Smokey Lake Evaporator

[miohman]

I am curious if anyone is boiling on a Smokylake 2x6 or 2x8? They say they are supposed to evaporate 60+ and 120+ respectively. Any one seen this first have. Any one who owns one know their numbers?
Thanks

[n8hutch]

I have a set of smokey lake pans 2.5 x8, they are awesome, the big guys can't even come close to his prices with same features. If your looking for a 2x6 compare it to a leader with same side reverse & a air tight front & your looking at at least a 2,000 dollar difference . & Jim's flue pans have more flues, 120 gph sounds a little high for a 2x8 but it may be possible with a preheated & a 6ft flue pan. I have found Jim & Angela to be very straight shooters so If he says that he can get you that evaporation rate I would take his word for it.

[miohman]

What are you able to get on your rig?

[jmayerl]

I would say that's a bit high depending on who told you that. I have a custom 2x7 smoky lake that does 50-55gph and that is a 4' drop flue with preheater, good, and gasification arch under it. Awesome pans and awesome people to deal with.

[miohman]

Those number were from them

[mellondome]

Sounds more like a 3x8 rate. You arent going to double your rate by adding 1/3rd the length. Even if it is flue pan. I called them about a 2.5x10 last year and they estimated 100-110 gph.

[miohman]

Those were kindof my thoughts. That's why I was looking for someone who owns one

[lpakiz]

I have a Smoky Lake 8 foot drop flue pan and a 2 foot front pan, so the unit is a 2X10. The pans set on a home made Intensofire clone. 1/2 HP blower. Hood, but no pre-heater, just cold sap from the float box into the flue pan. We usually get 100 gallons per hour.

[buckeye gold]

I run a small hobby pan from smokey lake and with optimum conditions and firing it will do what Jim said, but I rarely produce under optimum conditions. There are so many variables when cooking sap I'd bet the average GPH for all manufacturers is 10-30% less than claims. It's not that they won't do it, but most producers will not be cooking at the best case scenario all the time. So I'd reduce my expectations by 20% and go from there for sizing.

[n8hutch]

I run a small hobby pan from smokey lake and with optimum conditions and firing it will do what Jim said, but I rarely produce under optimum conditions. There are so many variables when cooking sap I'd bet the average GPH for all manufacturers is 10-30% less than claims. It's not that they won't do it, but most producers will not be cooking at the best case scenario all the time. So I'd reduce my expectations by 20% and go from there for sizing. this is good advice, I was getting about 65-70 gph out of my evaporator this year, that included start up & cool down, that was with natural draft, I am sure I was running about 85 gph when I was up to temperature, I am getting an air tight front this year & adding forced draft, hopefully get up around a 90 gph average.

[Marvel26]

Here are the estimated rates from Jim and Angela's website for their hybrid hobby pans:

Approximate Evaporation Rates:

2′ x 3′, 10-15 GPH
2′ x 4′, 15-20 GPH
2′ x 5′, 20-25 GPH
2′ x 6′, 25-30 GPH

[Marvel26]

I have a 2X5 and the best I got on a calm day after receiving great advice from the members of this form was about 22. I was outside though, if you can get it indoors your rates will max out I think. You may even be able to get more out of her with some tweaking.

[Ghs57]

This was my first year on a smokey lake 2x4 continuous flow, but I did not get the anticipated rate of 10-12 gph. More like half that rate. This may be be due to my rig, and the way I ran it, as mentioned above. And this is a relatively small setup in comparison to a hybrid or flue pan. But the workmanship and support is top rate. I want to go bigger next year, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this set up. At my actual gph rate, it could not handle a strong run from 90 taps.

[cadocter]

I have a 2x10.5' set of pans on a home built forced draft arch with air over and under and we boil around the 90 gallon mark. Jims pans are for sure one of a kind and outstanding craftsmanship.

[Forrest hunters]

I bought one of Jim's 2x6 silver plate addition evaporators this past season and boiled outside with it. It has air tight front, same side draw off, blower, stainless steel sides, 12 foot of 10 inch stainless stack and more. I averaged with start up and shut down this year at 50.25 gph. When I had her cranking in the middle of boils I was at over 60gph. I am moving inside hopefully this year and will be buying a hood and preheater from Jim for this rig. I was running cold sap in and the flue pan had sap flying out of it all over from both sides. Boil in whole flue pan was amazing.

I even used regular fire pit split logs on bottom when I fired then stocked her all the way up with wrist size split wood and she boiled awesome. Seemed the bigger wood really helped slow the drop off you get as it burns down. Kept more fire and coals blowing hotter during full burn.

[JADavis]

I bought one of Jim's 2x6 silver plate addition evaporators this past season and boiled outside with it. It has air tight front, same side draw off, blower, stainless steel sides, 12 foot of 10 inch stainless stack and more. I averaged with start up and shut down this year at 50.25 gph. When I had her cranking in the middle of boils I was at over 60gph. I am moving inside hopefully this year and will be buying a hood and preheater from Jim for this rig. I was running cold sap in and the flue pan had sap flying out of it all over from both sides. Boil in whole flue pan was amazing.

I even used regular fire pit split logs on bottom when I fired then stocked her all the way up with wrist size split wood and she boiled awesome. Seemed the bigger wood really helped slow the drop off you get as it burns down. Kept more fire and coals blowing hotter during full burn.

We have the same evaporator as Forrest Hunters. Except, ours has a hood and preheater on it. If you look at the design of the preheater you will see it is better then the others and it sure works good for us. Even when averaging in startup and shut down time we never get less then 70 gph. When pushing hard to get through a lot of sap we are at 85gph. The Silverplate Evaporator is the best choice we could have made. We looked at all of the different evaporators on the market. We are SO happy we went with Smoky Lake and I tell everyone I can about them. The products and service is OUTSTANDING.

miohman, if you want to make the trip to see one, you are welcome to come and see ours, we a in Northern MI. I can be there almost any night and spend a lot of weekends out there. Send a pm to me if you are interested.

[relseek]

I moved up to one of Smoky Lake's 2x5 hybrid pans from their 2x5 flat continuous flow pans, and I was getting a steady 30 gph running at approx 1.5 inch depth and a not so efficient preheater that only got incoming sap up to around 70*. I'm sure with a better pre heater and some other tweaking I can get more out of it.