Phew I'm tired! Thinking about going GAS next year

[BucksMaple]

This was my first year, and it was very successful! I probably have a bit more sap to collect and boil, but in my first two short weeks I collected 160 gallons of sap from 9 trees, and made 4 gallons of the good stuff!

I used a wood fire arch evaporator, you know the kind out of concrete block.

I had fun, but the wood part is really a hassle. We have natural gas and its cheap here. So I was thinking, let's get one of those fancy shiny evaporators next year that runs off of natural gas!

But I can't find any. Everything online is just wood fired, and the gas ones are just "finishers". I wanted to get one of those very efficient pans / systems but run it off of natural gas. Any suggestions?


Thanks!

[BCPP]

Try Lapierre equipment. I know they make a small propane fired evaporator, should be adaptable to ng.

[mellondome]

For nat gas you have a couple options.

1) Buy an oil fired rig and convert the burner to gas / buy the converted burner ready to go
2) convert a wood fired unit to nat gas using one of a couple fireing options: long tube burner, torch burner, or any other high output burner you can make work ( last resort).

How big of an evaporator are you looking to go to? New or used? Whats your budget? How many taps are you going to boil from?

[BucksMaple]

For nat gas you have a couple options.

1) Buy an oil fired rig and convert the burner to gas / buy the converted burner ready to go
2) convert a wood fired unit to nat gas using one of a couple fireing options: long tube burner, torch burner, or any other high output burner you can make work ( last resort).

How big of an evaporator are you looking to go to? New or used? Whats your budget? How many taps are you going to boil from?

Budget <2k. I have 12 sugar maple taps so hobby level.

[mellondome]

Small gas finishing pan is about the size you should be looking at. If my memorybis correct, a 2'x3' flat pan should get you around 10 gallons per hour evaporation rate. You would be looking at something like a halfpint or similar? You can always convert them to gas fairly easy. Something like a propane weed burner torch will be a great start. You will just need to make the orfice larger (drill it out) for nat gas.

[BucksMaple]

Small gas finishing pan is about the size you should be looking at. If my memorybis correct, a 2'x3' flat pan should get you around 10 gallons per hour evaporation rate. You would be looking at something like a halfpint or similar? You can always convert them to gas fairly easy. Something like a propane weed burner torch will be a great start. You will just need to make the orfice larger (drill it out) for nat gas.

The Leader Evaporator 2 x 4 is $2500 but I found a 16" x 38" for $600. How much per hour would that do? Can I just buy a pan and buy a nat. gas burners?

[BucksMaple]

Try Lapierre equipment. I know they make a small propane fired evaporator, should be adaptable to ng.

How do you adapt it to ng? I'm not a plumber and have no experience in this (I wish I could just buy a setup already made).

[BucksMaple]

Could I buy 2 of these and just use a finishing pan? How many gallons per hour would I get from 2 of these?

https://www.bbqguys.com/bayou-boiler/130000-btu-natural-gas-patio-burner-and-stainless-steel-stand

[Waynehere]

There are lots of threads on here about hobby RO's too. Makes a huge difference on wood consumption.

[wnybassman]

Evaporation rate is mostly dependent on the square footage of the bottom of the pan exposed to the fire/heat, not the heat source itself. It is right around 1 gallon of evaporation, to 1 square foot of surface area. A 2x4 flat pan would provide about 8 gph evaporation, IF the heat was fairly evenly spread out on the bottom. I always seemed to average around 6 1/2 to 7 gph out of my old 2x4 flat pan. Flues on pans greatly increase that surface area without increasing the footprint of the pan.

[BucksMaple]

Evaporation rate is mostly dependent on the square footage of the bottom of the pan exposed to the fire/heat, not the heat source itself. It is right around 1 gallon of evaporation, to 1 square foot of surface area. A 2x4 flat pan would provide about 8 gph evaporation, IF the heat was fairly evenly spread out on the bottom. I always seemed to average around 6 1/2 to 7 gph out of my old 2x4 flat pan. Flues on pans greatly increase that surface area without increasing the footprint of the pan.

Flues on pans, is this what you are talking about (https://mnmaplesyrup.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/img_0906-e1427508096402.jpg)?

[wnybassman]

Flues on pans, is this what you are talking about (https://mnmaplesyrup.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/img_0906-e1427508096402.jpg)?

Yes, those are one style of flues.

[BucksMaple]

How do you adapt it to ng? I'm not a plumber and have no experience in this (I wish I could just buy a setup already made).

Yeah I can't find any finishing pans that are like that. Can I just buy a evaporator pan and sticking on to natural gas burner plates?

[maple flats]

Finishing pans will always be flat bottom because their design is for finishing the syrup (getting it from almost syrup to syrup at the proper density. You can buy a pan and make an arch or set it on a couple of burners, but if you get a pan with flues setting it on 2 burners may not be that simple. The burners you link to above are propane, for natural gas you would need to enlarge the gas orifice. Natural gas is at a much lower pressure than what a typical regulator for propane is, but it could be adapted. You would need to get the specs to do it and maybe buy a nat. gas regulator too.

[BucksMaple]

Finishing pans will always be flat bottom because their design is for finishing the syrup (getting it from almost syrup to syrup at the proper density. You can buy a pan and make an arch or set it on a couple of burners, but if you get a pan with flues setting it on 2 burners may not be that simple. The burners you link to above are propane, for natural gas you would need to enlarge the gas orifice. Natural gas is at a much lower pressure than what a typical regulator for propane is, but it could be adapted. You would need to get the specs to do it and maybe buy a nat. gas regulator too.

If I bought two of these burners / stands (https://www.bbqguys.com/bayou-boiler/130000-btu-natural-gas-patio-burner-and-stainless-steel-stand), and put a 16" x 34" leader evaporator finishing pan (https://www.leaderevaporator.com/p-17-gas-fired-finishing-evaporator-16-x-34.aspx), would that work? How many gallons per hour would that be?