preheater temp. and it went to just warm to the touch. I put it back on and shortly went to too hot to touch. I do not have an airtight hood and the cap just redirects the steam flow but it has a large affect on sap temp.

[Woodland Acres]

I used to use a home made steam hood made of plastic encompassing the whole evaporator. A 2x2 frame was used and on the bottom was plastic rain gutter to divert the water to a pail .This worked real well keeping the steam into the cupolo until i got a steam hood for my evaporator