Driveway evaporator and managing smoke

[Ntatar]

I am in year three of making maple syrup in th suburbs and moving from an indoor gas evaporator set-up in a kitchen at a local college (they let us use it at night) to a 2x3 mason evaporator w a 6' stack in the driveway. Any tips or thoughts on managing smoke and ash With the driveway setup?

[Wannabe]

You'll be surprised how little smoke there is if your burning good, DRY wood with proper draft under the fire and stack height.(natural draft is fine).

[Ntatar]

For Firewood I was able to breakdown 75 relatively new pallets from a local snowblower store. Got close to 2 cords of clean kiln dried pine. I'm a little worried I might blow through it!

[Woody77]

I started out similar. in the kitchen the first year then the lean to on the back shed. Then a fuel oil barrel evaporate on a model A frame trailer so I could move it around.
Ah the good old days. To answer your question you should be just fine. you might need another section of flue pipe though. I burn a tun of pallets. They go supper fast especially the pine pallets. You may want to source some more while you have the time.

[wnybassman]

Add some sort of air, that will make the fire burn hotter/cleaner too.

[Ntatar]

Yup - blower on my mason 2x3 to help w efficiency and cut down on ash potential. I've got 30 fully mature sugar maples in this neighborhood. I'm thinking a cord and a half should be good .... do I need to introduce some support if I add another 3 foot section of stack?

[SDdave]

You may want to think about a putting on a spark arrest(er)(or) {spelling not strong suit} since you are in a suburban area. It would make me feel better as a neighbor.

SDdave

[Russell Lampron]

The taller the stack is the better. The taller stack will give you a better draft and will get the smoke into the upper air stream. For an OWB they recommend that the stack be higher than the nearest rooftop. It would also help if your evaporator was placed so that the prevailing winds carried the smoke away from any neighboring buildings. My OWB is placed so that the smoke is blown away from my house as well as the neighbors most of the time.

[1ruralmailman]

and remember most neighbors will be curious what your up too.welcome them in and show off your hobby,also a little finished product goes along way for forgiving a few nights of smoke.;)

[Sugarmaker]

I had the same thought. I wouldn't worry about the smoke. But you may have the neighbors bring there own chairs and drinks and snacks for boiling!:)
Regards,
Chris

[Chickenman]

Let them taste the hot near syrup sap. They may convince you to tap their trees. My daughter will come out sometimes and ladle out some hot sap and disappear again as quickly and quietly as she appeared.

[littleTapper]

I had the same thought. I wouldn't worry about the smoke. But you may have the neighbors bring there own chairs and drinks and snacks for boiling!:)

This is true! Some have resulted in impromptu pizza delivery....good times! Some neighbors can even be "convinced" to go collect what's out in the buckets while you tend to your beer, um, I mean boil.

[Woody77]

When I started out I had a hog roaster looking rig that was out in the open in the back yard of my parrents house. I'll never forget waking up next to the cooker ,laying on the lawn, at about 6:00am coverd up with a blanket that I didn't bring. 4" of Snow had fell through the night everywhere but a 20' circle around the cooker. Someone stopped to see how it was going stoked the fire went in the house got a blanket covered me and left and left . I had ben up for almost 35 hrs cooking and drinking.
I sure miss those days. They molde a person. Or prove your crazy. Good times either way.