Finishing evaporator

[tonka]

I'm thinking about buying a propane heater (150'000 btu) to use for finishing off my concentait in a 4x8 homemade flue pan with 11" flues, is this a plausible idea? Or am I in need of more btus to accomplish this? I can get a heater that is rated for 400,000 btus but requires 2 100 pound tanks. Thank you in advance!

[maple flats]

My guess is that you want more heat, just looking at a 16x34" finisher Leader offers, it has 120,000 BTU (2 burners at 60,000 each). What size were you thinking for the finisher? I use a 2x6 with 4 tube burners, but I don't know what the BTU rating is. All of my propane use comes off a small bulk tank (the 2x6 finisher, a wall mount heater in the RO room, a tankless water heater, a 500,000 BTU weedburner/firestarter torch and my bottler used to be propane fired, I now have a 240V WJ model) I use about $175 in propane a year and they fill the tank.

[tonka]

The evaporator I built holds about 450 to 500 gallons of liquid, I was planning on using my old evaporator to finish off the liquid in my main cooker. Now id like to avoid using wood because it's pretty hard to control the heat and I found a couple sized propane heaters (1 that produces 250,000 to 400,000 btu http://www.landmsupply.com/search-results/mr-heater-250000-400000-btu-forced-air-propane-heater) I figured to just cut a hole in the door and slide it in place. I would assume it would work like the oil/gas fired evaporator that are sold, it might not be kicking out the btus they produce but it will beat the way I use to finish off all the sap. I looked in the leader catolog and see their finishing units, their 2x6 produces 250,000 btus and I also notice the gas and oil burners they also sell range from 400,000 btu to 1,500,000 btu. Going by the btus, that propane heater I posted a link too should work.

[theraven06]

This just sounds like a bad idea to me - you would be better off getting the burner unit off a furnace which is designed to operate in a similar method to what you describe. Those salamander heaters might be similar in design but they are meant to be operated with the front unobstructed - I doubt that the fans are rated for there to be any back pressure. I would contact some local plumbers or HVAC people and inquire if they have any used units they would be willing to sell. A lot of those pro's will save used units that have a lot of life that people pay them to replace for whatever reason.

[BnSmaple]

That's a lot of sap for a 4x8 flue pan typically on my 5x10 flue pan I can run it low last boil and it's about 150 gallons. My finish routine is to drain the flue pan into a tank on dollies then wheel it up to the front pan and fill the back pan with water then I feed the front pan with a bucket out of the tank. I usually run at about double the depth in the front. Usually takes me about 3 hours and this year I made 44 gallons of syrup from it

[maple flats]

BnSmaple method is how I did it until 3 years ago, it worked OK, but at the end I still needed to use a finisher because I could not get the entire contents in the syrup pan to proper density. Now, my 2x6 finisher has 2 sections and a plug to isolate one side from the other. I start finishing off using both sides, but as the level gets lower, I put the plug in, pump the contents all to one side, fill the other with permeate and finish the rest to syrup.
Before the 2x6 I had a 16" x 34" Leader finisher but sold it in favor of the 2x6. The biggest reason was not as much the ability to process more gallons but the 16x34 unit had 2 burners and did not heat evenly like a tube burner does. I did not like the 2 round burner type heating, it tended to have a hot spot where the flame was and much cooler towards the corners. A tube burner is flame full length with good adjustability.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have changed my ways when it comes to getting all the syrup out and the sweet moved thru. After having 20 gallons go ropey I'm thinking of elevating a cage tank for permeate and having it flow into my head tank. I will plumb it into the head tank to wash out the crud and chase everything thru the evap. I tired of all the pumping back and forth. I found that this year had its challenges with me only cooking every 2-3 days and then unpredictable freeze ups lasting 4-10 days and a heated shack I need to get it cleared out and the rig soaking in permeate.

I used to take all the near syrup and sweet and spend way to long waiting for the finisher to simmer and will never do that again. Use your revap and rip it thru ASAP and get to cleaning.