Force 5 info

[tapit123]

I’m looking to purchase a lapierre Force 5. I’m thinking 30x8 and was just curious if anyone knows the gph it would do. How long it takes to get rolling and cool down. Any info would be great. Thanks

[ennismaple]

Not sure on the rate but if it's proportional to the rate we get with ours you'll be in the 80 GPH range.

We light a small fire and let it simmer for 30 minutes with the blowers on 4 (Primary) and 3 (Secondary). Sometimes we'll get a runoff in that first 30 minutes. We put in a full fire after 30 minutes and it will be ready for more wood after another 30 minutes. After that we're to the advertised 45 minute reload time - using hardwood.

There's a lot of heat in the arch. When the last fire is mostly died down we'll drop the blowers to 3 and 3 for the next hour while we finish cleaning everything up. The last thing we do before turning off the lights is make sure the front pan level is at boiling level and turn off the blowers. The front pan will still drop another 1/2" overnight. If you boil again the following afternoon the fire box is still quite warm when we take out the ash and brush out the flues.

[tapit123]

Thanks for the info I was thinking of going to oil but have always been a fan of wood.

[n8hutch]

I have been looking at Force 5 and Intensofire rigs also a Silverplate Rig, oil rigs are much cheaper. I am in the same boat as you, I have always been a die hard wood burning advocate. But I gotta be honest I am considering oil.

[Shaun]

I have a 2.5'x10' with 9 inch flues and a preheater. I can set my concentrate flow meter at 2 GPM (120GPH) and catch the RO. With soft wood slabs firing times are probably 15-20 minutes and hardwood about 45 or so. Sometimes so long you forget to put wood in it. I have boiled on it for 4 seasons, I am very happy with it. On the downside it is fairly noisy when the blowers are turned up. I would say a rear hood is mandatory or it would splash sap all over the place at full boil. It does take some time to cool down but usually there is plenty to do while it burns down. I do usually fire with soft wood near the end of the boil.

[regor0]

How much wood goes into it at a time to get 45 minutes between firing?


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[ennismaple]

I probably throw in a dozen sticks split to 6" diameter and 44" long every 45 minutes.

I've heard the argument for/against wood burning units both ways - sell the wood you cut from the bush doing cleanup, thinning etc... and use that to pay your oil bill. I'd rather not cut that wood as small and not split it as fine and burn it myself. There's also the argument that wood is carbon neutral compared to oil. When oil was $120/barrell a LOT more people were going wood.

Yes wood burning takes more time than oil to cut, split and load into the evaporator. Wood burning also tends to make darker syrup because of the inconsistent firebox temperatures.

Personally - I'm happy with wood burning but it's all I've ever used. Now that we are concentrating sap over 15 Brix the boils are so short that loading the firebox 6-8 times over a 4 or 5 hour boil is no big deal.

The new Force 5's have a lot of bells and whistles you can get that weren't available when we bought ours in 2009 - we bought the first unit in Ontario. I understand the new units allow you to set a desired firebox temperature and the blowers adjust automatically and then it tells you when to reload. That takes all the feel out of boiling on a wood rig!