Steam Bottler Positive Drain?

[SeanD]

I'm thinking of retiring my homemade bottler and making the jump to a larger steam bottler. Are any out there positive draining? It's hard to tell from pictures, but all of them seem to have the ports up on the side, so I'd have to tip the pan(s) to finish up the last of the syrup. I read someone else's post that the Smoky Lake bottler leaves 3 quarts under the port. That's more than I have on my own. I'm kind of tired of finishing my bottling balancing the pan up in the air.

Thanks,
Sean

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

CDL electric water jacketed drains 100% without any tipping. Entire bottom of pan drains to drawoff with multiple slopes from all sides.

[wiam]

I bought a water jacket made for honey from Kelly Bee. Drains completely. Better price.

[Super Sapper]

My Smoky Lake water jacketed bottler has the drain on the bottom.

[SeanD]

The jacketed bottlers are nice, but I'm just looking at pans with steam trays for now.

[wnybassman]

I don't think my Smokey Lake leaves 3 quarts, even if left flat. I do have to tilt it at the end, but I have a couple small pieces of wood I slip in on the back side between the steam pan and syrup pan. It might leave a pint or so after that procedure.

I will add that the last jug or two I keep for personal use because I am not 100% sure what the temperature is on those at the time it hits the jug. By the time the syrup gets that low, the temp probe is basically useless. And by propping up the syrup pan, I am letting steam out and it may not be heating the syrup as much as when the pan is down. I do turn the gas up to help compensate though.

I need to come up with a better way to transport finished syrup from my finishing pans to the filter tray of the bottler though. Not happy with any way I have tried so far.

[jmayerl]

Smoky lake has drain on bottom with a slight angle towards the outlet, ZERO syrup would be left, I will get a picture later from the shack.

[maple flats]

The same here, my Smoky Lake water jacket bottler drains completely, I'm thinking the steam model should be designed the same.
The steam units are lower priced, that's for certain.

[West Mountain Maple]

I have the Smoky Lake Steam tray bottler, and also prop it up with some shims between the pans at the end. I talked to them, and they are willing to make it with a sloped bottom for a little more. It really does need it and should be a standard feature. The workmanship is nice, and it will heat 5 gallons of ice cold syrup up to bottling temp in under an hour, with no worries of scorching. It does hold alot more than 5 gals, for filtering and bottling right off the evap. If you are going propane, The burner/stand is nothing custom, and you can save about $25 by ordering it yourself from amazon or ebay.

[SeanD]

All good info. Thanks. I think I'll give them a call and see what they can do. I've lived comfortably with the tipping for years now because I always knew I'd upgrade at some point. It's definitely a feature worth having.

Thanks again,
Sean