Filter Press Q's

[ROD 13]

Hi
Several questions
How do I clean my press? Can the papers be washed and reused?
At the discharge end of the press, can valve be attached to the line and bottle directly from the discharge end? It would be inline in the tube, not at the end of the discharge line?
This is my first go at a filter press.
Thanks
Rod

[Sugarmaker]

Rod.
Welcome!
If you have a conventional plate press take it apart and wash the plates in hot water. You could pump hot water through the press also for cleaning.
Most papers are one time use (other than the Siro type)
The temp for canning needs to be at 180 F You wont have the temp control coming out of the press. Usually go to a canner for temp control of the finished product.
press type and size will help folks answer your questions.
Regards,
Chris

[ROD 13]

Chris
It is coming out of a canner at 195 degrees. My thought is to check the temp at the end of the discharge hose. As long as it is still 180 plus going back to the canner I should be ok. Just would there be enough pressure to can or would there be too much and I would have a mess.
Rod

[MISugarDaddy]

Rod,
I think you would likely have a big mess if you try to bottle off your press. It might work fine if you were bottling into large containers, but to try to bottle small bottles would be difficult and messy. We discharge directly into our canning unit and bottle from there. We generally process daily batches of 8 to 9 gallons and clean the press after each batch. We collect any syrup remaining in the press after each batch when you loosen the plates and put that back into the evaporator. After removing the filter papers and filter cakes, we put the press back together and run hot water through it like we are precharging it, then remove the plates and clean any residue off with hot water and a scrub brush. We do not use the filter papers for more than one batch. On our short bank press, we figure it costs us just over $1.00 per batch for filter papers and filter aid, and it isn't worth it to us to worry about blowing a paper just to try to save a buck and have to reprocess a batch.
Gary

[Russell Lampron]

Filling jugs right off the press is going to be hard to control and messy. Pump it into your canner and fill your jugs from there where it is much easier to shut the valve off when the jug is full.

Never reuse the papers.

I run a little hot water through my press when I'm done filtering to flush the syrup out of the pump and press. I drain that back into my draw off tank and just draw new syrup into it when I boil again. You could catch that in a pail or stock pot and dump it back into the evaporator if you wanted. I do that when it looks like it could be a while before I will boil again.

[Charlie Harding]

We just purchased a used 7" WesFab filter press. I feel confident it's set up correctly, but the DE is circulating through the pump and coming out in the "filtered" syrup. Any thoughts as to what might be going on?

[wiam]

We just purchased a used 7" WesFab filter press. I feel confident it's set up correctly, but the DE is circulating through the pump and coming out in the "filtered" syrup. Any thoughts as to what might be going on?


Double check plate orientation. Make sure end plate is not upside down. Make sure every joint between plates has a paper. If that is all correct then you have a paper with a hole.

[Maple Man 85]

You probably have a plate in backwards.