my home evaporator and set up

[seandicare]

here is a photo of my set up....still a work in progress....this was an existing cement slab for a horse shed back in the 1800s.
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thinking of getting a better gazebo type thing for it next year.....this was just a store return gazebo, the top canvas was missing and bent to crap. worked decent this year though....thinking of making a small shed 4x4 or something to house a r/o system.

here is a video of my actual evaporator.
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h87/seandicare/th_IMG_0078.mp4 (http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h87/seandicare/IMG_0078.mp4)


maybe in a couple years i will build an actual shack....lol

[woodey24]

We thought about putting the drum on its side, do the flames get high enough?

[seandicare]

i put a fire grate in it....sets it up another 2 inches.with fan blowing on the base....then i Jenga pieces of hardwood that are about 3inches diameter. when the stack is half way up the door the flames are coming out the door, the fill pipe on the far side and surrounding the front pans..... they are 6 inches deep pans and they are sunk in the top probably 5 inches

i have not insulated the firebox, nor ramped the back yet.........the front pans can get a good boil, but back pans still mainly simmer.....getting about 5-6gal/hour evap rate on it as is......

[woodey24]

Looks good, a ramp would definitely help with the back pans same with the insulation. We haven't really tried to measure our evap rate, maybe next year. I would think you building a wind break even if it is plywood around it would help you get a bit more heat to stay on the pans. We put up the sides on the carport we are using as a sugar shack and could tell quickly when the cooker was out of the wind. This was our first year so learning as we go.

[seandicare]

well, i can scratch that gazebo.....we got about an inch of wet, heavy snow last night. i got home from work this morning and the gazebo was on the ground bent all to heck.....couldn't even think of folding the frame back up........decided to go out and picked up a larger tarp to tie off to surrounding trees to at least keep the rain/snow out..