Propane verses firewood

[Sapcat]

Has anyone tried hooking up multiple propane stoves instead of burning firewood? I have a small operation boiling about 120 gallons of sap in a 2x3 stainless steel pan for family use only. Is propane practical in this situation? Thanks.

[Michael Greer]

You can cook on gas, oil, or coal, I worked with a fellow years ago who burned every tire he could lay his hands on! But what about your "carbon footprint". Global atmospheric carbon is going to cause all sorts of huge problems. We shouldn't add to it for something like Maple syrup.

[Sugarmaker]

Sure Propane will work. I have a neighbor about the same scale as you and he uses a 5 burner propane system, He is also using a bucket R.O.
Keep boiling!
Regards,
Chris

[Zucker Lager]

I also use a 2 by 3 pan and before I built my arch I used 2 monster size LP burners it worked but after building my wood fired arch and boiling the first time I would never go back. The arch has way more horsepower, the boil completely fills the pan, it doesn't slow down because tanks are frosting up, and in my case is way cheaper because wood is free. I do use LP to finish for its convenience and control. jay

[maple flats]

Back about 2004 -2005 VVS school (where the NYS maple conference in Jan used to be held) had an evaporator that burned propane, I think it was maybe a 3' or 40" or even a 4' wide x 8 or 10' long. That was using tube burners, like how 2x4, 2x5 and 2x6 finishers use. I've thought of converting my wood fired 3x8 to use propane tube burners. As I get older all of the fueling every 9 minutes gets old early in the season. I thought of going with oil fired but every one I've seen makes lots of noise, I like quiet..

[DuncanFTGC/SS]

I cook over propane, I put two burners, 200,000btus each, under a 25x48 inch pan, on concrete blocks. All hooked to a 250G propane tank. This is my first year running it on the 250G tank. 2016 I ran each burner off two, 20G, tanks plumbed together. That got old fast. Lol I also added in a preheater pan to capture some of my waste heat exiting the system.
Pictures are the 2016 set up, it looks a bit different this year.
I have no desire to use wood for syrup as I heat my house with wood. I also think if you do an honest accounting of all the costs associated with wood, propane is cheaper.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200321/abe9bb51be22e6f44ccb78776705f06f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200321/5985035d05c2524d8669feb866514f9f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200321/ce933859c9e10a912817e8e66a007761.jpg

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[SDdave]

I am currently boiling on propane as well. My first setup looked quite similar to Duncans above. Now I have a 2x4 SL continuous flow on top of 8 turkey frier burners. Defintely use an RO to make your life and pocket book easier. I'll finish the season with about 24 gallons of syrup with a propane (bulk cost) of about 400.

I have a homemade RO (aquatech pump one) which cuts the fuel bill in half.

SDdave

[DuncanFTGC/SS]

Looking to tinker with, build a RO for next year. Had a good run on the new set up, yesterday, hitting 14gph boil off rate. Looks like the preheater is helping.

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[ennismaple]

You can cook on gas, oil, or coal, I worked with a fellow years ago who burned every tire he could lay his hands on! But what about your "carbon footprint". Global atmospheric carbon is going to cause all sorts of huge problems. We shouldn't add to it for something like Maple syrup. Is burnt rubber one of the sample bottles in the off-flavour sample kit? I'd expect his pans were full of pinholes within a few seasons. We've been cautioned not to burn any plywood, pressure treated lumber of painted wood in our evaporator or the acidic smoke will eat away at the pans.

I know many small producers heat with propane. I understand the cost is quite high per gallon compared to if you can get "free" wood from your property, wooden skids, lumber cutoffs etc...

[Gremlin]

I use both propane and wood. A 2x3 pan (filled with 8 gal sap) atop a converted wood fired oil tank and 4 buffet pans (filled with 2 gal each) on 4 propane turkey fryers. I fire them all up at the same time boiling about 16 gallons at the same time. As the level of sap in the 2x3 lowers, I empty the hot boiling buffet pans into the big pan, never losing the boil and keep refilling the buffet pans until I'm out of sap and then turn off the propane, and use the wood the rest of the process.

The way I see it is that the propane fryers act as both preheaters and also cook/boil at the same time increasing my gph time. I used to have a preheat pan on the wood stove but that only brought the sap temp to "hot", not boiling hot.
I only have 20 taps so do not get that much sap per day. A couple days ago I collected 20 gal sap one day and 25 gal the next. Boiled the 45 gal in one (long) day so am always looking for quicker ways of making syrup, short of getting an RO.
Thinking maybe next year.....fabricate 1 more wood fired oil tank evaporator (free firewood) with 2x3 pan and just 2 propane turkey fryers for preheater, and an RO. Cut my time in half and more. I can get tanks cheap and have two sons who weld.

[wobbletop]

My firewood is free, except for cost of splitter etc.

I use a propane turkey fryer as a preheater to get the sap up to about 150deg before adding it into the wood fired barrel evaporator so it doesn't kill the boil too much.

[4 Paws Sugar Shack]

I recently have gotten my new smokey lake. Continues flow 2x6.( Which I absolutely love). But with my wife and I purchasing our house this spring and me building our first sugar house, we haven't had a lot of time to get enough wood in order for sugaring. ( We both work 50-60 hours a week). So propane is our best option this year. Would it be more efficient to build a high pressure pipe burner system or just use our 3 turkey cookers plumbed into a 100 gallon tank?

[maple flats]

I believe a 4 tube burner set up would be best. That way you can get a uniform boil over the whole evaporator, like when a finisher in 4', 5' or 6' or bigger is used. I had planned to do that in a year or 2, until I spoke with Keith Scheible, the now retired FFA advisor at VVS high school, where the NYS maple conferences were held for about 15 or more years until moving to the NYS Fairgrounds. VVS had used propane but Keith told me that they could not get enough pressure to keep a great boil, especially in colder temperatures. I have now decided to stay with wood for a few years longer.
If burning propane, from back when I used both a gas fired bottler, and my first finisher which was 16" x34" and used 2 big burners, you get poor heat distribution on them. Directly above the flame it gets far hotter than just 3-4" to the side and you then get a dark ring on the pan, which requires frequnt cleaning, not after every use, but every 2-3 days works best I found.