Head tank in cold room

[Windy Acres]

So we are adding a cold room, and half of this room will be for our head tank, so we can hold our concentrate if need be, my question is, who is feeding their evaporator with a circulating pump, and what kind of pump are you using, I'm looking for a small enough stainless pump that wont be too much pressure and overcome the float

[fred]

Gravity only no float will be able to stop a pump flow. Just set it up higher than the back pan and will work fine

[steam maker]

What if he got rid of float and put a probe style level controller in float box . Gets low kicks on pump, comes to level shuts pump off

[fred]

You could do that. The idea of the float is to constant trickle. If you change it you might as well just dump a 5 gallon bucket in each time. Shock boiling doesnt make a good evaporation rate

[steam maker]

Agree just thought it maybe a option

[bill m]

The other problem with using a pump is short cycling. You will burn up a motor in short time.

[wiam]

I have seen it done with a 3 phase pump with vfd. No valve. Just got vfd adjusted for the evaporator. Have to manually watch level....

[FL Maple]

I have pumped my concentrate directly into the float box of my 3x7 flue pan for years. I removed the float. I use this variable speed diaphragm food-grade pump (bought 2 so I have a backup). I just watch the level and adjust it periodically.

https://morewinemaking.com/products/variable-speed-diaphragm-pump-03-gpm.html

[bill m]

Do you still have your elevated head tank you have been using? You could just put in a smaller tank and pump from your cold room up to the head tank and have a float switch that refills it as needed. I prefer a float. One on my syrup pan and one on my flue pan. After the first day making syrup I never changed them all season.

[TapTapTap]

I'm not seeing any advantage to a pump. I have my concentrate tank set up with a clear pvc pipe to the float box. I have a T in the clear line just outside of the tank with a riser going full height of the tank and an overflow back to the raw sap tank from there. The clear pvc riser allows me to monitor how much concentrate is left to boil. I wouldn't want to be boiling without knowing and I wouldn't like depending on a pump.