Air Tight Doors

[ennismaple]

Our old wood-fired evaporator has two doors that at nowhere close to air tight and I know we use far more wood than necessary because of it. Does anyone know a manufacturer who sells air-tight doors? I assume they'd be easy enough to weld onto the front of the fire box.

What modifications would we have to make to the firebox to get the forced air working properly? I've never seen an air-tight evaporator in operation so I don't have anything to reference.

Thanks.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ennis,

If you are good at building and welding things, you could probably build an entire airtight front for your evaporator for about 40 to 50 percent of what the manufactures want. The airtight doors are heavy and the cast front proabably wouldn't hold them long. Best thing would be to build an airight front and bolt it on and then install a blower on the rear of the evaporator. It should give you aprox a 20 to 30% or more increase in evaporation with about the same amount of wood.

Definitely a big improvement if you can find a couple of people that have them so you can see how they are designed and what you would need to do if you wanted to build one. I got mine from Leader with my evaporator as I don't have access to the tools neccessary to build one and it is still worth the investment if you have to buy them from a dealer!

[bison1973]

I have a 1 year old CDL evaporator with the standard front. I'm too interested in getting the air tight front. I know the manufacturer sells them but how do they install? I don't really see how anything comes off so you can put on the new arch front.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

As far as CDL, I am not sure. Leader arches have bolts up each side of the front on the sides of the arch just behind front. CDL may have bolts that go thru into the inside of the arch?? Call the manufacture or your dealer, they should be able to tell you quickly.

[hookhill]

We made airtight doors and front last year. Got some 3/16 plate steel and cut it to the shape of the arch front. Then bolted it to the cast front with some arch board between. Did the same thing for the door. Two pieces of plate steel with arch board between. It worked well but it needs a few tweeks. The doors need some reinforcement because they will warp when real hot. Also need to make a better closing mechanism. We will get it right for next season.

[Pete33Vt]

My cousin replaced his front for about 250-300 dollars. He took both doors of and made a frame out of 1.5x1.5 square tubing to match the front of his rig, he welded on 3/16 plate steel to that. He replaced his two doors with one single door. Put ceramic blanket on that and bolted a plate with blanket over it in place of ash pit door. He then drilled and bolted to the front of his rig. It worked great. I have to do the same to my rig before sugaring.