Start up opinions

[Gizzy]

I would like to get some of your opinions on starting to make syrup. We have collected sap and sold the sap from 1500 vacuum taps and 300 bags to a local sugar maker for the past 12 years and now have decided to purchase equipment to process our own. We are looking at a 2.5x10 fuel oil fired evaporator with a 600 RO. The majority of our syrup will be sold as bulk. I have about 5-6 hours to cook at night. Do you believe with this setup I can process the sap collected that day in the time I have? Thanks for any thoughts on this.

[unc23win]

I would guess unless you have preheater you might average more than 6 hours a night, but its hard to say not all evaporators are the same. A lot would depend on how much you a concentrating. I had about 1500 taps 2 years ago and I have a 3.5x14 longest boil for me was about 6 hours, however I only concentrated to about 8% brix and didn't have a preheater.

There are couple of nice used rigs that might fit your needs well on the Lapierre site http://www.sugaringequipment.elapierre.com/produits_en.asp?no=2 I bought mine used from them 2 years ago and got a ton of information with it. The 40x10 they have sounds like a nice deal preheater auto draw roof jacks included.

[Shaun]

For what it is worth. I recently purchased a 2.5 x 10 HE evaporator for the 1500 taps on my own property. I believe a well running 600 RO should put out about 150 GPH of 8%. My evaporator should do 100GPH or a little better, fuel oil better yet. I figure I can start wash cycle while winding down if the sap is processed a little faster than I can boil. Seems like we have a similar thought on what we need for that tap count. Again have not put this theory to the test.

[BreezyHill]

Gizzy,

With facts and numbers the guess work is removed.

Request a copy of Bascoms annual catalogue. In this you will find a listing of available sizes of evaporators and their processing rates & steamaways and their rates.

From your RO manfactoror you can get rates on process of raw sap at different finished % of sugar.

When boiling higher sugar content sap, your production rates increase since you are drawing off more syrup per hour.

So next you need to take your production records. Take your highest days production, for example lets say you made 4000 gallons of 2% sap. If you RO this to 8% you will have 1000 gallons to boil, RO to 16% and you will have 500 gallons to boil, RO to 20% and you have 400 gallons to boil.

With these numbers you can take your available time and size the rig you need. Oversize slightly, for startup ramp to full boiling .rate

For our operation we batch RO for sap for the daily startup. Then we batch and send batches at desired sugar level to the head tank. We usually start boiling around 3 pm and finish when it is all gone. The last batch is usually higher sugar content and boils quicker. I like to RO to 12-15% but the startup is usually only 6-8% but this is still 3-4 times faster boiling rate than raw. MY RO has an automatic run feature that will shut the unit down due to low or high pressure, high temp, or a leak. We usually have a collection tank that is filled first that will give us startup sap. Fire up the RO and when dialed in turn on the auto pilot and the inlet is set to give me 1.5 hours of startup sap. When one of the sons would get home from school he wood run down to the sugarhouse and transfer the finished sap to the head tank, start the fire, and keep ROing sap. When I get back I would assist or relive him. I all ways take the late shift to clean the RO for the day.

On oil fire your startup will be a bit faster than mine on wood; but mine is usually at good rate at 10-12 minutes with the right wood.

ROing to higher sugar % increases your boil rate a bunch over raw sap. With my preheater our sap is around 160-180 into the float box. I run a 2x6 and we will have around 1700 when we get the farm all retubed. My work force is 2/3 in college and doing internships in the summer and winter breaks so we have lengthen our retubing schedule.

Keep your sap buyer in the loop incase you ever need to unload sap sue to a breakdown.

You will also want to calculate in your bulk packing time into your day. This can be easy but if you have to rinse down the press and repaper it can bottle neck the operation.

Good Luck!

Ben