Another homemade hood question

[Bucket Head]

Hi Guy's,

After a lot of thinking, planning, and measuring, I'm just about ready to start fabricating my hood. However, I have a question about the front portion (syrup pan) of the hood.

Obviously, the hood is made to fit the flue pan tightly, but the front hood merely "hang's" over the syrup pan. It does not fit up to the syrup pan. It is also not collecting as much steam as the rear part of the hood. Many of the front hood's I've seen are smaller, and some are narrower than the syrup pan.

How much smaller/shorter/narrower is normal for the front hood? How much smaller should the stack diameter be for the front?

I would love to hear about the set-up's you guy's have to use as a comparison.

Thank's,
Steve

[Sugarmaker]

Steve,
About as many options on this subject as evaporator types and sizes. My 2 cents:
First of all I decided I wanted hoods to control the steam. (since I had boiled for years with out them. I was ready for upgrade when I finally set up my own rig. The goal was to minimize the steam in the evaporator room. Several reasons. No dripping of condensate, no fogged glasses. good visibility for me and visitors, no sauna effect of steam hovering 3 feet from the floor.
I looked at a several evaporators and hood combinations. And settled on the current style.
1. I used the same size steam vent pipe on the front as the rear. May have been a little over kill but great draft using 10 inch dia. on a 3 x 5 front pan.
2. I set the hood right on the pan not above.
3. I reduced the width of the pan by about 6 inches each side to allow getting a scoop into the pan with the hood in position. Also allows me to change sides and still see the syrup boil.
4. I set the front of the hood back about 12 inches to allow me to see in the two center compartments at all times. Sometimes need to add a drop of defoamer in the center sections to control foam over.
5. I did fab a lip around the inside of the hood and a drain, but really dont get much condensate from it, maybe a 1/2 gallon per hour?
I have boiled with this for 6 years and found that the steam goes up and rolls over to be pulled under the edge of the hood and up the 14 foot stack. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Chris

[Bucket Head]

Thank's Chris. Yes it does help. I took a look at your photo's on your website. The hood seem's to be doing it's job- I did'nt see any steam cloud's in the saphouse, LOL.

Steve

[ibby458]

I didn't put any hood over the front pan. I use a big furnace blower mounted up by the ceiling to suck the steam out. It works fine, but it's noisy. I'm thinking of building a seperate hood for the front pan, suspended on four cables hooked to a boat winch. Then I can raise or lower it as needed to see what's going on.

[maplecrest]

i tryed the fan over the front pan, turned the steam to rain, tried the caged blower ,turned to rain, the only way i have gotten steam out was a hood suspended over the pan with the steam stack thru the roof and a stack cover. the only time i have a problem is when sweetening the pans to start there is a lot more steam