How do I clean this crud before the next run?

[mspina14]

I've boiled about 300 gallons of sap so far and made about 6 gallons of syrup.

We haven't had a run in southern Connecticut for about a week and a half. The weather has been either too hot or too cold.

It's been below freezing for the last 2 days and I've finished boiling all the sap I had left.

I drained the evaporator (2x4) with the idea of cleaning the pans before the next run (its supposed to be in the 50's on Tuesday here). However, after draining the flue and syrup pans, I found the mess below:

15879 15880 15881 15882 15883

I want to clean these over the next 2 days so I can be ready for the next sap run.

Any suggestions on how clean them quickly?

thanks

Mark

[tbear]

White vinegar?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

White vinegar?

and elbow grease!

[Galena]

and rinse out very well with hot water, several times if need be.

[mspina14]

Should I pour white vinegar in the pans and let them soak overnight?

I tried scrubbing with white vinegar and a scotch brite pad. Didn't work very well.

Mark

[maple flats]

White vinegar, a little heat under the bottom and elbow grease using a green nylon scrub pad. Only heat under the bottom until it reaches about 100-120 F. That's for the 2 blackened areas in the pictures 2 & 5. The rest will clean easily with white vinegar and no heat.
The black areas look like you ran low at one point. Keep the sap to proper level and you won't get the black. Then you will only get the lesser build up on the ides and maybe some sugar sand on the bottom. That will clean up with white vinegar too. Rinse well when done.

[Bricklayer]

My pan looked like that last year about half way through tthe he season. I bought 10 jugs of white vinegar dumped it in evaporator and put just enough water in to bring it to 1", lit a small fire to get it to a boil and filled the head tank with water. Kept it at 1" and went around scrubbing the sides with a soft sponge. Crud came right off and pan looked brand new. Gotta be careful when dipping the sponge cause it's freaking hot water. But it turned out just like new.

[mspina14]

White vinegar, a little heat under the bottom and elbow grease using a green nylon scrub pad. Only heat under the bottom until it reaches about 100-120 F. That's for the 2 blackened areas in the pictures 2 & 5. The rest will clean easily with white vinegar and no heat.
The black areas look like you ran low at one point. Keep the sap to proper level and you won't get the black. Then you will only get the lesser build up on the ides and maybe some sugar sand on the bottom. That will clean up with white vinegar too. Rinse well when done.

thank you.

The black area is from a draw that reduced the depth of the sap in the pan too low and burned the pan a little.

It's my first year using a separate flue and syrup pan. So still trying to get the hang of establishing and maintaining a gradient without the pans going up in smoke ;)

Mark

[wnybassman]

Avoid the Scotchbright. That will scratch the crap out that shiny stainless.

I have not cared too much about getting the scale off the sides between boils, mainly keeping the bottom nice and clean.

That black might be an indicator you've been extremely close to a scorching?

[mspina14]

My pan looked like that last year about half way through tthe he season. I bought 10 jugs of white vinegar dumped it in evaporator and put just enough water in to bring it to 1", lit a small fire to get it to a boil and filled the head tank with water. Kept it at 1" and went around scrubbing the sides with a soft sponge. Crud came right off and pan looked brand new. Gotta be careful when dipping the sponge cause it's freaking hot water. But it turned out just like new.

OK. Thank you.

That sounds like a plan I can handle.

I love making maple syrup. But I hate cleaning up :rolleyes:

Any thing that makes it a little easier I'm definitely going to try.

Mark

[Bricklayer]

Avoid the Scotchbright. That will scratch the crap out that shiny stainless.

I have not cared too much about getting the scale off the sides between boils, mainly keeping the bottom nice and clean.

That black might be an indicator you've been extremely close to a scorching?

Yup no scotchbrite for sure. Hold your breath though when boiling vinegar. One wiff and it will knock you on your a$$. I had a little burnt spot like that last year. Almost scorched my pan too. My jacket got caught on the draw off handle as I was walking by and she was wide open for 5 seconds. 1 1/4" wide open. Float box couldn't keep up and I dumped the holy sh$$ bucket in just in time.
Vinegar boil helped but when I emptied the pan and left for the night I soaked a cloth in vinegar and let it sit on the scorched part over night. Soaked it again before I went to work next day. When I came home it wiped right off.
I love vinegar
Citric acid is pretty cool too but I'm not sure if it's ok for pans

[Dave Puhl]

For me I don't worry too much in the sap pan during season wipe out what you can...but in the syrup pan you should not have any burnt or scorching in this pan...was this the first cook or after a few cooks..you can feel the sugar sand build up... feels like sand paper on the bottom it should be smooth..After a long day of cooking the next day I clean the syrup pan. if you have a few days in between cooks full strength 5% vinegar..if not milk house acid...my son running the 2x6 burnt the sugar pan to a point where the stainless was discolored several days of acid and a air powered disk was needed ...

[VT_K9]

We have been using vinegar for a few years now and it works great. For cleaning between boils/runs we use a couple gallons in the front pan only. We put permeate (or water) in the rear pan and bring everything to a boil. Works great. At the end of the year we put about 5 gallons of vinegar in and the use permeate (or water) to cover the junk on the sides. In both cases we bring it to a boil and with some elbow grease all is good. At the end of the year we will let it sit a couple days before bringing it to a boil again and scrubbing. After each cleaning we fill with water and bring to a boil and drain.

Mike

[acafro]

Just my two cents, I hit mine with a pressure washer after soaking the spot with vinegar. My burnt spots at the back of my pan come right off with the pressure washer.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Sugarbush Ridge]

thank you.

The black area is from a draw that reduced the depth of the sap in the pan too low and burned the pan a little.

It's my first year using a separate flue and syrup pan. So still trying to get the hang of establishing and maintaining a gradient without the pans going up in smoke ;)

Mark "draw that reduced depth of sap (syrup) in pan too low" Did you open valve all the way? If so,,, only crack open valve and draw as small of a stream as possible.

[mspina14]

Thanks for all the advise.

Excessive amounts of white vinegar being purchased today.

Also, I've learned to open the draw off valve only a crack, as opposed to wide open as I was doing on my initial boils.

My question is, even if I only open the draw off valve a crack, the sap in the syrup pan still get dangerously low unless I open the valve more from the flue pan to the syrup pan. My float valve from the flue pan to the syrup pan doesn't really work very well. I haven't been able to control the gradient using the float valve, so I adjust with the ball valve controlling the flow from the flue pan to the syrup pan.

Is this common or am I doing something wrong?

thanks

Mark

[Big_Eddy]

Thanks for all the advise.

Excessive amounts of white vinegar being purchased today.

Also, I've learned to open the draw off valve only a crack, as opposed to wide open as I was doing on my initial boils.

My question is, even if I only open the draw off valve a crack, the sap in the syrup pan still get dangerously low unless I open the valve more from the flue pan to the syrup pan. My float valve from the flue pan to the syrup pan doesn't really work very well. I haven't been able to control the gradient using the float valve, so I adjust with the ball valve controlling the flow from the flue pan to the syrup pan.

Is this common or am I doing something wrong?

thanks

Mark
You need that valve from sap to syrup pan wide open and you need to adjust / correct the float so it works properly. You don't have enough hands to be trying to open both the drawoff valve and the sap to syrup valve at the same time.

With a raised flue setup, the syrup float valve does not "control the gradient." You just need the front pan float to hold the syrup pan at the depth you want. There's no way for the syrup pan to mix back to the sap pan as there can be in a drop flue so the gradient will form all on its own as you boil. Once established, it should stay in place as long as the float is holding a near constant depth.

You want that float to open up wide when you open the draw off - both to stop scorching and to push the near syrup from the back of the syrup pan forwards into the next compartment.

I think I'd experiment with the float valve (with no fire and just sap in the pans) for a bit to see if I could figure out why it "doesn't really work very well". Maybe you're trying to set it too shallow or too deep ???

[wnybassman]

Yeah, you gotta figure out that float. I wiggle mine every time I walk by it to make sure it is seated well, and there isn't a piece of crap stuck in it. In these small rigs I don't think there is a whole lot of gradient set up, or at least a visible gradient

[Bricklayer]

What size line are you feeding your float box with. The bigger the line you have from your head tank or preheater the quicker it will recover. I use 1" tubing from my head tank to my float box. When I press the float down it flys in.

[mspina14]

What size line are you feeding your float box with. The bigger the line you have from your head tank or preheater the quicker it will recover. I use 1" tubing from my head tank to my float box. When I press the float down it flys in.

Thanks to all. I have 3/4" line from my head tank to my flue pan float box. I have a ball valve on the line and only keep it open a crack or the sap from the head tank will overflow the float box. That float valve on the flue pan float box is not strong enough to hold back the 100 gallons + of sap I had in the head tank (my head tank is 240 gallons but I haven't had it full yet).

Since this is my first year with a 2 pan evaporator and float boxes, I'm still learning.

When I did my first boil about a month ago, I was running about 2" - 2 1/2" depth in the syrup pan and was having a hard time getting the sap to 67 brix. So I tried to lower the depth to about 1" or so. I couldn't get the flue pan to syrup pan float valve adjusted properly to maintain the 1" depth. The float valve kept letting in more sap so the level would rise about 1" and I was back to not being able to get to the sap to 67 brix.

I got frustrated (patience is not my virtue, unfortunately) so I just used the ball valve on the flue to syrup pan connection to slow down the flow of sap into the syrup pan to maintain a 1" depth in the pan.

This seemed to work OK until I did a draw off and forgot to increase the opening of the the ball valve on the flue to syrup pan connection. The depth got below 1/2" and I burned the pan as indicated in the photos in the opening thread.

I have about a half dozen boils under my belt now and feel more comfortable with the rig. I guess I need to go back to that flue pan to syrup pan float valve and try to adjust it again so it maintains a 1" depth in the syrup pan.

I'm out of sap at the moment but hoping to get some more with the recent freeze over the weekend and a thaw forecasted for mid-week.

If I do get more sap, I will play with the float valve while I have just sap in the evaporator.

I will report back my progress (or lack thereof!).

Mark

[mellondome]

What make is your pan setup? I have never heard of a float that was not able to control the flow from the head tank... you could put 1000 gallons up there and adjust the floats to hold your desired levels. You may need to take some time to make sure your not missing something in your floats. ( rubber pad that stops the flow?? Are they full of water? ) Not having your valves fully open is asking for a big disaster. And it will happen very quickly. Take this down time to figure it out.

[Bricklayer]

With my float ( Phaneuf) I had to slide it almost all the way out until it was about 1/4"-1/2" from the side of the float box edge as far away from the rubber as possible. Then adjust the height of the float. This seemed to put more pressure on the rubber seal.
When I clean my pan out at the end of the year I put a garden hose on my floatbox connection and turned it on 40-50 psi and the float held it back

I would agree with mellondome and say you have a floatbox problem. Post a pic of your float box and we can try to help you out.

[SeanD]

This is all good advice. I'll just add that I use straight vinegar in the front pan and I reuse the same vinegar all season. I have a big funnel so I can fill the original jugs they came in. Each time, I lose about an eighth of the liquid of the last jug. Vinegar does not lose its acidity after each use.

[whity]

Thanks to all. I have 3/4" line from my head tank to my flue pan float box. I have a ball valve on the line and only keep it open a crack or the sap from the head tank will overflow the float box. That float valve on the flue pan float box is not strong enough to hold back the 100 gallons + of sap I had in the head tank (my head tank is 240 gallons but I haven't had it full yet).

Since this is my first year with a 2 pan evaporator and float boxes, I'm still learning.

When I did my first boil about a month ago, I was running about 2" - 2 1/2" depth in the syrup pan and was having a hard time getting the sap to 67 brix. So I tried to lower the depth to about 1" or so. I couldn't get the flue pan to syrup pan float valve adjusted properly to maintain the 1" depth. The float valve kept letting in more sap so the level would rise about 1" and I was back to not being able to get to the sap to 67 brix.

I got frustrated (patience is not my virtue, unfortunately) so I just used the ball valve on the flue to syrup pan connection to slow down the flow of sap into the syrup pan to maintain a 1" depth in the pan.

This seemed to work OK until I did a draw off and forgot to increase the opening of the the ball valve on the flue to syrup pan connection. The depth got below 1/2" and I burned the pan as indicated in the photos in the opening thread.

I have about a half dozen boils under my belt now and feel more comfortable with the rig. I guess I need to go back to that flue pan to syrup pan float valve and try to adjust it again so it maintains a 1" depth in the syrup pan.

I'm out of sap at the moment but hoping to get some more with the recent freeze over the weekend and a thaw forecasted for mid-week.

If I do get more sap, I will play with the float valve while I have just sap in the evaporator.

I will report back my progress (or lack thereof!).

Mark

Have you called Bill about your float box seal? We had noticed also our Mason float box was missing the seal. Called Bill and he shipped it right away. Took care of that. Its just a neoprene gasket

[maple flats]

If your float valve won't control the level correctly, get a new packing. They all have a rubber surface of some sort that push against a supply surface. The rubber needs to be replaced.

[mspina14]

I'm away from home on business until Friday. So I only half same close ups of the float boxes from existing photos.

Here's the head tank to flue pan float box:

15950

And here's the float box between the flue pan and and syrup pan:

15951 15952

Not great photos, I know.

I will ask Bill Mason for new gaskets.

Mark