Siro Filter Press

[murferd]

Just picked up a used siro filter from Hangin's Father & curious as to how much filter aid people have used with one of these per gallon.

[powerdub]

This is what I have found that works for me. I start with around a cup for the first run through and a half cup for the rest. If the thing locks up and won't pass syrup right off, you may have to use a little more. Toward the end of the season as the niter level comes up you will have to add more at first. You will get used to it very quickly. The good thing is it only takes two minutes to change the filter. I usaully have three or four extras on hand.

[murferd]

When you say run,how many gallons would that be ?

[powerdub]

I will usually run 3 to 5 gallons through at a time. The ratios I gave are per gallon. If I have 3 gallons to run through I will mix 3 cups in the first batch and half that for the ones after. These are not an exact cup measurement either but a rough geuss.

[murferd]

We finish about 10-12 gallons of syrup at one time.We want to run all this through the press when it is done.Do we add like 5 cups total ? Or can we do that much in one run ?

[powerdub]

No doubt you can run that much through. I would start a five cups and see what happens. I don't run that much through at time usually so you will have to fool with it. It may be good today but later you may need more. It really does not take that long to get used to it, like I said if it quits filtering right off you need to add more filter aid at first. If it only filters twenty gallons and is full you need to back off some. I can usually run about thirty gallons of syrup through it before it fills up and the pressure goes up.

[murferd]

Thanks a lot for all your help & patience, I hope to be able to try it out later this week. We got our first sap today & the week sounds ok. Hope your season will go good.

[murferd]

Another question on the siro filter.We draw off into a tank through prefilters & a cone filter.After we get 10 gals or so we finish it on a propane stove & then run it through the press.We heard that we shouldn't filter off the evaporator,the guy that said this says that the filter aid & filter in the canister will work better.Has anybody heard this or tried it?

[brookledge]

Murray
If you have a press then why bother with filtering the syrup comming off the evaporator? All you need to do is boil until it reaches syrup then draw it off, when you have enough to filter heat it up to 190ish and then run it through the press. The only thing that I do is I have a fine stainless wire cloth (screen) that I pour the syrup through which takes out any large debrie so it doesn't wear the gear pump out as fast.
But otherwise if you have a filter press just use that it will do a good job.
Keith

[Mike]

I know a guy who uses 2 filter papers per plate on his filter press...Says you dont have to worry about blowing out a filter....Any one else use 2 filter....

[saphead]

Yup, where I work we double up the papers.We push through by the drum so the insurance of two papers is worth it so as not to mess up a whole drum.