New press is passing DE 😡

[Thyfishingman]

Hello all new member here hoping for some help with a new press.
We have a small hobby operation in central MN finishing 30-40 gallons of syrup annually we batch boil 8% concentate in a 2.5' x 5' flat pan using wood for heat. In the past we have garavity filtered through felt after each boil and depending on filter speed sometimes we could get into jars above 180 deg. if it was dirty and filtered slow maintaining temp was an issue and we would need to water bath after it was jarred. We decided that process was the least enjoyable part of the syrup season so we upgraded this season to a smokey lake stainless 7" filter press with a diaphragm air pump. Our first batch of the season 16 gallons went great with fantastic looking finished syrup. On Saturday we attemted to filter a 10 galllon batch and ended up with DE in the syrup we broke down the press cleaned and reassembled with the same result due to other commitments that is as far as we have got. I'm hoping someone with more experience may have some advice. The following is the process we used, the press has 3 window plates and two waffle plates we install filter paper on both sides of the each window plate for a total of 6 and the hangers do not allow a plate to be installed backwards, tighten down the press equally and heated the syrup over propane to 218 deg. drew off 2.5 gallons mixed in 2 cups of DE and ran that through the press for the precahrge we added 2 cups to the reaminder after cycling the syrup we ended up with DE passing trough the press on both attempts the paper is catching most of the DE just not all of it we did add more DE while cycling a total 2 cups on the first attempt and 4 on the second. Breaking down the press the first time the DE was dirty holding the niter the second time the DE was still white so i think the syrup is clean and after settling the syrup looks good with the DE settled out. All of the supply's including DE are from smokey lake.
Sorry so long but wanted to relay as much as i could.
Thanks Jeff

[Haynes Forest Products]

The filter press is the most complicated thing you can ever see in operation and disassembly..........UNTIL you look at it and come to terms with how it works and then its SIMPLE. I don't care if your filtering dog turds with DE it should come out clear.:o

I believe you either blew out a paper or installed one out of phase meaning the holes didn't line up. You should not pass anything so don't settle for anything less.(pun intended) even if you don't tighten the plates right you will not pass dirty syrup to the clean side. Make sure your not mistaking bypass for the filter setting on your pump.

[Potters3]

Sounds like you had a plate in backwards. We seem to do it at least once a season. Usually there is a mark on one of the ears of each plate these all have to line up. On our one ear is a hook one is flat. All hooks go to the left.

[DrTimPerkins]

Are you recirculating syrup back to the tank for a while until the DE cake builds up on the plates?

[Super Sapper]

You can't put the plates in backwards but make sure you have the proper orientation on the papers. Also are you using new papers? I have heard that he had some reusable ones in the past but they did not hold up from what I hear.

[Wolfcreek Maple]

we had same problem with our smoky lake press although you cant put plates in wrong you can put end plate on 180 degrees off make sure hole is on bottom on end plate. With end plate on right or rotated 180 degrees you cant tell if its on right or wrong thats why we have stamped our end plate "THIS SIDE UP" on top of end plate.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Sounds like your ratio of DE is good. Did you do a good mix/stir of the DE with the syrup before pumping anything? Maybe ran the air pump too fast? Don't give up, we make about the same syrup as you each year and our 7" press is the best investment made to date! You will swear by it once its figured out.

[Thyfishingman]

Are you recirculating syrup back to the tank for a while until the DE cake builds up on the plates?

Yes recirculated for at least 20 min on the second attempt also added DE at the 15 min mark to try and solve the issue

[Thyfishingman]

You can't put the plates in backwards but make sure you have the proper orientation on the papers. Also are you using new papers? I have heard that he had some reusable ones in the past but they did not hold up from what I hear.

new papers each time we did not know there is a "correct orientation" we had the holes in the papers down and the lined up with the holes in the plates?

[Thyfishingman]

we had same problem with our smoky lake press although you cant put plates in wrong you can put end plate on 180 degrees off make sure hole is on bottom on end plate. With end plate on right or rotated 180 degrees you cant tell if its on right or wrong thats why we have stamped our end plate "THIS SIDE UP" on top of end plate.
This is something we did not look at but I will be this afternoon.

[Thyfishingman]

Sounds like your ratio of DE is good. Did you do a good mix/stir of the DE with the syrup before pumping anything? Maybe ran the air pump too fast? Don't give up, we make about the same syrup as you each year and our 7" press is the best investment made to date! You will swear by it once its figured out.
We had it figured out so we thought , the first batch was the easiest filtering we have done beautiful syrup we all had big dopey grins on our faces we where looking forward to the same on Saturday so we had an audience after talking about it and others wanted to see it in action. That added to the frustration when the problems occurred. We wont give up we just don't have very much press time in yet so troubleshooting for us is just guessing at whats wrong.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Recirculating for 10 minutes doesn't help anything unless your using it to mix your DE and I dont think it helps. Just run it to warm up pump and hoses and then get to mixing DE and filtering.

[Thyfishingman]

we had same problem with our smoky lake press although you cant put plates in wrong you can put end plate on 180 degrees off make sure hole is on bottom on end plate. With end plate on right or rotated 180 degrees you cant tell if its on right or wrong thats why we have stamped our end plate "THIS SIDE UP" on top of end plate.
I think you nailed it had the last plate upside down was not aware you could turn the end-plate upside down forcing dirty syrup into the clean side of the press. Finding the problem is 90% of solving it.
Thanks Wolf
Jeff

[maple flats]

Maybe next time you want to use it 3 or 4 times before calling in an audience. I copied this from another thread, it may help. Draw off about 2-3 gal for a new set of papers, add about 2 cups DE,then I mix it well using a long whip (traditionally used to whip potatoes but this one is over 24" long). Then I start the pump and recirculate back into my mixing tank for a minute or so. Then I start sending it thru the filter and still return it to my mixing tank until the filtered syrup hose is sparkely clear, then I turn it back to recirculate with no filtration, move the hose to either the bottler or a SS barrel. Then I open the filtering valve and close the recirculation valve. When that has been pumped I draw about 6-6.5 gal more, add 1.5 cups DE, mix and then sent the filtered syrup to where the first batch went. After the first coating of the papers, you can mix the next batches and then send directly to where you want. I do all of these without shutting the pump off. I have at times noticed the sudden surge of starting the pump can result in some DE being momentarily pushed thru to your finished syrup, so I leave the pump running until I either run out of syrup to filter or the destination is full. Each time I restart after shutting down I do a recirculation step. I no longer have a short bank, mine has grown to a 5 bank, but the only change I did when I expanded it was the amount of DE I used. I think when it was a 3 bank 7" I used 1.25-1.5 cups DE and then the next batch was just 1 cup DE.
If you use more DE than necessary it will not hurt, if you use too little it will plug the papers much sooner.

[Wolfcreek Maple]

Thyfishingman your welcome glad i could help.

[Haynes Forest Products]

What am I missing here. The only way any dirty syrup can get from the chamber plate into the waffle plate is a compromised filter paper. I have installed them improperly and made a mess but it was correctable so check you papers

[Wolfcreek Maple]

the paper is not compromised when the end plate on the smoky lake press is rotated 180 degrees the outlet hole has no backing ,the only backing is the waffle pattern, so the syrup with takes path of least resistance. If i knew how to upload photos it would make it very obvious.

[maple flats]

What am I missing here. The only way any dirty syrup can get from the chamber plate into the waffle plate is a compromised filter paper. I have installed them improperly and made a mess but it was correctable so check you papers
Haynes, most presses are made so the end plate is not aligned well at all if it were flipped 180, it sounds like it must be the SL is different in that respect.

[Haynes Forest Products]

That makes sense. I see all sorts of places people put their presses and placement is crucial. I'm a big proponent of making the cleaning process as easy as possible. I have my press on a SS counter that has a built in sink. I clean mine in place so I never remove my end plate. In reality you don't need to remove the waffle plate for cleaning because they are clean.

Now I will admit the older I get the more little notes are put around my shack with a Sharpie. Get a angle grinder and put a big X on the end plate.:o

[Wolfcreek Maple]

Image of press end plate for Smoky Lake Press

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[Thyfishingman]

Here are pics of the last window and endplate i rotated the endplate for reference my first time adding a picture well see how this goes :)

18597

18596

One of the promoted features of the press was not being able to install a plate backwards and due to lack of experience with with the new filtering system I was not aware the endplate could be rotated 180 deg. So we were not even looking at that as a source of the problem. We did take photos of the DE cake and plate orientation during disassembly to aid in troubleshooting but not any of the endplate. Sometimes the learning curve is steep enough to be able bang your forehead aginst it while your climbing.
Thanks for all the replies I will add an update after this weekend on how it went.
Jeff

[Haynes Forest Products]

I will admit that if it can be misunderstood I'm your guy. I invent new ways to screw things up. To avoid ever dumping concentrate on the ground like I do I gave a blanket statement that no valves should be left open EVER. Friend was HELPING ME RO so he made sure all valves were shut even the concentrate line valve out side on the bulk tank. Man when that line on the back of my RO exploded taking the 1" PVC plumbing with it.

Don't feel alone on the adventure. "The sport of sugar making is fraught with disaster and danger every step of the way".

[MN Jake]

I did the exact same thing last year for over an hour of changing papers and scratching my head....until I saw the ports on the top. Now I leave it in place and just rinse the window plates

[Thyfishingman]

:cool:
Thanks for all the replies we filtered and bottled 19 gallons of syrup on Saturday, with for the most part no issues the endplate being installed incorrectly was the problem other than that small hurdle the press has made filtering and bottling a much more enjoyable process for us.
Thanks agin Jeff