plumbing the preheater

[miboss]

I have a Smoky Lake silverplate with preheater. After months of delays with the sugar house, I've finally got my equipment moved in, which now leave me to plumbing everything. Luckily, I still have a couple weeks before I plan to tap to get things ready to go.

My pre heater has 4 copper pipes out the back. I know where each goes (from head tank, to float box, vent, and drain), so that's not an issue, but where my inexperience comes in is how to make the connections on the back of the preheater.

I was originally thinking of using some sharkbite connections and transitioning to pvc or pex, but since the 4 connections are by the stack, should I solder some copper extensions to get farther away from the stack?

I'l like to transition to something to put in disconnects so when I have to remove the hood/preheater it's easier.

What has anyone else done?

Thanks,

Mike

[Haynes Forest Products]

This is one of those things that done right will make cleaning and removal a snap. I use shark bites for some plumbing temporary installations and there great BUT they really meant for continual on off on off use. I have gone to a Cam Loc set up for quick positive leak free connecting.

If you decide to use the Shark Bites make sure you use a pipe cutter to get a good bevel on the end and then use emery cloth to round the raw edge. Then a little lube will make things easier.

[Zucker Lager]

Hey Miboss:
Just another option is a dielectric union C to C solder connections for the size copper your using. The seal is easily replaceable. We used them often for "stuff" that needed to be removed / replaced often in industry. Its less fittings than doing a quick connect those usually have threaded connections. Jay

[MISugarDaddy]

On our Smoky Lake preheater I used reinforced plastic tubing to connect the preheater to the rest of our plumbing and haven't had any problem with it from the heat from the stack. When the season is done and I am cleaning everything up, I just cut each piece and replace it with new the next season. I use about a 2" piece of tubing for each connection.
Gary

[Haynes Forest Products]

Good point Suggerdaddy I do have a section of clear poly on most of my transfer lines so I can see what is happening. There are a few makes of stepsaver hose that fits over 1/2 and 3/4 copper without a lot of screaming.

[DocsMapleSyrup]

Just my two cents here. I have the Smoky Lake preheater and sweated on some fittings; however, now I have to take the preheater out of my hood and am going to have to take the copper connections apart in order to get the preheater out of the hood. I will probably sweat on some threaded adapters and then use cam locks I case I need to take it apart again.

[Dennis H.]

I have one of Jim's hoods and pre-heaters and it sounds like he has kept the pipes into and out of the pre-heater the same.

I use sharkbites on the short copper pipes that extend out of the hood. I then made my own additions for the lines going to my float box, drain, vent and head tank.

I only needed to make 2 of these lines have the ability to be disconnected on a regular basis, Head tank and float box. I use some camlocks on these and once they are disconnected I can raise the hood up and out of the way to clean the flue pan.

The one for the vent I made a short piece of copper with an end cap, maybe 8" long. On this I put a saddle type valve out near the end cap. I ran a small section of tubing from this saddle valve to my float box.
For the drain I soldered up some capper pipe so that I could drain it into the float box.

Since I only remove the preheater once a season for cleaning I feel the sharkbites will hold up just fine and I have been doing it this way now for a few years with no issues.

Not sure if Jim has done the holes in the hood any different but at least on my hood any bigger than the 3/4" copper pipe would not allow the preheater to be removed. SO just be sure to look at that before looking at using unions or soldering on threaded fittings.

[DocsMapleSyrup]

Not sure if Jim has done the holes in the hood any different but at least on my hood any bigger than the 3/4" copper pipe would not allow the preheater to be removed. SO just be sure to look at that before looking at using unions or soldering on threaded fittings.

I'll make sure I take a look at this before I do anything to make sure I don't make the same mistake in the future.

[Dennis H.]

Here are few pics of my hood lines.

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