Oil versus wood

[murferd]

Looking for opinions or facts on whether using oil to boil sap is quicker than wood.

[mellondome]

Oil is a consistant heat that doesnt need tended. Wood will fluctuate depending on how long it takes to fire, wood type, current weather, etc.

A btu is a btu, wood, oil, or gas. Usually comes down to cost and preference.
Most will say wood boils faster and is hotter. I think that is because with wood you dont look at each piece going in the firebox as money, so you end up running the same rig hotter than you would if you were burning oil. ( kinda like the your a car when you were a teenager. If mom buys the gas it would probably go faster the if you had to buy the gas for the tank.)

[unc23win]

I would agree with mellondome. I boil with oil as I think it fits my situation the best. Neither fuel is free with oil you have the price of oil at the time of purchase while the cost of wood can be a little more complicated to figure.

[slybird353]

We boil with wood, biggest disadvantage for us is when we shut it down. Oil you flick a switch. With wood we have a long coast to tend with. Not fun when your tired!

[Ausable]

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Looking for opinions or facts on whether using oil to boil sap is quicker than wood.

Murray - As cost doesn't seem to be a concern with You. Go with Oil. By oil - You mean fuel oil I will assume - Not Crude or Residual or used Cooking or Motor Oil? I'm just a Hobby Maple Syrup Maker and my wood is free - popular, hemlock, bass, birch, balsam fir etc. - So - I fire with wood. If I wanted to be efficient and had no concern with cost I would go with fuel oil through a torch atomized with air - maybe - more fuel oil torches if the arch was huge and the ability to adjust combustion air. Have fun.

[n8hutch]

I think oil is not a bad route if you have an R.O... I guess it would be hard for me to justify on a 2x6 burning 3-4 gallons of oil an hour to make 1-2 gallons of syrup.

Burning oil is cleaner for sure, and easier on your back.

[BreezyHill]

Over the years we: started with wood went to a bigger rig and then two two wood fired rigs. Then came the RO and a smaller wood fired rig. Then Dad got older and we had less time to get wood so oil was the answer. This worked fine until oil got pricey in the 1990's. Then it was back to wood. We still use wood and increasing the size of the RO.

MD is right a 2x6 wil only make 40... gallons per hour no matter the fuel if that is the max it can do. Oil is far easier. Wood has many heats: Cut it down, split it, stack it , and burn it. Then don't forget to clean out any ash that is left.

Oil turn it on and your going, off and you are done.

I use air under fire system(AUF) with wood and it will cook for a couple of hours with the heat in the fire brick. There is very little ash with this system and no smoke 99% of the time. But every fire up I have to brush down the flues and finish pan bottom of the black soot.

Oil is faster by far and with oil going down in price it is looking very intriguing.

On the other hand there is something about wood fired maple syrup that provides for a marketing point that many customers are drawn to. Oil fired has no such draw or nostalgic draw.

Personally I would suggest an RO. Mine is the work horse of our operation and with two more branes it will allow us to double our taps, bring our sugar level higher than before and spend less hours fueling the evaporator.

Our RO & 2x6 will allow us to do up to around 2000 taps and not live in the sugar house. When we get ready to surpass that size we will need to revisit the fuel options before we upgrade and enlarge our rig.

[nymapleguy607]

I have used this example before when this question has come up. My neighbor and I both have 2x6 evaporators, both have 4' flue pans, same number of flues and same height. Both have hoods and preheaters, the difference is mine is wood and his is oil. I have an airtight forced draft arch and his is the standard oil arch set at around 3gph oil usage. My evaporator would average 43gph evaporation his will run about 35gph. I understand that BTU's are BTU's whether oil or wood, but with wood you are able to have such a larger fire in the arch thus more BTU's. You could probably crank up an oil gun to give the same number of BTU's but I think that would become cost prohibitive.

[brookledge]

another factor for my liking to wood is that it promotes betterment to my sugar bush. I look to cut softwood and other crappy wood like poplar etc. Without the need for sugar wood I wouldn't be improving my sugar bush anywhere as well as I do now.
when I get to the point that it becomes work (I like doing it) then maybe I will change my mind. I also have many people that ask me if they can deliver wood to me just to get rid of it.
Keith