Evaporator cleaning, fermented sap, slime

[CharlieVT]

In past years I've used commercial pan cleaner, or milk stone remover, or cleaning vinegar to clean my pans. (Grimm 4x10, reverse flow, raised flue, wood fired arch I converted from oil.) I always fight niter build up, especially on the syrup pan partitions.

This year I decided to try leaving sap/sweet in the pans and let it ferment. I kept the hood over the flue pan and covered the syrup pan with a sheet of plywood to reduce evaporation. I periodically checked the sugar house and could smell the vinegar; I thought "great, it's working".

Having been told to wait until July, I just recently went to work to flush the pans and clean 'em up.

There was a film or "skin" of "stuff" on the surface in both pans. What a bunch of snotty, slimy, goo! I'd hook great gobs of the stuff on my flue brush. The stuff had the consistency of half set silicone sealant, or what you might expect a dead jelly fish to feel like. Yuk!

I'm not gonna do that again. I'll buy pan cleaner acid next year for sure. :)

What is that stuff? :confused:

[bowhunter]

That's the way it's supposed to look. It just partially fermented sugar, mold and nitre. Just flush it out and rinse the pans. You can use a soft bush to remove any material clinging to the pans. All the deposits will be soft and easy to remove. My pan has never been cleaner since I started using sap.

[WESTMAPLES]

i agree with bowhunter i used pan cleaner in the past and thought it worked decent, this past season i thought id try letting the pans sit with sap in them to see how ` the sap cleaning process worked` boy was i impressed with how easy it loosened the cooked on foam crust and whatnot. i only let it sit for a month after my season was over, mostly because the smell was stomach turning so i decided to clean then at that point.

[heus]

If you let it sit for awhile longer that slime will turn to liquid. It should pretty much be the consistency of vinegar.

[n8hutch]

I was going to use SAP this year but chickened out, heard. Too many horror stories. I used 10 gallons of vinegar instead. Worked great let it sit for a month, only thing I am going to do differently next season is get some more caps for my sanitary fittings so I can fill my flu & syrup pans to the top. I might try SAP next year, lets be honest the vinegar didn't smell great either.

[CharlieVT]

Thanks for all the replies Gents.

So if I had waited longer all that slime would have liquefied? Hmmm... hard to believe. I'll just have to try it again next season to test the theory.
One thing I didn't do was heat the mess up with a small fire. Pretty sure that would've smelled really bad. But maybe I should have done that.
Since I waited until mid-July, how much longer should I expect to wait before all that gel turns to liquid?



On a related subject, here's something I came across during an internet search. Who uses Muriatic Acid to clean their pans? Here's someone who does:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCUQFjABahUKEwizrt7gnOXGAhVHXIgKHeWXAVY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fandersonsmaplesyrup.com%2Ffiles% 2Fpancleaning.pdf&ei=f4-qVfPyD8e4oQTlr4awBQ&usg=AFQjCNFvV8oZ6SQEdSBvpEvJYVK6x5cjsA&sig2=rUjmQ8JuzWlLrgGd5VBE9A&bvm=bv.98197061,d.aWw

[buckeye gold]

I have done the sap thing for the last couple years and will continue. I leave mine for 6-8 weeks and drain the pan then power wash. Yeah it's snotty, but the pans shine. I then let them dry and any residue I missed will dry to a white powder that can be easily brushed off and rinsed. For me, it's the easiest and best way and I can stand the sour smell.

[Paul VT]

In past years I've used commercial pan cleaner, or milk stone remover, or cleaning vinegar to clean my pans. (Grimm 4x10, reverse flow, raised flue, wood fired arch I converted from oil.) I always fight niter build up, especially on the syrup pan partitions.

This year I decided to try leaving sap/sweet in the pans and let it ferment. I kept the hood over the flue pan and covered the syrup pan with a sheet of plywood to reduce evaporation. I periodically checked the sugar house and could smell the vinegar; I thought "great, it's working".

Having been told to wait until July, I just recently went to work to flush the pans and clean 'em up.

There was a film or "skin" of "stuff" on the surface in both pans. What a bunch of snotty, slimy, goo! I'd hook great gobs of the stuff on my flue brush. The stuff had the consistency of half set silicone sealant, or what you might expect a dead jelly fish to feel like. Yuk!

I'm not gonna do that again. I'll buy pan cleaner acid next year for sure. :)

What is that stuff? :confused:
I'm with you. I did this one year. I have never seen such weird colors of mold on top of the sap! I would not want people that consume our syrup to see that mess.
This year I use vinager. Much better results.

[Loch Muller]

I tried fermenting sap on my GH Grimm raised flue pan this year. I only let it sit for about 6 weeks though. My pans were very dirty since the previous owner didn't clean them much and the fermented sap only took off part of the niter built up over the years, definitely cleaner though. Took forever to flush out all the slimy gunk with a hose. Think I'll try 5-10 gallons of vinegar mixed with water to fill the pan next time. I'm afraid to use any thing stronger like pan pan acid since the pan is an older lead free solder type.

[Bruce L]

We've been doing the sap fermenting for probably 25+ years,will continue to do so to. We usually leave the sap in the pans from last boil,usually about April 10 around here,until the long weekend in May before the bugs start getting real bad. I use a gas powered pressure washer with a tank of water to clean the pans.One thing I will note is raw sap works much better.I drain the pans after last boil,and refill with the raw sap.Pans come out looking like new,the odd spot may still have some powder left on it,but I boil water in the pans every spring for a short period before the sap goes in. I figure doesn't matter what method you use for cleaning, when you return in the spring is like coming back to your cottage after a long winter, your dishes may have been cleaned after the last use,but there has been a long period of inactivity where critters and spiders,flies etc could have been crawling across your plates.Also,if I were to use the acid cleaning method,boiling the water once again in the spring would also help to remove any acid residue that had dried on the pans.

[buckeye gold]

Good point Bruce, I too only use raw sap. I'm so tight I draw off the last sweet and finish it on propane, so I have only used raw sap. when it's time to start up I wipe down the pan with a scrub pad and rinse well then do a water boil and she sparkles. A pre-season cleaning should be routine I assumed, but perhaps not all do. The last white powder in the odd spots comes off very easy. I put a couple scrub pads on each side of a paint stir stick and run it through the flues to get that powder, works well.

[CharlieVT]

...One thing I will note is raw sap works much better.I drain the pans after last boil,and refill with the raw sap.Pans come out looking like new,the odd spot may still have some powder left on it,but I boil water in the pans every spring for a short period before the sap goes in...

Bruce's note above is helpful. I was thinking that the sweet left from the last boil would make more acid than raw sap; now I'll consider trying raw sap.

I was going to go back to buying commercial pan cleaner or vinegar, but with a 4x10 evaporator it takes a lot.

Thanks again for all the replies.

[VT_K9]

For the last 2 years we have used raw sap and will continue to use it. It is free. It works great for us. No doubt the odor produced is not pleasant. We spend less time dealing with nitire. We do a quick water boil in the spring for a quick cleaning before us.

Mike