What to do?

[firetech]

I have located a small evaporater (20x66) three yrs old welded SS.pans, a hood , stack and forced air blower,within a 100 miles of home. The guy wants a fair price for it. But should I spent the $ for the unit and maybe replace it in a couple of years as I grow or just use the big old flat batch pan for another year and buy a larger unit next year? They both boil at about the same rate but I could get a state liscence with the small unit where I never would with the big pan. The evaporater would use less wood, be a contiues flow proccess even if I didn't finish in the small syrup pan. Cash is tight but I maybe able to swing it in a month or so. Would I really be happier with the the evaporator. You guys have been there give me some feed back.

[Fred Henderson]

I would keep buying or trading up. Keep improveing your operation. You can always trade the 20x66 later on.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The 20 x 66 will probably be worth as much as you paid for it a couple of years from now if you are getting a good deal on it. Go for it, besides it will give you valuable experience that will come in handy on a bigger rig!!!

[Russell Lampron]

If the price is reasonable enough buy the 20x66. Welded SS pans are a good thing and there is always someone looking for a small evaporator. It would be easy to sell when it is time to upgrade. Fred and Brandon both upgraded from flat pans so their advice is good to follow. I went from a roasting pan on a gas grille with 28 taps to a 2x6 and 300 taps. I now have an RO machine and about 550 taps. The number of taps will increase as time goes on as well as upgrades to the evaporator and RO machine.

Russ

[royalmaple]

If you can get roughly the same evaporation in both set ups, and can swing the cash I'd say buy the evaporator. Like brandon said, you'll gain some very valuable experience. Might even save your bigger rig from a disaster if you just jump from a flat pan to a continuous flow design evaporator.

I just wouldn't say it would be worth it as much if you lost gph by switching to a small hobby evaporator, then I think you'd be sacrificing too much and would be better off waiting till you could swing the bigger rig.

[Mike]

How taps have you got now and how many will you have up the road...If you can buy the rig how long would you keep it??? And how much could you get for it down the road...Ive seen a lot of used rigs up here go for a decent price......

[firetech]

How taps have you got now and how many will you have up the road...If you can buy the rig how long would you keep it??? And how much could you get for it down the road...Ive seen a lot of used rigs up here go for a decent price...... I had 66 taps in 07. 08 confirmed tappes are 40 roadside and 150 woodlot trees at the inlaws, 70 road trees taps at the neighbors,65 in the wood lot next door and possible 100 road tree taps on the inlaws neighbor. Getting sap is not a problem time to collect and boil are the issue. It's a balance between tappes and time. That 40hrs/wk for the Gov. gets in the way. I can see this rig for 2/3 years max and if I get tubbing to go it won't be long before I will need to up grade. Right now i'm only interested in the easy to collect trees so 175 for sure. I would like to see a 2yr break even on the rig.

[Mike]

Welcome to the club! When I started I had a 2x6 wood...I had 450 taps....I spent lots of hrs gathering and boiling. I used it for 2 yrs then sold it to mapleman3 and upgraded to a 3x10 with a preheater and a RO.....Now Im at 1400 and hope to be up to 2500/3000 taps in 2 yrs......Your like a lot of us maplers, start small and then grow and grow and grow..........It takes a few years to peak out if ever....My only regret is i didnt start when i was younger.....

[cncaboose]

I just got back into sugaring this year and work full time. I tapped 180 taps and was really glad that my first evaporator was a wood fired 3x8. Working a full time job and then trying to boil at the end of the day or bunched up on the weekends means you want a bigger evaporator than what is normally recommended for your tap number. A couple of days I went straight from work to boiling, boiled until midnight (with more sap to go) and then had to go to work the next morning. This was with my wife, son and a friend helping on the collection end of things. Bottom line, I think the 20x66 will be too small for you. Get something in the 2x8 to 3x8 range. You won't be boiling til 3 AM and it might save you one round of upgrading.
Ian

[maplekid]

how much is he asking for it? and if are were you i would invest in a 2x8 or 3x8 cause like everyone says you always find more trees. and on the plus side you can have more room to grow with a 2x8 or 3x8 and you wont have to go thruogh the trouble of selling a evaporator each year just cause you need a bigger one.