Advise needed on running Leader Patriot

[Snowmad]

I bought a 3 year old 2x6' Leader Patriot evaporator last spring after the season. I've dreamed of having a better system for making syrup for years and now I've moved up to a "real" evaporator. With it, I built a new garage/sugar house this fall and have read countless threads on everything from the 3/16 tubing which I switched to this year and am happy so far to sugar house construction. Now, I find myself needing some advise once again now that I've started to boil today.

First, how deep do run the back pan? Mine is the raised flue pan. Obviously you want to keep the flues covered, but how many inches over the flue should you go to be safe and yet get maximum boil?

So far I'm running the front pan up to about the top of the gate opening between the dividers in the pan. My middle two cells are finally boiling, but my outer two cells are not. I want to set my thermometers on each side since it's mostly sap to "zero" so that I can keep an eye on it as it gets closer to syrup. However, since these two cells aren't boiling, should I not set them until they are since only the middle two are boiling now?


Also, if I'm drawing out of the right side as I look at the pan, shouldn't I have the plug in the float box in the left hand side of the rear pan so the cold sap is going in on the right side, then going into the front pan on the left side?

Last question. Once it's time to draw off, what is the best way to get the syrup into my canner? I bought a 12 gallons Waterloo/Small canner and want to filter through the top of the canner (which is all new to me too...I used to just use cone filters into a milk can, then re heat on turkey fryer and finish boiling until it was syrup). I want the syrup as hot as possible to go through the filters better. Since there aren't handles on the canner, I can't just set it on the floor under the spigot from the syrup pan and let it run in that way. How is everyone else getting the syrup from point A (the syrup pan) to point B (the canner)?

Thank you in advance for answers to any or all of my questions. Back to the sugar house to feed the beast!

[Ryan Mahar]

Hey,

I had a 2x6 revolution, so a little different but some of your questions should be standard to all evaps.....so your back pan float box, you want to have that almost fully filling the 'hole' that leads from float box to flue pan....the front syrup pan you will have just 1/2 full to start with. Are you using concentrated sap?? If so you want to have it a little deeper...........

Uneven heat in syrup pan not to unusual as you start but just be sure your heat in the firebox is being distributed evenly....nice flat fire stack, NOT humped up in middle where fire will be hotter in center of your pan.....I will sometimes have the wood pile be a little higher on the side , so more heat goes to side (outer) parts of your syrup pan....

My front pan regarding feeding sides is different on a revolution so not sure I can comment on the plug issue......

Can you put the canner on a dolly so you can move it away when full??? or something like that?? Will you be able to get at spigot this way??? We used a cone filter on a tall canner , similar to what you are suggesting. Clamped the cone to the sides of canner to keep in place.......

[Sunday Rock Maple]

We go from point A to B with a stainless milk pail, simple and easy to keep clean.

[Snowmad]

Ok, sounds like I can shallow up my back pan a little. I'm about 2 3/4" above the flues now.
I've been trying to keep the wood even but will try to stack it to the outside more as the center 2 are all that want to boil. Not concentrated sap, been leaving it a little below the gates. I have to leave it for a 1/2 hour or so at a time as I do my other farm chores so I don't want to leave too low.

I have a stainless milk can I can use to take it from the pan to canner. It's just that the canner is about 5' tall and it looks like it would be quite heavy to pick up a 1/2 full milk can and dump it slowly into the canner. Just got to figure out the logistics on that one. How do you do it SRM?

[johnallin]

I have a Patriot raised flue pan with a Revolution syrup pan.
You are running too deep in the syrup pan.
My guess is that you're about 3"deep at the top of the channel opening.
Try to get closer to 1 1/2 " and your boil will be better.
That's a nice system have fun it will all come together soon.

[Sugarmaker]

First; Do not leave the evaporator to come chat on the trader!
There should be a plug in the pan to keep sap from coming in on the side near where your making syrup. The other side should be open to allow the sap to have the longest flow possible to boil.
If you had both sides open it would make syrup in the center of the front pan (not a good thing!)
Your doing good! keep firing it!
regards,
Chris

[Snowmad]

First; Do not leave the evaporator to come chat on the trader!
There should be a plug in the pan to keep sap from coming in on the side near where your making syrup. The other side should be open to allow the sap to have the longest flow possible to boil.
If you had both sides open it would make syrup in the center of the front pan (not a good thing!)
Your doing good! keep firing it!
regards,
Chris

But my wi-fi doesn't reach out to the sugar house! ;) With the damp ash firewood I've been burning I could go to town for lunch and it would be fine. I just got out a load of dry boards I cleaned out of a neighbors garage this summer and holly Moses, I don't dare leave it alone at all! Dad's keeping an eye on it now...lunch time!

Yes, the Patriot pan has 2 pipes coming out of the rear float which is on the left side. I've plugged the one that is on the left side since my float box is on the left side for the front pan now (I can switch sides to prevent sugar sand buildup later). That makes the sap go in on the right side of the pan and have to travel the furthest to get back over to my float box to go to the front. I've got the front pan WAAAYY too deep now, I flooded it before I went to bed last night to be safe but I don't think I really had to do that since the fire only burnt 1/2 hour max after I left and it was the damper wood. It still only wants to boil the most in the center two sections, but that is where the most heat is I suppose.

I had everything figured out well on my old 2x5 flat pan, but this is a whole new animal. Fun to learn a new system! Thanks for advise and encouragement guys!

[motowbrowne]

But my wi-fi doesn't reach out to the sugar house! ;) With the damp ash firewood I've been burning I could go to town for lunch and it would be fine.

I had everything figured out well on my old 2x5 flat pan, but this is a whole new animal. Fun to learn a new system! Thanks for advise and encouragement guys!

I know it seems safe, but seriously, use caution leaving the rig with a fire going. It's unlikely, but bad things can happen. I know a guy who bought a new 2x6, and thought he could do the same thing. He'd run the whole thing deep and leave for an hour. Well, I don't know how, but one time he came back to a scorched pan. Salvageable, yes, but he torched a brand new front pan because he didn't really understand what he was doing.

If you really want to learn to cook, I'd strongly suggest spending an afternoon with someone who knows how to run a rig. As you're learning, it's a lot different. The basics that you can learn from someone with experience will be the difference between running at 20 gph and 35. You'll learn how to manage the fire, your floats, and your draw offs to maintain an even gradient. You'll learn when and where to use defoamer, and you'll have a much better understanding of how closely you need to attend to the cooker. While running at peak performance, they demand your almost undivided attention. Having a pan fail during the season might wreck your season. It's not worth risking it.

[VTnewguy]

This is our first year on the exact same rig. It has done a good job chugging away at 35 gallons a hour. I have found Leader's website invaluable. they have the manual for the pan set online. They also have a diagram for the proper plug position. With that said we are running our flue pan just short of being covered and our syrup pan at 1.5". We started at 2" but it took to long to get syrup. The former owner suggested 1 1/4" so we ,may eventually get there. On the canner issue we go from a pail to the filter box just using a simple milk pail.