Buying my first evaporator

[Samuelvw1]

I have been talking to my wife and currently I am up to 40+ taps running my boiling on a 2x4 evaporator on a 2 double propane burner. I told my wife my concerns and how I wanted s wood fired evaporater that would burn hotter and boiler my sap faster than my current rid can I get help choosing the correct evaporater for me for next year I see them on the leader evaporater website for 50 taps how do I choose the correct one that will work

Sam
Shelton,Connecticut
40+ taps on buckets and drop lines
https://www.facebook.com/SamandSons2/

[Urban Sugarmaker]

If I had it to do over again, I'd get a Mason 2x4 arch with a Smoky Lake 2x4 hybrid drop flue pan. With RO and a preheater you'll have plenty of room to expand without spending a fortune. I just built an RO, and I still think about upgrading my pan and building a preheater. I'm planning 110 taps this year and with the upgrades I just mentioned, I still have plenty of room to expand on the same size arch.

[newmod]

I went from a cinder block arch to a oil tank arch. Very little money in that, we build our own pans for that. This year I am planning on 150 taps so I just purchased a 2 x 5 hybrid pan from smoky lake. The carbon steel pans worked fire for a couple years but stainless is best.

[lakeview maple]

Awesome Sam, you could probably pick up a nice 2x6 with a drop flue and syrup pan used pretty reasonable. Ill keep my eye out .

[MISugarDaddy]

The first thing you need to ask yourself is how many trees you are going to have available for tapping and how many of them you actually expect to tap. If you are only expecting to have 50 trees available for tapping, you probably don't want to go larger than a 2' by 4' evaporator because you won't have enough sap to run your evaporator. Contact Jim at Smoky Lake and ask him what the boil rates are of his different sized units. He is a really great guy that will give you the information you will need to know what size of evaporator to consider.
Gary

[Dale Sparrow]

Made 19 gallons this year. 120 taps two 2'x4' flat pans on a cinderblock arch in the driveway. Had a hard time keeping up with 120 gallons of sap a day but managed. Building sugar shack in April, bought a used 3x10 leader going for 500 taps next year. Totally addicted. Go big on everything cause you'll never want less going into the next year. Facebook Whipple lock Farm. :)

[bowhunter]

I would not start with the Leader 1/2 pint. I have one and it's ok, but the evaporators that Bill Mason builds are bigger and better(higher boil rates) and are the same price range. You can start without a blower, but the blower is a good option for adding capacity and it doesn't cost that much to add. An RO is an excellent addition. I have a copper coil preheater which is made of 5 wraps of 3/8 inch copper around a 6 inch stack. I get a 50 degree F temperature rise so my concentrated sap generally enters the evaporator at a little over 90 Deg F. I have a homemade RO using one 2.5 inch by 40 inch nano filtration membrane. I had 125 taps this year and made 24+ gallons of syrup. My rate through the RO probably averaged 22-23 gallons per hour because I had to run a little slower so my evaporator could keep up, but it is definitely capable of doing 27-29 gallons per hour. Here's the link to Bill Mason's website. http://www.wfmasonwelding.com/evaporators.html I also have included the link to Smoky Lake http://smokylakemaple.com/equipment/ . They make awesome evaporator pans and other welded products but I don't think they make a complete starter evaporator. One option would be to buy the Leader 1/2 pint arch and get the Smoky Lake full Pint Pan.